Last Friday afternoon, Mayor John Cotugno and County Commission Chairman Joe Flescher joined former State Representative Charlie Sembler at Humiston Beach Park to discuss the burgeoning grassroots effort to rebuild the storm-damaged and later-demolished boardwalk.
Sembler spoke nostalgically about the Vero Beach of yesteryear and fondly recalled growing up on the boardwalk, explaining why he and his brother, Clayton, wanted to make sure the City Council didn’t settle for the less-costly sidewalk it approved last summer.
“We want to help the city and county do this as a gift to the community,” Flescher quoted Sembler as saying during their hourlong oceanfront conversation. “We want to build something for the people here, the next generation and the generations to follow.
“This means a lot to us,” the commissioner continued, sharing Sembler’s remarks. “The Sembler team is all in.”
For those who don’t know: Clayton Sembler owns CDS Manufacturing, which, based in Quincy with a plant here, makes pre-stressed and pre-cast concrete beams, pilings and other structures for construction projects.
And, according to Flescher and Cotugno, he has offered to donate structural materials worth $300,000 to help the city build a new 427-foot-long concrete boardwalk at Humiston Beach.
If the city had to purchase those materials on the open market, Flescher said, the cost would be in the neighborhood of $700,000.
So now the drive to rebuild a boardwalk – which only weeks ago seemed to be a longshot – has become a slam dunk.
The council was expected to vote unanimously to abandon its sidewalk plan at Tuesday’s meeting, where Cotugno said the panel also would adopt a resolution to partner with the Indian River Community Foundation to manage private-sector contributions and help raise funds for a newly approved boardwalk.
The commission, however, needed to wait until the city officially changed course before committing the $400,000 in funding it offered for the sidewalk plan to the boardwalk project.
Flescher said the commission probably would approve a new resolution – one that omits the previous conditions requiring the county’s contribution to be reduced by any federal, state or private grant money the city received for the project – at its Jan. 28 meeting.
“We can’t do it this week because the City Council and County Commission meetings are occurring simultaneously,” he said, “and we want to make sure the city makes it official before we act.”
Both Flescher and Cotugno said the Semblers didn’t want to talk to the local news media about the donation until the city formally approved the project. It’s Flescher, though, who deserves credit for facilitating their involvement in the boardwalk cause.
The five-term commissioner said he has known Charlie Sembler – who served in the Florida House from 1990 to 2000, then returned to Vero Beach and was twice elected the county’s Tax Collector – for 25 years.
“We’ve been talking about this for months,” Flescher said. “Not long after the city decided to build a sidewalk, Charlie asked me, ‘Is there any way it can be a boardwalk?’ I told him it was a cost factor.”
Charlie Sembler wasn’t satisfied.
Flescher said he and Charlie Sembler continued to discuss the possibility of a boardwalk, especially after Vero Beach 32963 launched a local campaign to raise funds for such a project.
During the Christmas holidays, in fact, Charlie Sembler also spoke with City Manager Monte Falls.
At that point, Flescher said, the Semblers were considering an offer to sell their concrete products to the city at cost. But the more they talked about rebuilding the Humiston boardwalk, the more enthusiastic they became.
Finally, Clayton Sembler decided recently to simply donate the materials – to ensure that the city would rebuild the historic structure that dated back to the 1930s but was destroyed by Hurricane Nicole in November 2022.
“The way Charlie was talking,” Cotugno said, “it sounded like Clayton pretty much designed the entire boardwalk over the phone.”
While the council considered, and ultimately rejected, building a faux-wood composite boardwalk similar to the one connecting Conn and Jaycee beaches, Flescher said the Semblers told him, “Concrete is the only way to go.”
It’s possible, though, a faux-wood composite decking could be added to the boardwalk, which Falls said would be built along the western edge of the dunes.
“If we’ve got someone who wants to donate the concrete components, we need to do that,” Falls said, adding that he and his staff will recommend a concrete boardwalk because it would be more durable and enjoy a longer service life. “The cost savings would be significant.”
City officials estimate the cost of building a concrete boardwalk at Humiston Beach to approach $2.5 million – which means paying the bill shouldn’t be much of a problem.
The council already has budgeted $1 million for the project. The county is kicking in $400,000.
Throw in the $175,000-plus in already-pledged private contributions, which include $150,000 from two prominent local philanthropists, John’s Island resident Tom Corr ($100,000) and Grand Harbor’s Charlene Friedman ($50,000).
Then, if Flescher’s estimate of the Sembler donation is accurate, you can reduce the projected costs by $700,000.
That leaves a balance of roughly $225,000 – and the IRCF is just getting started.
“I’m grateful this is going to happen,” Flescher said. “I think I’ve spoken to the mayor more in the last few weeks than in the entire time he’s been in office.”
They spoke Monday, and they’ll talk again Wednesday, when they’ll be accompanied by Falls and County Administrator John Titkanich to discuss details pertaining to the boardwalk project.
Cotugno said the city still needs to hire firms to design and engineer the project, but he was quick to add that Clayton Sembler’s CDS Manufacturing could be involved in the design phase.
He didn’t know if the project would begin in November, when construction of the sidewalk was scheduled to begin.
“The city made a decision in June to replace the boardwalk with a sidewalk because we needed to be fiscally responsible, but a group of concerned citizens wanted something else and banded together,” Cotugno said.
“It’s really a model for public-private partnerships to raise money for civic causes,” he added.
“I’m excited by what has happened, and I’m optimistic we’ll raise the funds we need.”
He should be.
The Semblers were among those concerned citizens, and their generous donation has essentially guaranteed Humiston Beach will again have a boardwalk.