March 17th Port Meeting

Greetings Port Observers:

Here's your Executive summary of today's Port meeting, March 17 2009.

Treasury has $2 million. Engineering reports included updates on Salt Run and San Sebastian river dredging. These projects get complicated and progress slowly when samples show excessive polluting metals in the analysis.

Cdr. Fox SAPD reported on activity with derelicts. Owners of foundered boats are granted leeway to solve their problems before City expertise and Port dollars move in. That's the case with the Colin Archer ketch beached S of town on the W side of the Matanzas.

Officer J. Richmond, FWC, outlined that agency's meeting with City, County, USCGA personnel at the Vilano ramp on 25 April to coordinate activities associated with good water management. 5 April will be the Blessing of the Fleet, which will be supervised by FWC. FWC is also coordinating Whale watch activities with National Fisheries. Officer Richmond complimented SAFD and their new fireboat, which has been instrumental in two rescue events. The attributes of the SAFD vessel lends itself to easy boarding from the water, and it can maneuver in shallow waters.

No sheriff's dept. report. Fire Chief Mike Arnold further talked of the fireboat. Port has contributed $20,000 to date for the venture, and Chief Arnold and the City would like the Port to share with the city the cost of lifts at the city marina to keep the boat out of the water. Commissioners Bliss and Benjamin listed points against, but probably the measure will carry at our next meeting.

Chris Benjamin, Environmental Coordinator for St.John's Co Solid Waste Management petitioned for $7500 for the Trashbuster program. Commissioners were all in accord that this was a worthwhile and appreciated program.

City's Harbor Management Plan still awaits permits from DEP and USACE, and has answered questions from USCG, FWC, and Tallahassee's History and Archeology division. Once those permits are in hand, City Commission will listens to hearings to approve, modify, or cancel the effort.

This Commissioner still advocates City moorings S of the Bridge of Lions. That component , 70 moorings, will be welcome to many of our liveaboards and our cruising guests.

North of the Bridge of Lions is our eventing area, where sailboat races originate, where our Parade of Lights is staged, and where cruisers and locals drop a hook. That area could be designated limited time overnight anchoring, just as Hospital Creek is designated. To pepper that area with 28 moorings is to impose a visual blight on what is now a scenic anchorage. Two vessels have sunk there in the past five years, due mostly to being battered by Nor'easters. Imposing 28 moorings N of the Bridge of Lions does not substitute for the lack of due diligence in supervising that anchorage: one boat has been abandoned there for six months now.

Salt Run has a planned 80 moorings in that quiet estuary. The waterborne biological diversity that we see there now—manatee, porpoise, shark, alligator, shrimp, blue crab, oyster, (I've seen all those in Salt Run) and the countless fish breeds all get to co-habit with 80 moorings and 80 boats with their ablative anti-fouling paints. IF you can find 80 subscribers to the mooring fees. IF those subscribers will be constant with the marked absence of amenities—proper dinghy accommodations, parking (present Lighthouse Park spaces overflow on any given weekend), showers (belated thanks to the Yacht Club for the new bathroom building).

I've tallied about ten probable renters for moorings in Salt Run. I know the City does not have a subscriber list—nor have I heard of a market analysis. Eighty moorings are planned in order to exclude the migration from the Bridge of Lions anchorages. And all because enforcement of regulations has been sporadic or non-existent. My December 1 2008 survey counted 19 out of 45 boats not having proper registration in Salt Run.

Clearly the work has barely begun if tomorrow we saw the imposition of all 178 moorings. Then westruggle through the tangle of boats migrating up the North river and South of the 312. This is clearly a lose-lose situation that no group—Port included—wants to confront.

Back to Port meeting: Board approved $120740.53 as our portion, total cost shared with FIND, for dredging and new floating dock at the Lighthouse ramp.

Port Attorney Dobson urged the board to await an opinion from the Attorney General: providing funds to a non-profit like the Lighthouse Archeological project for reconstruction of replica boats might lead to an AIG audit.

St.A Beach Commissioner R. O'Brien requested funds for sand fencing to contain beach erosion. He'll get an interlocal agreement, with dollar figures, and bring it to next meet.

See you next time,