By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Oct 18, 2011 01:15 PM
TAMPA — Pressured by Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Channel District businesses, Port Director Richard Wainio pledged Tuesday to develop a plan to open the cruise ships docks to the public.
Federal and state security rules require that ports close off docks whenever vessels are tied up there. Local business groups currently get Coast Guard permission to open docks behind Channelside Bay Plaza at other times for events such as New Years Eve and 4th of July fireworks displays.
“It looks like you’re in prison looking (through gates ) from Channelside at the waterfront,” said Troy Manthey CEO of Yacht StarShip, a dinner cruise that docks near the waterfront shopping and dining mall.
Buckhorn has asked Wainio for report on what it would take to extend the city’s planned Tampa Riverwalk to the cruise ship docks.
Plans call for the project to stretch 2.6 miles along the Hillsborough River from Tampa Heights, through downtown to the Beneficial Drive Bridge to Harbour Island. The report will be ready for the December meeting of the Tampa Port Authority board.
“What about all those areas along the West Coast that use their waterfront (for tourism), said Sandy Murman, who represents the Hillsborough County Commission on the board. “I wonder if we’re missing out on an opportunity.”
But unlike the wharf in San Francisco, Wainio said, Tampa is a working port. Cruise ships dock from before sunrise to late afternoon every weekend and Mondays during the busy winter season.
After a public event, bomb-sniffing dogs and divers must check the dock for explosives before the next ship comes in, said Wainio,
Contact Steve Huettel at Huettel@sptimes.com or(813) 226-3384.