Pineapple Willy’s owner Bill Buskell said the wooden walkway at the side of his restaurant is supposed to be used for private beach access for
The homeowners association of that building pays $36,000 a year to lease the walkway beach access, he said.
“It’s a three-year contract,” Buskell said. “We built it for them to have access to the beach, but I paid the $100,000 to build it.”
Laketown Wharf Resort, a condominium community with more than 700 residents, will continue to be able use the wooden walkway for beach access. Called “The Wharf Crossover, the metal gate that was recently installed has a keypad for the condo residents to punch in a passcode for access.
Buskell said when the walkway was open, many homeless people were using it to get out to the beach and then were camping out by his restaurant.
From Memorial Day to the Labor Day holiday, police arrested 50 people — more than eight times the arrests from the same time period last year, according to Panama City Beach Police Department records.
“They arrested 10 of them out there (by my restaurant), where they pitched tents, using my parking lot and panhandling my customers down there,” Buskell said. “We’re a family operation. This is not what I want.”
He said the homeless people were making a habit of sleeping overnight on Pineapple Willy’s property.
“Every morning we’d have to run them out,” he said. “They’d sleep under the pier, and in the daytime, they buy their brown bag of beer, come over the pier and walk down there and get in the shade. It’s the only place on the beach they can get shade, and then they’d stand down there panhandling, asking everybody for money.”
Also, when the walkway was open, people who were not customers of Pineapple Willy’s were parking in the restaurant’s lot and using the walkway for beach access, taking up spaces that could be used by customers, Buskell said.
Moreover, Buskell said people staying at the Shores of Panama Resort next door to the restaurant were also using the walkway for beach access.
“The Shores of Panama built the pool under one contract. They built the condo under another contract,” Buskell said. “For their guests there to use the pool or access the (beach), they have to pay $10 dollars for an arm band. The guests would go in there, and check in, and no one would pay $10. They’d tell them my walkway is a public access. It’s not a public access. I own it. I’ve told them that five or six times.”
Lakyn O’Neal, who works the front desk for The Shores of Panama, said they do have a $10 amenity fee for beach access.
“(The Pineapple Willy’s walkway) was another option (to get to the beach) if they didn’t want to pay fees,” she said. “We’d let them know that was there if they didn’t want to pay. Now, we can’t do that.”
But she said there are many public beach accesses not too far from the resort that guests can still use if they don’t want to pay the $10.
“Our pool area and beach access is privately owned,” she said. “It’s an amenity fee required of everyone. When customers arrive, (the fee) is included in the rate if you book through us.”
She said the fee is a safety precaution, as guests get wristbands, and this prevents people who aren’t guests from using the resort facilities, she said.
“At this time it might not be a big issue,” O’Neal said. “But during the season, Spring Break, there are people all over the place. It’s hard to keep up with everyone in general who is and not supposed to be here.”