[Bboa-members] Waterfront Commission Meeting

[Janet Cobb]

A small addition:  The houseboat community has paid into the Marina Fund 
for forty years now.  They have helped pay for maintenance, repair and 
replacement of docks throughout the Marina.  They paid for their own 
sewers; they pay their own electrical and on and on.  They do not go 
cruising and pay half fees for their slips to be held. They sit and pay 
each and every month:  a dependable source of revenue.  Yes, they pay 
property tax, which goes up town into the general fund, in addition to the 
fees that go into the Marina Fund. They are 13 slips out of 1100, a fact 
that should be kept in mind.

The most important fact out of this meeting is that several commissioners 
allowed as how they don't know anything about the docks.  It makes it so 
much easier to make decisions when you don't know anything!  Per their 
request, I'm going to give a walk through to a couple of Commissioners.  I 
suggest that others may want to do the same, or perhaps we should 
coordinate a Boat Owner's Association tour of the docks.  Please advise. Janet


>There was a fairly good turn out at the Waterfront Commission meeting last 
>night. A number of topics were discussed, but obviously the big one was 
>fee increases and declining infrastructure. The meeting ended at about 
>10:30 pm.
>
>A good thing is that the Commissioners seem to be moving forward with a 
>long term business plan for the Marina.  The Waterfront Commission is 
>looking at ways of amortorizing over the long term, which will save money. 
>It appears they are finally starting to hear us and are focusing on the 
>deteriorating infrastructure.
>
>The Finance Sub-Committee submitted a new Proposed Budget deferring costs 
>and there by saving money. It puts the Marina in a better position 
>financially.
>
>The botom line for the Boat Owners was that the new proposed rate increase 
>in July has dropped to 8% (Instead of 14%) with a 5% per year increase in 
>Fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010. The projected revenues are very 
>conservative and do not take into account the new restaurant, increased 
>revenues from the other properties (ie: Hotel/Restaurants) or a possible 
>Ferry dock, which would save dredging fees. These are all wild cards at 
>the moment, but should bring additional monies into the Marina in the long 
>run.
>
>Cliff Marchetti is looking into diverting some of the Boating and 
>Waterways loan to repair the J - O Docks to bring them up to standards.
>
>The H & I docks went out to bid. The bids were as much as $900k over the 
>proposed budget and so they will rework proposal and put it out to bid 
>again. There is also a concern over the additional $500-700k required for 
>the Houseboat slips. According to the Marina Staff; Boating and Waterways 
>does not allow loans to be used for Houseboats and therefore the Marina 
>would have to absorb the cost of building those docks. The Houseboaters 
>had a strong attendance at the meeting and expressed thier concerns.
>
>That's my short summary of the meeting ... Keith can probably explain the 
>budget stuff in more detail.
>
>Tom Jeremiason
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