County seeks vendors for Jiggs Landing

A vendor would provide canoe/kayak and other rentals, as well as boat tours of the river.

By Pam Eubanks
| 12:00 p.m. March 18, 2015

Manatee County Commissioners approved a request for proposals for vendors seeking to operate a canoe/kayak rental business out of Jiggs Landing.

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Would a sunset tour along the Braden River float your boat?

Manatee County commissioners hope so.

On March 10, the board approved a request for proposals for vendors seeking to operate a canoe/kayak rental business out

of Jiggs Landing, located at 6106 63rd St. E., Bradenton. In an effort to boost vendor interest, the RFP also allows for the vendor to offer pontoon boat and public boat tours. The vendor also possibly would be allowed to rent out small motorboats, said Mike Whelan, recreation division manager.

Per the agreement, the vendor would be open at least eight hours a day, two days a week year-round, although Manatee County hopes it will be more.

“We’re hoping for at least Saturday and Sunday,” Whelan said. “If they want to do it all week long, that’d be terrific, assuming the commission will approve that.”

RFPs are due to the county in about a week, with a bid opening likely to occur in April.

Whelan said the county had issued a similar RFP once before but received no responses. It added the option for boat tours in hopes of attracting vendors.

“It’d be the first of its kind (in Manatee County),” Whelan said of a Manatee County park offering such rentals. “There seems to be an interest out there, and we’d like to see such as service provided.”

Whelan said if vendors come forward, negotiations will take time, and an agreement might not be approved until August.

“We are really looking forward to the public seeing greater variety of things that are offered at Jiggs Landing,” Whelan said. “I think once the boat ramp is redone and the parking lot is repaved and we establish the use of cabin rentals (and canoe/kayak rentals), we’ll see more than just fishermen using that park.”

“It’s a beautiful spot,” he said. “Hopefully, this vendor will hit the sweet spot.”

Jiggs Landing has been closed since Jan. 19, while the county repairs the park’s boat ramp, expands its boat dock and paves the parking area.

Manatee County’s long-term vision for Jiggs Landing also is to have a concession area for park patrons, but Whelan said there is no timeline for adding concessions at this time.

“We’re trying to be careful in the development of the park and bringing it online,” Whelan said. “We’re not as far as we want, but we want to hit the perfect combination of beauty and involvement. These two steps need to be taken first.”

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

County developing cabin-rental program

The fishing cabins at Jiggs Landing have remained unrented since the park opened about four years ago. But Manatee County’s Parks and Recreation Department is working on a program that would use volunteers to assist with cabin rentals. Mike Whelan, recreation division manager, said the program would operate in a manner similar to programs at many state parks. While Jiggs is closed for boat ramp renovations, the county is adding an RV site in the boat parking lot. “We hope to coordinate visiting folks who have RVs who will agree to spend two weeks or a month on site and, in return for being on the site, be a 24-hour-a-day presence,” Whelan said. “They would check in people for the use of the cabins.” Manatee County would reserve cabins, which cost $40 per night, through G.T. Bray Park’s reservation system. Park staff would email those reservations to the campsite host, who would then show guests to their cabins, orient them to the facilities and answer questions about the park or area.