SLO Reporter

(L to R): Morro Bay Interim City Manager Greg Carpenter, Councilmember Cyndee Edwards, Mayor Carla Wixom, Congressman Salud Carbajal, Mayor Pro Tem Jennifer Ford, Councilmember Laurel Barton, and Harbor Director Ted Schiafone

Last week, Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA-24) visited the North T-Pier in Morro Bay to highlight the impact that $1,500,000 in federal funds will have in backing repairs and upgrades to the structure which is critical to the City’s residents, industries, and tourism revenue.

“The T-Pier is a perfect example of how supporting the improvements to one piece of community infrastructure can pay exponential dividends down the road. Whether it’s Morro Bay’s commercial fishing industry, its year-round tourism, its residents, our coasts, or even our local Coast Guard and Fish and Wildlife operations – funding repairs to this pier is a tide that will raise all of those boats,” said Congressman Carbajal. “The T-Pier will also serve as a primary hub for operations of any offshore wind infrastructure constructed off the Morro Bay coast–making these funds another early investment in the clean energy transformation that our region is poised to lead.”

Congressman Carbajal was joined by Morro Bay Mayor Carla Wixom, Harbor Director Ted Schiafone, Mayor Pro Tem Jennifer Ford, Interim City Manager Greg Carpenter, and Morro Bay Councilmembers Cyndee Edwards and Laurel Barton.

“The City of Morro Bay is grateful for the partnership with Congressman Carbajal and the 1.5 million in funding,” said Morro Bay Mayor Carla Wixom. “We appreciate his continued support of our city’s ongoing harbor infrastructure needs, and look forward to a continued partnership, addressing capital infrastructure needs.”

The City will use the federal funds secured by Carbajal in combination with other funding sources to replace a majority of the pier’s structural and fender pilings, which were rated with “moderate” structural deterioration in the 2011 assessment, as well as replacing the fire suppression automatic sprinkler system, electric systems, and other pieces of the pier’s infrastructure.

After advocating for this and other community projects over the majority of 2022, Rep. Carbajal successfully secured more than $22 million for 14 projects in the congressional spending package that was signed into law in December. More information on the 14 projects funded last December through Rep. Carbajal’s advocacy can be found here. Carbajal secured more than $40 million for community projects in 2022, with funding supporting nine additional projects signed into law in March 2022.

Original source can be found here.