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Paul Ellis public pier in Avenue being replaced
Watermen, recreational users share access
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN
David Guyther, parks facilities manager for the St. Mary's County Department of Recreation and Parks, visits the pier replacement project last week at the end of Paul Ellis Road in Avenue. The replacement project should take four weeks.
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The old county pier at the end of Paul Ellis Road in Avenue has already been removed and work is under way to replace it. The pier is used by local watermen, but the work shouldn't be too inconvenient because the county has a public landing just across Whites Neck Creek at River Springs and nearby at Bushwood Wharf.
Work started last Tuesday and the old pier was removed by the contractor the next day. "I expect this project to take about four weeks," said David Guyther, parks facilities manager with the St. Mary's County Department of Recreation and Parks.
The $103,530 project was awarded to J.W. Graner of Calvert County.
The 67-foot-long pier was about 35 years old and was in poor condition as its pilings were deteriorated, Guyther said.
Many of the county's public piers were used by local watermen when the industry was more viable. Paul Ellis Pier is "mainly used by watermen still," Guyther said, but there are more canoers and kayakers using it now. "All of these public piers are getting used now. It's kind of a mix of watermen and recreational people, which is still a good thing," he said.
The new pier will have a ramp for those in wheelchairs and the pier itself will be adjusted away from a neighboring private pier.
While the public pier closes at sunset, "occasionally someone will stay down here after dark, fishing/doing other things," Guyther said. "People can tie up, unload their catch, but they're not supposed to tie up overnight."
Paul Ellis ran a general store at the corner of Colton's Point Road and the road that was eventually named after him, across from the old Victory Bar, said Bob Kopel, longtime resident of Colton's Point. "That was Paul Ellis' store way back when I was a kid and I'm 77," Kopel said. There was a gas pump there, a small bar, general provisions and slot machines.
Ellis bought the property in 1932 and sold it to Herman Millison in 1946. "I don't think he ever married, but he was a popular guy," Kopel said. The old store is boarded up now.
Kopel's family ran a hotel at the point across from St. Clement's Island until an August 1933 hurricane destroyed it and its popular pavilion. Kopel now tends to the island for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
