In its final meeting of the year, the North Bend City Council awarded the Laskey-Clifton Corp. construction company the contract to build a pier and pavilion near Harbor Avenue, the backbone of a plan to recast the once-industrial waterfront district as a magnet for tourists.

Meeting Wednesday afternoon at city hall, Mayor Rick Wetherell and councilors Frank Amatisto, Larry Garboden, Howard Graham, Bill Richardson and Janet Rubin approved the $137,553 bid by Laskey-Clifton, which is headquartered in Reedsport. Councilor Susan Ottemiller was absent.

Under the contract, the company will erect a pavilion near the end of California Avenue to shelter visitors in the rainy season. The terms require workers to finish work on the in-water supports by Jan. 31 and on the structure by March 31.

Laskey-Clifton's project comprises the first 5 percent of what eventually will become a block-long boardwalk and an 18-foot-wide pier, designed by the Coos Bay architect Richard P. Turi, that will accommodate commercial boats, pleasure craft and a 12-foot-wide roadway.

The pier complex is the centerpiece of North Bend's urban-renewal master plan, which is meant to encourage the construction of storefronts, restaurants, hotel space and apartments on and near the bayfront. Completing the Downtown Waterfront District, which also includes parts of Virginia Avenue and Washington Street, is estimated to cost $1.2 million. The first phase of the project, reconstruction of local streets and sidewalks, was completed in March.

Also on Wednesday, the City Council voted to delay by a year the completion date for the water line under the Coos Bay waterway to the North Spit, setting a new target of Dec. 31, 2005. The Coos Bay/North Bend Water Board's under-bay pipe, which shares a right of way with NW Natural's natural-gas pipeline, will deliver up to 6 million gallons of treated water daily to future industrial sites.

In other business, councilors voted to accept an annual block grant of $3,220 from the U.S. Homeland Security Department for police equipment.