New London council mulls $3M pier renovation financed by offshore wind company

New London — The City Council on Monday night will discuss and possibly approve a nearly $300,000 contract for the design of a rehabilitated city pier, part of a $3 million project to be paid for by an offshore wind company.

The proposed contract calls for hiring the Mohawk Northeast, Inc. marine engineer firm, which has offices in Groton, to inspect the ramshackle “elbow” pier jutting out from the Fort Trumbull peninsula and design a new version able to handle seafood loading and off-loading operations.

“This work is meant to address years of deferred maintenance at that pier,” city Director of Planning and Development Felix Reyes said Friday. “It’s not been invested in. This is the city giving assurances to businesses that the fishing industry will continue to grow.”

The city leases both the elbow pier and the nearby Stone Pier to New London Seafood Distributors, Inc., a private fishing operation, for $2,700 a month, with $300 of those payments covering use of the elbow pier.

On Friday, three fishing vessels — the “Destiny,” the “All for Joy II” and the “Mystic Way” — were moored near the splintered pier used by the former Naval Underwater System Center’s fire department decades ago before the city took ownership of the structure.

The cost of the upgrade project will be covered by a 2018 donation by the Deepwater Wind firm, later purchased by the Danish Wind company Ørsted and renamed Revolution Wind. In exchange for using a then undeveloped portion of State Pier, Deepwater agreed to donate $3 million to help shore up support with the local fishing industry.

That money was turned over to the city in June 2023 and a portion was previously used to fund a 2020 study of three city-owned piers: the elbow, the Amistad and Stone. Study results were forwarded to city, Connecticut Port Authority and Renaissance City Development Association officials, who all recommended using the money to rehab elbow pier.

That recommendation was met by skepticism by some City Council members last year who said they weren’t at the time privy to the study documents or its conclusions.

Councilor John Satti, who raised issues about the project in October, including the location’s relationship to a nearby parcel of land sold to a private company but not yet developed, said Friday the majority of his concerns have been addressed.

“That’s not to say I won’t be asking questions on Monday,” he said, adding he was pleased the proposed…