The Comeback of Fair Haven Dock Days

It's a treasured gathering spot for Fair Havenites.

It's a place to which people have always gravitated to take a riverside walk, take in a concert, fish and crab, sit and sun and even wed. It's the Fair Haven Dock.

A big chunk of the dock was eaten by Hurricane Sandy's river wrath. For some time after the Oct. 29 storm, much of the foot of Fair Haven Road was cordoned off, signs were downed and brick pavers and pillars at its entrance were uprooted and torn apart.

Now, while there is still some construction fencing blocking the dock, there are visible improvements. The piece that Sandy bit out of it has been replaced, pavers have been put back, benches are stable and the small ramp leading to the slice of beach has been restored.

"We have to get under the portion that wasn't taken out by Sandy to make certain it's stable," Mayor Ben Lucarelli said. "Then railings will go up and other amenities that were there will be replaced and anything else that was uprooted will be restored. Then it'll be ready for use again when the weather's nice and people naturally gravitate there. It won't be much longer — at least by Memorial Day."

From the simplest of milestones to the major, such as weddings, the dock has always held a cache of great memories for anyone raised in Fair Haven.

Lucarelli said that weddings on the dock have become more popular and are free. Because state Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program funding was used to revamp the dock in the 1980s and again in 2009, anyone is allowed to traverse and/or use the dock even while a wedding is taking place.

"Last year, I officiated at a wedding and it was just a wonderful thing to experience for everyone," Lucarelli said. "The couple had a very unique ceremony involving a Latino tradition of draping white rope around their shoulders in a sort of figure eight knot to symbolize the union. When I pronounced them husband and wife, everyone around — strangers on the dock and nearby — applauded, boaters sounded their horns. It was really something."

The oldest version of the Fair Haven Dock, which sat slightly east of the present one, dates back to the early to mid 1900s. Another dock was built, or rebuilt, almost in the same spot in the early 1970s. That version was then revamped the two times in the 1980s and 2009 (which cost about $200,000).

This repair is estimated to cost about $90,000, Borough Engineer Rich Gardella had said.

A native Fair Havenite, I have my own dock memories. The one that stands out most in my mind is how being invited by the "popular kids" in eighth grade to jump off the dock and swim after school was a major coup for quiet types, unbeknownst to the "popular kids."

When I finally got an invite, this bow-legged chicken with bad hair when wet had night terrors anticipating the jump and how to avoid it. Nerdily sad, I know, but true.

I ended up cheering everyone else on so much that they forgot I hadn't done the inaugural jump. Uh, guess what guys? Never happened, but the hair frizzed anyway and the legs never magically unbowed with coolness. Oh, and thanks for being too cool to notice I never moved from the one spot on the left of the dock!

We've done this one before. Let's do it again. What's your favorite dock memory? Don't be a chicken like me. Tell us in the comments section below.