There was a lot to celebrate, and honor, Saturday when the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf reopened for visitors and business.

As most county, if not state, residents know, the wharf had been closed to all traffic since Dec. 23 after a 150-foot section that was under re-construction collapsed into the ocean.

Less than two weeks, later, it was reopened.

Pretty remarkable, right?

City officials, under considerable and understandable pressure from Wharf business owners, got to work and commissioned an engineering assessment that found the 110-year-old Wharf is structurally safe and sound. The assessment also found that heavy equipment that went into the ocean with the collapsed section and is resting on the ocean floor about 160 feet from the remaining Wharf, is far enough away it doesn’t pose a threat to wharf pilings.

The reopening was a lifesaver for most of the 20 small businesses on the Wharf and an estimated 400 employees who work in them or in maintaining the Wharf.

“We knew the clock was ticking for the small businesses on the Wharf that were really hoping to be in operation this weekend for the community and the many visitors we have and due to the swift work of our city staff, we’re able to do so,” said Matt Huffaker, city manager for Santa Cruz, in news reports about Saturday’s reopening event that drew a crowd of about 100.

Not only did the city move swiftly to get the engineering report underway, and work with a number of other local and state agencies, but the greater community came forward to help.

The Community Foundation Santa Cruz County and Community Bridges raised money to help Wharf workers who lost income while the structure was closed, and other community members returned lost Wharf artifacts such as a plaque commemorating its 100th birthday.

Then there were the unfolding stories of the three people who were on site in the under-repair construction end of the Wharf, who essentially went down with the ship, tossed into the ocean, with two of them riding the collapsed section like it was a raft while fearing that a construction crane, still standing on the floating portion of the Wharf, would fall over onto them with the heavy wave action.

Fortunately, it didn’t, toppling over into the ocean. A skid steer remained on a floating portion until it too was overturned by breaking waves.

The pair who went into the ocean with the collapsed section – Norm Daly and Grace Bowman – were rescued relatively quickly by Santa Cruz Lifeguard Lts. Isaiah Mullen and Sam Hofmann.

Will the 150 feet (or more) be rebuilt? Huffaker told the Sentinel the ballpark estimate for rebuilding the collapsed portion is about $20 million. Never say never, of course, but early estimates inevitably are too low, so with projects including shoring up the rest of the Wharf underway along with the restoration of walkways and two-way traffic on West Cliff Drive also on the storm-tossed horizon, it might be a while.

The Santa Cruz Wharf, however, is a civic and national treasure, both for its colorful and enduring history (as detailed this week and next by Sentinel history writer Ross Gibson in Monday columns) and will be preserved, even with the inescapable reality of the ever-voracious ocean and waves.

But, and isn’t there always a “but”?, as in any endeavor, or mishap, the post collapse blame game also is underway.

The Wharf’s loss has been attributed, for among other reasons, to failure by the City of Santa Cruz to stay up to date on maintenance.

And to lawsuits by a Santa Cruz group that delayed implementation of the Wharf Master Plan.

And to the state Coastal Commission, environmental regulations and protection for sea birds.

Then there’s the ever-present bogeyperson, climate change.

All these, in always-perfect hindsight of course, can be seen to have contributed to what occurred Dec. 23.

We’ll take up some of these and how they bear on the Wharf’s future in future Editorials.