Greasy Pole dock, platform rebuilt

Related Photos

Desi Smith/Gloucester Daily Times Peter "Black" Frontiero, who won seven straight Sunday Greasy Pole contests from 1987 to 1993, watches the rebuilding of the pole platform Friday morning off Pavilion Beach. Desi Smith
Tiger Marston, center, of Marston Marine unloads some planks from a barge onto the Greasy Pole platform, as work continues on the rebuilding it on Friday morning off Pavilion Beach. Desi Smith

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March 17, 2012

Greasy Pole dock, platform rebuilt

By Steven Fletcher Staff Writer The Gloucester Daily Times Sat Mar 17, 2012, 03:37 AM EDT

The platform's up, pilings are down, and finishing touches are all that's left in the effort to restore Gloucester's famed Greasy Pole.

One of the centerpieces of Gloucester's St. Peter's Fiesta celebrations, the Greasy Pole and its dock fell into the Outer Harbor last Sept. 30.

Six months later, Norris "Tiger" Marston, who's rebuilding it, is applying the finishing touches to the restored pole, and crews were at work Friday morning.

Fiesta Committee Chief Joe Novello said Marston's work will wrap up in the spring, depending on the weather. The Fiesta Committee, he said, plans to hold a dedication for the new platform sometime in June.

"The actual walking pole," he said, "may not go back on until spring."

He said, however, that the Greasy Pole will be ready for this year's Fiesta, which, after the annual Novena, swings into high gear June 27 through July 1.

The committee, he said, has raised almost two-thirds of the project's costs. Though Novello expects the final cost to be less than the committee thought. Initial numbers, he said, were around $80,000. But because of donated time and lumber, the project will come in under budget.

Marston rebuilt the platform using nine fiberglass pilings, and has set much of the deck in place.

Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.