SANTA CRUZ >> More than hundred community members gathered around the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf stage on a sunny and brisk Saturday morning to witness the reopening ceremony of the 110-year-old wooden structure, which had been closed for a safety assessment following the collapse of its south end.

“We are so excited to see all of you, and to see all of our merchants and our tenants on our Municipal Wharf who are able to open their businesses back up,” said Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley at the ceremony. “First and foremost today, what we want to do is to let you know, let the community know and let people all over Northern California know, it is safe to come to our Wharf.”

Keeley explained that a thorough structural assessment of the Santa Cruz Wharf was conducted and sonar used to locate the heavy machinery that had fallen into the sea along with the Wharf’s end.

“What we know is that this Wharf is sound and safe for you to be here, for our merchants to open back up and for people to come here and visit again in what is the most cherished and iconic wooden wharfs in the United States of America,” Keeley said. “This is a wonderful celebratory moment and we want to thank the Wharf crew, the Wharf crew, the Wharf crew. God love them. They are our heroes.”

Following the mayor, Santa Cruz City Councilman Scott Newsome said that the character of a community is revealed in times of crisis.

“And this event was no different,” said Newsome. “As our city and our community quickly rallied around the Wharf and its businesses and workers, showing the caring, resilient and close-knit nature that is the defining strength of our community.”

Newsome thanked the fundraising efforts of the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County and Community Bridges for organizing to help Wharf workers who lost income while the structure was closed, and community members that returned lost Wharf artifacts such as the plaque commemorating its 100th birthday.

Following the ceremony, the Sentinel caught up with Santa Cruz City Councilmember Renee Golder as media members and officials ambled down the Wharf to the structure’s welcome sign for further questions.

“Initially, I wasn’t surprised that it happened,” said Golder, referring to the collapse. “The Wharf has been in a state of deferred maintenance for quite some time. The unfortunate impact of the litigation we were in was that it stopped some of the funding and some of the construction from happening that absolutely needed to happen. I am really impressed and proud of the city staff’s quick response time in terms of everything — from the rescues, down to supporting the businesses and their employees and making sure that it is safe so they could reopen as quickly as possible.”

Under the Wharf’s welcome sign, city officials such as Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Director Tony Elliot fielded questions about the prompt reopening and the possible outcomes for the centenarian structure’s end.

“The city has worked with a lot of partner agencies to get to this point — our contractors that were on the project including Power Engineering and Moffatt & Nichol — and a close partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard, the NOAA marine sanctuary, Santa Cruz County, State Parks and many others,” said Elliot. “The critical path steps for us were, No. 1, locating the equipment that we lost off the end of the Wharf. That was done through sonar and we know the crane is about 160 feet off the southeast corner of the Wharf — out of harm’s way.”

Elliot explained that the structural assessment, conducted by engineer Brad Porter of Moffatt & Nichol, was the second step to take on the path to reopening.

“They’ve (Moffatt & Nichol) done an assessment and confirmed that it is just as strong now as it was before the swell event,” said Elliot. “The end of the Wharf was damaged because it was under construction. It was not complete. We weren’t even halfway done with that construction work. So the combination of that being in a vulnerable state under construction and a 30-year historic swell event was the combination that took down the very end. But we’re confident today in reopening and confident that the Wharf is strong and sound, and glad to welcome people back.”

Although Elliot said it has been a stressful time for city staff, there have been rewarding moments too such as the return of the 100-year commemorative plaque.

“On Friday, a community member knocked on our door at Parks and Recreation headquarters and we were closed for the holiday, but he said, ‘I think I have something for you,’” Elliot explained. “We opened the door and this community member delivered the 100-year plaque that went missing with the collapse of the end of the Wharf.”

The director said that he and others had seen photos of the plaque online before it was returned, but thought it may have been lost.

“We were absolutely thrilled to have this community member bring it in,” said Elliot. “I was able to bring that down to the Wharf crew yesterday and give it back to them, and that felt like the first real win that we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. And honestly brought some tears to our eyes to get that back.”

Economic Development Manager Norm Daly was one of the two people who were out on the end of the Wharf when it fell into the sea. The afternoon of Dec. 23, Daly and Power Engineering Construction Project Engineer Grace Bowman were assessing the structure’s end when it collapsed.

“There were three people out there: myself, Brad Porter and Grace Bowman,” said Daly. “Brad had walked back to the section of the Wharf that didn’t go in but Grace and I were still out there. We rode the first swell down as it broke off.”

Daly said that as he stood on a floating portion of the collapsed structure, he was glad to be unharmed, but feared that the crane, still standing on the floating portion, would fall over onto him with the wave action.

“The 150 foot section was basically a raft,” said Daly. “As each swell came by it lifted up that raft and moved it farther towards the east, and things started to break up. And then the crane started to topple over. It fortunately didn’t get me.”

Daly said that within a matter of minutes, Santa Cruz Lifeguard Lts. Isaiah Mullen and Sam Hofmann were there to rescue him and Bowman. Daly sustained a minor injury to his leg, but was mostly unharmed.

“It was a little surreal,” said Daly, who mentioned there was not a devastating impact when the structure collapsed. “There was no jolt. I was just 25 feet above the water and the next second, I was at the water’s edge.”

Porter, who watched the collapse in real time and completed the recent assessment, said that the crane and skid steer now resting on the ocean bed had little to do with the collapse itself.

“I’ve looked at the video of how the Wharf collapsed and I don’t think the crane had anything to do with it,” said Porter, who has conducted about 20 assessments of the Wharf throughout his career. “When the Wharf went down, and was floating like a raft, the crane was still upright on its outriggers in the exact same position as it was on top. It wasn’t like it crunched through the deck or anything like that.”

Porter described how the swell toppled the crane, which bubbled as it sank in a matter of about 10 to 20 seconds and that the skid steer remained on a floating portion of the collapsed Wharf until it was overturned by breaking waves.

“I don’t think the equipment and the weight had much to do with it,” said Porter.

As to whether the end of the Wharf will be reinforced in its current abridged condition or rebuilt to its original length is still up in the air and will be decided in the coming months, according to Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker. He said that the ballpark estimate for rebuilding the collapsed portion is about $20 million.

“I am just incredibly impressed with the fact that we were able to reopen so quickly,” said Huffaker. “Now our focus is starting to shift to longer-term decisions we have to make — whether or not it’s feasible or realistic to rebuild the lost section — or what we can do to further bolster the balance of the Wharf as we move forward. We have $9 million in the hopper from FEMA and the Coastal Conservancy to complete a number of projects that will make the Wharf stronger, and we are eager to get those projects moving, particularly in the wake of this major incident.”

Wharf workers such as Surf Life employees Alyza Tan and Leila Celestino were glad to be back on the job after the nearly two-week hiatus.

“I was there the day that it fell down and I was worried about the safety of the people that were out there,” said Tan, who watched the collapse from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. “A lot of my shifts were cancelled so my main priority was to try and pick up as many shifts as I could, but there’s a lot of us working so it led to me losing a bunch of hours. I’m glad to be back.”

Celestino added, “I missed the view and being on the Wharf in general.”

Around noon Saturday, as if it had never closed, the Wharf was packed with residents and visitors such as Brandon Coulter and his family visiting from American Canyon.

“I was born in Monterey and now live up north so it’s nice to come back here and feel the nostalgia,” said Coulter. “I am interested to see what it looks like at the end. But it’s pretty cool that it’s reopened and I hope they rebuild the portion of the pier again.”