Officials were all smiles Friday as they cut the ceremonial ribbon to mark the opening of the new Tivoli River fishing pier and kayak launch in south Bryan County.

The facility replaces wooden docks built on state land on both sides of the river in the mid-1980s. Those docks had fallen into disrepair and were unsafe.

“It’s exciting for me to see this,” Bryan County Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed said. “I live across the river and have been watching these docks fall down for 19 years. Now we have something the whole community can be proud of.”

The south dock of the old pier jutted about 100 feet into the river and blocked more than 80 percent of the waterway. Its replacement runs parallel to the bank and includes an 80-foot fixed pier and a 25-foot long floating kayak launch.

The new pier, located about two miles off Hwy. 144 on Belfast Keller Road, is made of aluminum and concrete and cost $150,000 – a third of which was funded through a federal grant. The rest was paid for by Bryan County.

The Tivoli River pier is the first public facility in Georgia to be designed and built with kayakers and other paddle sports in mind, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Chairman Mark Williams said.

For more, pick up a copy of the April 23 edition of the News.