City should work with local anglers

The Florence City Council is expected to approve a proposal next week for the marina at McFarland Park to expand by restructuring the docks on the east side of the harbor to accommodate larger boats.

Those docks are currently available to the public free of charge but cannot be used for parking boats overnight. They are also a popular spot among local anglers who like to fish from the shore.

While it's good that the marina is having growing pains, council members must not forget a pledge city leaders made when Florence harbor was improved in the late 1990s.

Anglers who liked to fish from a pier that had to be removed to make way for the improvements expressed concern the city was going to shut them out of a favorite fishing spot to make way for more affluent residents who could afford to own a boat.

City officials calmed the worried anglers by telling them they would be allowed to fish from the docks that would replace the pier.

Now, councilman Dick Jordan is worried the city might be backing out of its promise by allowing the docks to be reconfigured to make way for the expanded marina.

Community Services Director Todd Nix said anglers still will be allowed to fish from the east docks as long as all the spaces are not being used by boats.

While allowing anglers to fish from the docks when space is available should work, the city needs to take a serious look at building a nice pier that could be used by anglers and sightseers. The pier should be accessible to people in wheelchairs, such as the ones the Tennessee Valley Authority built in recent years overlooking Wilson Dam at Lock Six Park in Killen and Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville.

Florence has a pier on the west end of McFarland Park at the mouth of Cypress Creek, but another is needed on the eastern end of the park.

Perhaps the city could work with TVA, as Killen did, when installing the pier at Lock Six Park.

Such a pier would provide anglers with a place to fish and sightseers a place to watch Pickwick Lake sunsets without having to worry about getting in the way of someone wanting to moor a boat.

Area residents who want to fish from the shore or watch a sunset have as much right to use McFarland Park as owners of large boats. After all, it is a public park.

Hopefully, the plan to allow anglers to continue using the docks on the east side of the park's harbor will work fine.

The city should keep that promise made several years ago or ensure that anglers who enjoy fishing from the docks have another choice

Florence officials should also give serious consideration to seeking grants to help them build a new pier somewhere in the park.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@TimesDaily.com.