Waterways Management Commission Meeting - September 29, 2026

I've got one o'clock. So, I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order.

Good to see everybody. It's been a while.

Same here.

All right, let's start off with a roll call.

Uh TJ present.

Andy, I'm here.

Andrea here.

Eli here.

Roger.

I'm here.

And Jamie here.

Great.

And Harbor Master.

I'm here.

And and and Steve. Sorry about that. I was reading off my list.

I'm easily forgettable. I don't mind.

Not at all. Not at all.

And then next up is uh approval of our last meeting minutes which dated back to June. Uh hopefully everybody's had a chance to look at those. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes from June?

Thank you. Roger. A second.

Second.

Thanks. And then for approval, we've got TJ.

Yeah. Uh, yes.

Andy.

Yep.

Andrea, yes.

Eli, yes.

Roger.

Yes.

And Dan is a yes.

All right.

Thanks.

We'll see. Now we've got that housekeeping out of the way. Talk to us about our current project.

Start with a winter wher because it's getting to be that time of year. The boat is back in Dartmouth as of yesterday. I'm ordering some lettering.

The police label on the side has been removed. We have a clean slate. It will say Hovermaster Law Enforcement Dartmouth. Something along those lines.

Plain and simple. No grwitsy gold leaf or anything like that. But although we have an open warrant for repowering, those engines are holding. They're reliable. I have a philosophy that if I can keep them going by spending only thousands, then I don't need to replace them by spending tens of thousands, probably closer to 50, um, to replace both engines. So, it's they've been given a clean bill of health. They

should get us through the winter and uh had a great run yesterday back from debt.

So, that's done.

Uh Steve, a question. How many do you have any idea how many hours are on those engines at this time?

Yes, 1300 hours uh roughly for both.

Although they have had major rebuilds before we bought them. The city in Bedford had both of them rebuilt um due to their I guess strong driving skills or driving wide open too often shifting through the gears that kind of thing. Um, so and of the 1300 hours, it was noted that at least 870 were slow speed idle, which carbons them up and causes more problems. So, we're trying to do a regimen of idle and open

throttle bay running at gradual increments rather than just hammering them.

And these are four- stroke engines, correct, Steve? No, these are still two-stroke.

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Two stroke with EEX.

No, these are these are Optimax Mercuries that came with the boat.

Wow.

Not brand that I would pick. Not anything that I would ever consider reliable, but they are workh horses. So, at 225 horsepower, I've already done the math. If we had a repower with four stroke, the options would be Suzuki, Yamaha, Tahhatu, and the weight to power ratio and the max horsepower of the boat. We would probably be looking at at least twin 250s. And um we would have to

change the heating arrangement cuz right now we heat the oil before it goes into the motor. If we got four stroke, the crank case would hold the oil and would need some type of a heating element to keep that oil viscous enough to flow in the winter months.

Right now, we're doing that by heating the oil that goes into the motor before it goes into the motor. So, yeah, keep running them then. Keep running them.

That's the plan. I'm not throwing good money after bad, but I'm also not going to throw out reliable running engines.

There you go.

At some point, we're going to have to address it, but why don't we leave it in your hands um to tell us when it really was starting to become critical.

We we have addressed it in that retained earnings were pulled out and put into a warrant article at town meeting in the past and there that that money sits. So if should something should happen next week, we don't have to go to town, meaning we have already got the funds.

Oh, excellent. Yeah. No, I agree with TJ. Let's just run it and if you got the funds, then if something happens, you can buy some new ones, right? I'm more worried that it's going to crap out on you in the winter time.

So, right, go be ready to go, I guess.

Steve, Steve, just a quick question. Is that our sole vessel in the winter months?

It is.

Okay.

Two engines. So luckily if one goes hopefully I'll have one to get me home, but I'm out there in the winter time. No toeboat us.

Yeah. And maybe the Coast Guard if they feel inclined, but um and there's no there's no there's no issues with consistency on cold starting that those motors.

No.

Okay.

We've had great success. So, and I mean my biggest problem with that boat when it snows heavily, I've got to go shovel it out because it collects a bunch of snow. But the cabin cabin stays warm.

So, you know, the the lights are clear and I can still see where I'm going, but she holds a bunch of snow when it snows heavy.

And that we found out this winter that just went by.

Great exercise.

Uh, so that's it on the wher if there's no more questions.

I have been moving along with the kayak and dinghy replacement project.

Our uh contractor had some personal issues, so he wasn't able to do much this summer, but he has built a jig for the uh dinghy racks that we're replacing. There are nine of those. And uh we're going to go with the board deck and uprights either made of the keypass which is like an erector set that the yacht club has used for years. He's also going to experiment with bending aluminum pipe in

his own shop and that would be bolted on. But there's no need to go back to the um bicycle maker, bicycle rack maker with a powdered powder coated because those are now prohibitively expensive as is the shipping.

So that continues through the winter and I'm hopeful that by spring we will have all new racks for kayak and or dingies.

I'm looking to reuse the two floats that were attached to the pier now rest in the northwest corner of the parking lot to build basically just a launching area for the dingies that are in the racks to be pulled out rather than pushed into the water. And uh I think the extent of our expense there would be to have helix warrings holding both ends of that in place.

and uh we'll see how that goes.

But that would allow people instead of dragging through the mud to be able to drag down to that float center of the rack area and uh walk out dragging the dinghy behind. We might also at some point look at in the water storage, but we'll worry about that as the demand reveals itself.

um landing parking lot. There are two large potholes on the south ramp.

Somebody has obviously made those a bur in their saddle. They've called or contacted our office town hall and the state. The state solution is to add cold patch which lasts until the next moon tide.

Um not a longlasting project. I have reached out to DPW, see if we can piggy back on any other hot patch repair that they're doing in town. They're going to take a look at it. They claim that it might need a concrete extension of the apron.

Again, I didn't go to asphalt school, so I'm not sure what the best way to fix it is, but I'm willing to rely on others and take their advice. So, we are working on that.

Um, we have not closed out the CPC funding for the marina and I still need to look at security cameras, possibly gate systems for the landing.

And I bring up gates this time because there have been some hooligans, let's say, at the park side of the peninsula to the extent that they now have installed or are installing a gate to close off that side of the facility. at dark. So, there won't be an opportunity for cars to go park there and do whatever they do down there at night.

They'll be getting pushed over to the boat side.

And if we're the only ones without a gate, we're going to be the easy target for donuts, nefarious activity, whatever goes on. I don't know that we can gate that whole area off, but it's worth looking into it at least. Steve, do you really need a bar gate or could it just be a chain dragged across as and lock that up?

Either one would have the same effect, but people launch and go fishing at 1 2 3 4:00 in the morning. That shack isn't big enough for me to sleep in it so that I can go unlock it and let people in or out. So, we we would need we would need something to look at look at it a little bit different than the beach because the beach area is closed after sunset and we technically are not.

Yeah. I I don't think we could close the the launch the ramp's open 24 hours, isn't it?

Yes. Yeah.

And what if you have somebody who launches their boat, goes fishing, and comes back at midnight, right? or they work till 11 o'clock in the third shift and they want to go fishing at midnight.

Yeah, that's the problem.

Cameras be a better thing, Steve.

I think the cameras I I no longer have access to the cameras that are there.

I've been working to get that back, but um I know the police have been able to access those cam cameras that are there.

I would be very much in favor of adding some more cameras down the dock and maybe further down at the uh north end of the parking area, but uh we run into the problem of not having electricity down there. So, we're looking for out other outside the box kind of power cameras and solar powered cameras, solar and battery powered cameras all day long.

And then I think there's got to be some kind of a internet tiein, but I'm not sure how that works with a microwaves that the town seems to be relying on.

We could we could put a Starlink in the in the hut probably pretty easily if there's power.

There is power there. Yeah, we could do that.

Yeah, with a Starlink then you have internet at your disposal. So you could have all the cameras linked to that with just Wi-Fi.

Yep.

It's It's not It's not People do this all the time, Steve. This is not a tough one.

No, the problem I've got is I've got to work it through town hall because they want to have a hand in it. They're trying to unify everything. The more they try to unify things, other departments spin off and do like the park department has their own system.

And I don't believe anyone but the park department gets access to that. I may be wrong, but it's a park department system.

Yeah.

So, I'm all in favor of sharing access to our cameras with police dispatch, anybody that legitimately needs it.

While we're on the subject, I know I was told when those cameras went up that at least one of the cameras is what they call the LPR or license plate reader. I have no ability to do anything with that, but I don't know if that's going to become a hot button topic.

Why don't would I suggest that we wait to see what uh what the response is from the town as to how they're going to secure the town property?

Certainly. I mean, I don't think we're going to solve it.

I think it's going to be whatever is done to secure it is going to be done at a higher level between the town and the fishing boating access board at the state level and police.

Correct.

And I would hope that we would get access for our legitimate needs as well.

It's nice to be able to see what's going on over there without having to drive over there.

Yeah. Hence the internet. That would be fantastic for you, Steve.

Yeah.

Okay. Um going on to E. I'm still looking into ordering a new truck which was approved at the last town meeting.

uh ran into a little bit of a roadblock there terms of time and communication from the two companies that are on the state bidding list. In the meantime, we are looking to acquire the used Ford Explorer that District 1 has and carry the deputy through with that vehicle.

Um, it's amazing how much rust has shown up in the last year on the Ford crew cab that I'm driving. Other than that, it is very reliable. But, um, my plan is to when the new truck comes in, start driving that, get some work done on the old truck, pass that down to the deputy, and then we could sell off the Ford Explorer plan.

Uh, last I have is the dredging design feasibility grant. That's being closed out. There was some money left that went back to CPC, but we need to start looking at next steps based on what the design and feasibility estimate costs were. I think the next step would be permitting and then after permitting would come the funding of the full project.

I'm not sure if SEC, Seapport Economic, will give us uh permitting funds or not, but that needs to be looked into.

I think they can. You just have to ask for it as part of the preliminary to the dredging. They'd love to they'd love to fund things that are, you know, proving the feasibility and allowing good stuff for economic benefit to go through. I mean, it's worth doing an application That's true.

Well, who's the grants person in town now?

We don't technically have one. I know that they have just very recently hired a new assistant town administrator.

Oh boy. And uh I think she might be taking on that role but I don't know that for sure.

Maybe we could just reach out to her and say are you taking on role of grant administrator?

I will do that because I I'll be I'd be pleased to volunteer myself to fill that out. It's it's it's not too hard to fill out the SEC grant application. We've done what six of them.

Great.

We are getting good at it.

Yeah. Pretty soon I will get good at it.

She do.

Okay, that's all I've got on the housekeeping stuff.

And under that same topic, you had me you had just sent out the stuff on the Roger Street boat ramp.

Yes.

I haven't obviously the summertime is a little bit hectic, but that came in last week of July, first week of August, and it came through the town website, the town email, which does not always translate over to what I look at every day. But I did find that in the invoice and uh have not yet digested much beyond the $3 million price tag. So, yeah, I know it's a non-starter. I mean,

come on. By their own definition, they're saying the sand transport goes against that pier and will always continue to go against that pier. So, you're always going to have a shallow area there. I mean, right.

Right. In their own engineering assessment.

Yeah. Well, the report says we do not recommend the expansion. So, they do dive into that.

Give us three million try, right?

So then it begs the question that we started with. What do we do? And if we do nothing, you get nothing. So I I don't know. I I can tell you that I saw a corner of the ramp this summer.

That's about the most I've seen in a while.

Andy, what do you think is going to happen down there? Do you have any uh information about your business down there? Um, yeah. I mean, wearing my CBC hat. I mean, we're we're definitely proceeding with um some site designs for an expansion down here. So, um I have reached out to Cody to see if I can connect with him because I I hadn't seen this report since until Steve shared it just today. So,

um I was just curious where this was because I mean there there could be a partnership opportunity there.

But right, I'll report I'll report back after I connect.

Okay.

So, to answer your question, Steve, I we we can do something, but I I I don't know what that is right now. Certainly not spend $3 million. That's that's just silly.

I agree.

It doesn't seem like it's going to solve the problem either.

No, exactly. TJ million. I could see spending it. But well, it' be three million for a really really really really long ramp. Someone would have to back down too, right? At the end of which is two feet deep. So it's like Yeah. I think it said you had to back up 400 ft.

Yeah. Really?

Some things are a bridge too far.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A rough.

Thank you.

And we'll talk about waterways rates, right? I've always been working under the assumption that the rates would be set as a harbor master policy with the advice of the waterways commission and that's how we've done it for at least the last 23, four, five years. Uh, I had a recap of our revenue, which shows us on target, and then I got into looking at what everyone else is doing.

Not that we have to follow their lead, but I wanted to know if we were within the ballpark and seems that we are, and it seems that there are things that we are behind on, but I don't know.

how we're going to hit our budget targets with the price of fuel going the way it is. Have no idea what the town is going to be doing with salaries. Um I know they're not going down. At least I hope not. But it well inflation around is at minimum 3.4% in this country today. I I personally think you don't want to hold too too long without giving people a little increase otherwise you'll fall way

behind. Steve would be my view.

I would tag teaming off of what Roger's saying. I'd add you add three and a half% to all of your things and just do it on an annual basis no matter what.

Seems pretty as Roger points out stops us from having to go up 10 bucks in one year. I mean, yeah, my goal has always been to one of the things I think that makes DMA special is it was or is supposed to be an affordable place and you know, we continue on because we watch our we watch our pennies, right?

Yeah.

Complimented by the finance committee when they stopped by and saying, "You guys do a good job. You you raise enough to keep yourself solvent and you you're not too wacky one way or the other." So I would propose we 3.5% just across the board.

Not not being a math magician I had come up with a more easy to apply.

The first thing is our our landing launch rates have been seven for a number of years.

Yes.

Our surrounding towns are seven through 10, right? with I think Fair Haven being 10, Westport being 10, New Bethford being seven. So, uh we would need permission from the fishing boating access, right?

But I would propose that we go up to 10.

Okay.

For a day pass and I think 70 for a season pass.

Sounds good, Steve. But we do have to in writing ask permission from the state.

Right.

Right. So if the permission advises and votes to advise that, I can draft a letter to public access board. I keep calling it that, but it's fishing and boating FBA, right? Yeah. 10 10 bucks is, I think, very reasonable to go out boating for the day. That's that's that's chump change. Cheaper than filling up your boat with diesel gasoline.

Roger, I will argue that the people are already paying taxes and are already paying for a fishing permit and are already paying for all those things. So, and we get our money funding the thing from that.

So, true, true.

I mean, this is how this is how inflation happens is everybody just starts going up, right?

Without without a you know, I mean, it was it worked at seven forever. I mean, it Steve makes an argument though the price of fuel is a lot higher, so we have to do something.

Well, I'm also I'm also looking at the repairs that we're making to that area.

Granted, we got grant funding for the dock and we got community preservation funds, but we're putting in the new rack space.

Yeah.

You know, I I don't I don't believe me.

This is the least of my worries because the ramp facility is not at the capacity on any weekend. So, we're not generating significant revenue from that facility.

But, um, if we wanted to stay seven and 60 for another year, that's fine with me. No, I think the 10 works. I'm just I'm just making making the point um that you know basically this is how this is how fees just keep going up and up for everybody, right?

Yes, I agree TJ. But I do think it's time with surrounding towns being 10 for us to join the 10 crowd more direct to the price of fuel and patrolling the waterways. Our waterway I agree with that argument. Yeah. More Yeah.

Yeah. And we have other towns might be mismanaged.

Yeah. I mean, I think that's fine, but I think we should also we should also do an evaluation of like our uh we should budget our forecast for the upcoming year of the increases we're seeing and see see if that increase of the launch fee is really going to make a difference um or or where we stand. I think probably the best way to look at it.

Yeah, we can do a projected revenue based on sales. I mean, I have no idea what what that what that dollar amount is when when we increase it that I I don't know what that brings in for the launch fees but I don't know the percentages, but we were bringing in roughly $20,000 for the launch seasonal day pass.

Yeah.

So, okay. So, that should bring us up close to 25 28 somewhere around there.

Yeah. Unless it scares people away and we lose, but I I don't see that. And if you want to delay that for another year so that we're not hitting all the way around, that's fine, too. Uh, a waterways use fee recommendation, we are currently and have been at $5 a foot for residents and $11 a foot for non-residents.

Uh, could certainly justify an increase to six and 12 on those two. Again, it's not a drastic change, but it does add to the revenue, right?

It makes up for some boats that we're not seeing come back because of the economy.

Does that make it easy math for you, Steve? Rather than doing like a 3.5% across Yes, it does. And the other thing that that does is keeps in line the distinction that was approved in the Capo Biano case back in the early 90s where we were allowed to charge disperate rates for non-residents. Yep.

And it's in within that same ratio.

Perfect. I remember that.

For me, yeah, I think that's a good thing. We should do that. And that does bring in a lot more money for you to work with.

And the last thing is more permits.

We're at 90 and 180. 90 for an individual and 180 for commercial. The state does prohibit us from charging a different rate for non-residents. So that's why we have the individual and the commercial. And if those were to go to 100 and 200, it would keep the same split.

Twice as much work for commercial.

Yeah.

Um and $100 instead of 90.

Again, it's a lot cheaper than any place.

Yeah. I would support that as long as we're just not adding it every year for for the sake of which we don't see you don't seem to do, right? and that we still are cheaper. If you go to Marian, you go to Wearham, uh, Westport, we're we're still Yeah. I don't know if I sent those out, but Marian has a flat rate for, uh, it's going to be $9 a foot for residents and

non-residents for the boat size. They're $115 for each individual mooring, and they are $250 for each commercial mooring.

And uh there are some other I'm glad I don't live there.

Yeah.

Again, I'm not trying to say that I want to be Marion, but we are still a bargain compared to that. So, I would agree with that. That's a good numbers.

Steve, when when are these when do you want to have these set by? Like what's your timeline?

Um now, because the yacht club is going to be sending out notices. The marinas are going to be sending out notices. So, we need to establish the rates now. Next year is already upon us. I mean, the uh are you coming back letters to renew stuff?

Yep. Gotcha.

I think last year we we discussed this around the same time, but it was too late. Might have been in December or January. So, this year I wanted to get ahead of that. And uh and Andy, was there some other information you were you were looking for before you bought into these or just No, no. Just just curious, you know, you know, you know, to Jaime's point, sometimes modeling things out can help,

but you know, everything makes sense so far, particularly because we've been pretty stagnant for so long, nothing jumps out of me as as something I'm worried about.

Right.

Right. And I mean, we look at it as that you guys are advising. We are voters.

We're paying this. We're imposing it upon ourselves.

And yeah, I don't think it's unfair at the numbers that you're you're talking about.

I think it's a reasonable increase. We haven't done it in a while. I I would say do all of the things we discussed, Steve, and get it out to the public.

Yeah. Here it's going to be October.

Yeah. So get it get it out to everybody knows this new rates.

Yeah. I mean it see it seems like we're just at least getting to market rate but uh I mean what you're telling me with salaries and fuel costs and projects. I mean it doesn't sound like we have a choice. So we should at least bump it. I think right honestly I I really wouldn't I wouldn't mind hate to go back to exercise but I really wouldn't mind to see the exercise

just because I make sure we're doing enough. I'd hate to go up three whatever we pick and and not be enough, you know, then we're crawling back again in a couple years here. So that's the problem with the the whole cycle of things is I do my budget required to do the budget in February and the budget goes from July 1st to June 30th and our boating season goes from May to September. So it there's

like no you're always chasing a tail kind of thing, right?

Not in a good way. So, but but to the point, we've been okay for many years balancing our budget and being able to pay and also create a little piggy bank savings account.

Yeah. The only thing I think that we the balance the balance has always been there and I think you know Steve's approach of going up a reasonable amount every couple of years has worked has worked fine. I think the last one we did was about 23 24 somewhere thereabouts. So, I mean it's not like we're hitting people every year, you know, just for the sake of hitting them, right? Could

you repeat when was the last time the rates were increased?

Thought it was 23 23 I think it was.

Yeah, it's been a while.

Steve, yes.

Steve, what did you say?

2023 we raised rates on moorings and waterways permits. The landing launch rate went up to $7 in 2018, I believe.

Wow.

Yeah. It was not long after the ramp was reconstructed in 15.

So it's been a while.

Yes.

And the waiting list fees, Steve, is the last one of those waiting lists are have been $15. I I don't propose changing that right now because I think this first of all, our waiting list is not a money generator and that does cover the costs.

So, we've got some other changes we'd like to make to the mooring assignment waiting list, but changing the dingies, the racks, and the waiting list fees, I don't I don't think we need to go into that at this point.

And our dinghy cost for the racks doubled at some point in the last 5 years. We went from 50 to 100.

$100 for a dry rack space is consistent with what other towns and what the yach club charges. The dinghy racks at $100 a piece are full. So there's a demand and not a lot of complaining.

And the weightless fees, as I said, I think with some other changes that we're going to make or propose to make it will it will be fine.

Well, I mean, you have to have a weightless fee or you'd just have people just stay on it forever.

Um, then it would be become an administrative nightmare, right? If there's no cost to it, there's no skin in the game. And what we're going to get into next is the nightmare of assigning moorings or slips. the people that have asked for it and you go through all the mechanations and provide them with a chart and description and never mind and they go away. Um yeah, so yeah, without paying we don't know if

the person's still alive that put their name on the waiting list 20 years ago or 10 years ago. Um, so that fee covers the administrative cost of updating the waiting list, reaching out, making sure they're still actively seeking what they told us when they applied.

Yeah. Steve, to to go back a backpedal a little bit, the new improved um landing and new dinghy floats and tieup. Do do you have a handle on what new revenues that brought in?

I don't have the revenue, but I can tell you that we had every spot on top filled.

Every spot except maybe one that we squeezed in between two of the finger peers was taken for or paid for.

We did have people that paid and didn't show up.

We don't do the refund thing, but um you know they get first crack at it again next year. So the demand has Yep. We do have a couple of people on the waiting list for slips but not not a huge list. So I think we might demand is there. I guess my question is we set prices based on, you know, what we would see. Would you recommend increasing prices on that landing a

little bit or hold for another year there?

I'd like to get another year in and then I'll get a clearer picture. I um I'd rather have it used at a slightly reduced rate, which is what we were looking for, then have it be, you know, exorbitant rate and then no use. So, Well, we did a pro former where you you should be making like according to my past notes like $20,000 a year pro.

Yeah. Well, we made we made I think 26 last year and I think we're going to go above that this year just from the marina.

Excellent. Excellent. Well, then I would say yes, please hold and that's that one thing we can really look at in detail because you you could you could uh carefully analyze that so that that becomes a nice revenue generator. I'm glad to see we built it and they came.

So, and the only other thing we should I need to start thinking about is it's going to be winter and are we going to again take everything out and stack it or do we want to take that risk? And I I don't know. I mean, we have built into the cost having a contractor come in and remove everything and store it out of harm's way, everything except for the end float. So,

if you know, if I'm told, hey, it's going to be a mild winter, the birdies told me that, or the cohogs are saying it's going to be a mild winter, and we want to put our faith in that, then we'll save$6 or $8,000. But that's a gamble.

Well, everything I've read is with the giant El Nino, you're going to have a very mild winter here in the Northeast.

Uh, all the data I've seen from Noah.

Yeah.

I don't know. I think I think I don't put any faith in that. I think because if we lose one of them, it going to cost us $6,000 to fix the thing.

We made a mistake.

I I think it's good practice to uh to properly lift those out of the water.

They're huge investment and um we we could have one bad ice storm that damages a lot of those floats. I've seen it happen many times. I think we need to be consistent.

It takes one takes one bad week of we would have lost last year if we left them in.

Right.

Big time.

Right. Right.

Right. Okay. I concede that point and you're right. We have money in the budget for it and it also is a good time to inspect, renew, refurbish, get the Yeah. Get a look at the hardware, get a look at the underside.

Yeah. That that should be a base part of our cost structure on on the marina for um you know, for when we figure out, you know, the price to charge people per foot is is [clears throat] that every year we got to take the stuff out. It's going to cost us at least six to $7,000.

It was it was factored in on the cost.

So, but we're not doing anything that we didn't plan on. But, right, good. And we're still trying to save a short amount of money and it wind up costing us a lot of money afterwards to go find a contractor to put them back together afterwards and stuff like that and go off the approved list and all the other things that we have to do just to repair something.

Agreed.

Exactly.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Moving down now to policy changes.

I'm looking for advisement on this and and my problem that I alluded to earlier or started saying was the moing assignment process is is miserable. And I don't quite understand how people ask for something, you give them exactly what they've asked for, but they're not happy or they didn't really want that or something has changed. Every year we send out a renewal making sure that the

boat that they intend is still the boat that they've got listed. Uh that the area that they want is still where they want to be. And the first thing that comes up is the first available moorings. People think when they're getting on the list, I'll take whatever you got first. And invariably we offer the first available is north of the bridge. And they'll say, I don't I don't want to be up north. Well, then where do

you want to be? I only want to be south.

Well, you got on first available list and first is going to be north side and then we're back and forth and back and forth and it wastes time and frustration. So, I propose removing first available as an option. What that does is if you truly don't care whether you get a north side mooring or a southside mooring, you can get on both lists. get on the north side and one

comes up, it's yours. You stay on the south side list so that if another option comes up south of the bridge a year, two, three years later, you can then decide, do I want to move south of the bridge, move my gear, get another boat? I mean, there are options, but by having it first available, people aren't reading what that means.

And then it becomes a frustrating mess when something does open up where they've listed.

So, I have been working under the routine that if you don't complete a site assignment, that means a moing site has been offered to you, you have accepted it, and then for whatever reason, you change your mind. So, you've told us you'll take it.

the person who owns the gear in the site is waiting to hear and negotiate for the transfer of that gear and then the boater ghosts us. So if that happens, they're removed from the waiting list because technically upon acceptance, you're no longer waiting. You've been offered and you're taken off the waiting list. If you fail to complete, you're done. you can get back on the waiting list, but that position that you

had is gone. So, I want to make sure that we're all on board with that.

The other problem I'm getting is some people know they want to go boating.

They don't know what they want to go boating in and they get on the waiting list and they don't want to give us a boat length or a boat draft. And how do I assign a mooring if I don't know what you intend to use? So when that happens, I usually will tell somebody, I've got room for 12T boat and six inches of water. It's yours. I don't want it.

Well, that's strike one. If you don't give me the parameters, I don't want to put them on the waiting list because they're just putting their toe in the door for an idea that they might go voting. And that creates the appearance that there are more people ahead of you on the waiting list than there truly are. So, I don't care if you don't have the boat yet, but if you know you're

going to get a 25 ft center console, put that down. If you're going to get a 40 foot deep draft boat, list that. That way, I'm not assigning moorings for boats that you have no intention of purchasing or using.

Sounds like a great idea, Steve. Why don't Steve, do you ever consider changing it to like, you know, you have to have a boat to come off the weight list versus I want to get a moing and then I'm going to go buy a boat? I mean, well, the the reason we allow that is you're given two seasons. If you don't have the boat you said you were going to

buy in two seasons, we recycle the more.

You had your chance. It goes down the list. And in fairness, there are people that know they want to get a boat and, you know, they have an idea of what they're going to get, but they're not going to buy that boat until they know they have a place to put it.

Yeah.

So, you got two years and and there are plenty of boats to buy and uh I think that, you know, we're maybe being a little bit too fair, but I think that given that some people have been on the list for a long time, it it it balances out.

Yeah. Steve, what do you do? Do you know what the average weight is north and south?

Well, north of the bridge, unless it's a deep draft boat, we're giving them out the same year. South of the bridge, smaller boats within a year or two, and larger boats are taking a lot longer. I I can't give a time estimate, but u there's more turnover in small boats than there is in bigger boats. Just a less of a commitment all around.

Yep. And we still have, I call it the wild card, but the Bay View Birchfield area, which is carved out of South Moorings. It's exposed. It's still technically within the harbor. It gets launch service. It's in Pay Narum, but a lot of people don't want to be on a waiting list for 10 years to be offered something out that far. So, we allow that. you can get on the salt uh get on

the Bay View Birchfield list, get a rapid assignment for a larger boat and stay on the southside list until something further in the harbor comes up. So, I think that again is fair to everybody and that's what I'm trying to balance it with.

Yeah, unless you lived in Bay View, I couldn't see ever wanted to keep a boat there.

You'd be surprised. There are people who have large boats that really won't fit in much of the harbor and They're happy to take that and they probably got another one in New Bedford or for Haven.

So, they play the weather game. If it's not looking good for the South, they'll move. So, uh they'll go to New Bedford Harbor for a storm, come back for the fair weather. But, uh so if those things don't sound egregious, we'll continue on with that.

And the last my only point, Steve, is if you do those things, which I agree to, you should do them on the website, you should explain why you're doing them because people have really been driving you crazy with this weight list and these exemptions.

Yeah.

What I'm planning to do is we have a frequently asked question user guide to mooring and I would update that and spell out as it does now. It spells out everything, but uh good idea. Perfect.

Perfect.

The last thing is I I don't know what but swim floats on moorings has come up.

These are floats that are not attached to the shoreline. They are permitted under the 10A chapter 91 10A moing permit and they're not a boat. But do they pay a waterways fee based on the size of the float or not? And I don't know if that requires a more technical reading of the bylaw we're operating under or if there's a sentiment that we don't need to. It's not a huge issue. There are

maybe certainly less than a dozen of these in Dartmouth waters.

So, do they pay a fee now, Steve? Do they pay a fee?

They pay a warrant fee.

people and and we've had some of these have paid a waterways use fee from the beginning but it's a small number 2 26 total people or 26 total people okay so 26 total people in in the town and that's I I know we've got some in Clarks Cove we've got some in the Sloum River we've got some that are close to houses along the shore but not held in with a ramp or gang way.

So, why wouldn't you charge him a boat fee as well as a mooring fee?

I I don't know. I It's It's something that was never They're enjoying it. It sure looks like a boat to me.

So, the swim float fee, I'll just run that by town council, I guess, and make sure that we're and then do something consistent for everybody.

Can't we just come up with a flow fee?

That's what I was going to suggest.

We could do that, too. Uh, you know, add to that.

Yeah. If they're only 26, how about a float fee of 100 bucks?

A lot more than the linear footage, isn't it?

Assuming they're all residents, at $5 a foot, that would be a 20 foot long float.

Some of them aren't quite that big, especially the the true swim floats that are in the bay.

What What if we did 50 bucks or 25 or 50 bucks on top of the the hundred they're paying for the mooring fee?

Okay.

Yeah, it's better than what we're doing now and then we don't have to.

Okay. Yeah.

It seems that if there's a swim float that there there's not a whole lot of travel associated with it. You're only worried about people coming and going to it. So it seems like there's not a whole lot of harbor master involvement. So keeping it lower than a boat makes sense to me.

It does. I mean our role comes in when they when they break free or there's somebody using my swim float and we have to go out, right? [clears throat] They still have to be dealt with.

They still have to be dealt with by the harbor master which is which is about the extent of what your boat or your boat or your boat has to be done. It has to be dealt with by the harbor master.

And that's what the fees.

We're not pump We're not pumping them out, but we are trying to find out who owns them when they come ashore and that kind of stuff.

So 50 bucks flat fee for all floats.

Yep.

Swim flip.

Swim float.

Yep. All right, that works.

Money, money, money.

Yeah, that's really all I've got. Sorry to monopolize the entire meeting, but uh we go aboard.

Yeah, we advise.

It's been helpful. I I appreciate the the sounding and the feedback and and I had not even thought of a flat float rate, but now we have one.

Well, they're all flat, aren't they?

I think it evens it up. I don't think I don't think it's unnatural. I think it evens things up. Right. [clears throat] And this could change based on town council's involvement.

Yes.

Try to do that informally.

Great. Thank you, Steve.

Thank you.

We'll wrap this up in a few minutes, but Eli, anything to tell us about the water quality group?

Uh, yeah, I'll make it um I'll make it super quick. Um, basically, we've had two meetings. Uh the first one was just sort of uh and Andrea jump in if I'm missing anything or Roger. Um the first meeting was July 14th and it was more or less establishing what exactly the goals and objectives of the water quality task force were and how we might go about achieving those goals. Um, and there were a number of

other things discussed, but that that's pretty much the gist of it. The second meeting was August 25th. Um, we had three extremely informative presentations. [snorts] Um the first two were um by it was sort of a um a co-presentation by uh Steve Bivven and Andrea um about um the watersheds in the town of Dartmouth within the town of Dartmouth and um and what how a watershed functions and then more

specifically uh what a water manage water shed management plan is and how we go about developing one. Because one of the goals that we identified in the first meeting was that the town needs a [clears throat] current watershed management plan as sort of a baseline of where we go next with um uh fresh and salt water quality and the state of our um uh water waste our our wastewater treatment facility.

The second or really third presentation was by Rob Ali on the during the August 25th meeting and he um went over sort of the state of our um mostly our our wastewater treatment facility uh in the town of Dartmouth.

Um, and if you haven't if if if any [snorts] of you don't uh sort of know or are up to date on the state of our wastewater treatment facility and our our water uh freshwater um sourcing, then that presentation, all the presentations, but specifically that one uh was very informative and I feel like every resident of Dartmouth should watch it.

um because I wasn't aware of the extent of um some ongoing issues.

Um so basically uh next steps I believe are to start establishing [snorts] a watershed management plan and um uh go from there. Andrea, did I have I missed anything crucial?

Nope. We um the meetings the July the July meeting wasn't on um wasn't recorded but the August one was recorded and as Eli suggested um that was done on purpose because we're sort of seeing them as educational tools for the residents to get up to speed on what our issues are.

I can send a link also uh out to anybody that Yeah, that that would be awesome.

Thank you. Yeah, it's a very it's a very long YouTube video, but it's well worth the watch.

Even if you break it up and watch it in sections, it's it's fantastic.

Uh yeah.

Yeah, appreciate that.

Thanks, Eli.

Yep.

Thanks, guys.

[clears throat] And then we had the boat parade and the shallot boat visit back in uh last month.

All I can say is both of those were very successful. I was amazed at the number of people that came out to see the shallop at the dice landing. We had prepped the landing. It was u attractive and clean and worked out really well. A lot of positive feedback on that. The boat parade at the yach club was amazing. uh just a community old New England kind of all about.

Yeah. People are asking about uh making that a routine. So really was no heavy lift.

I only want to say one thing about the shallow boat. Thank god I'm born in the era that I am and I wasn't a mariner back then.

Oh, I don't know how they got the electricity for the electric motor charged back in the Mayflower days, but uh yeah, it was it was a rough that's a rough crossing.

God, a little easier when you got somebody to tell you that's and then and best again.

I don't think we've met since we were awarded. We have not yet received the award, but we were designated America's best harbor uh for I [clears throat] think a third year running and uh yeah, we've always been in the top top three.

Uh but once again, we are the top designation. I expect to hear from US hobbers about an award ceremony, which I don't know what they envision, but uh didn't quite work out during the summer months, but I'm hoping we can have another plaque on the wall by Christmas.

There you I tell I wish there was a way to count um how much revenue uh just having people visit the harbor um either either because they want to come and see it or they want to come boat uh to it or something like that adds to the local local businesses and adds to the local sales tax that we get and the meals tax that we the town gets.

No, we did an economic impact funded through the SEC recently in the last 10 years.

I don't remember the number.

a lot more significant this summer, I bet.

Yeah.

Two million, TJ.

That's amazing.

Two million bucks.

That adds a lot to the community.

It does. That's why I say we have a nice little economic engine chugging along here. Don't don't want to get it out of tune. I think just keep it running smooth and steady.

Great.

It's great.

All right.

feel like we have any public to comment, but if we have any public comments, if not, let's talk about our next meeting when we've kind of gotten off off track.

So, normally, you know, with the going back to the sec second Tuesday, our next meeting would be in two weeks on the 13th. That seems kind of close.

Yeah, too close.

Want to pick it back up in November again on the Tuesday? November 10th.

How about November 10th, a Tuesday?

And then we'll kind of be back on track with the second Tuesdays.

Yeah. And then it'll be stuff to talk about in November. Yeah. November 10th.

One one o'clock.

I I I probably won't be able to make that, but I'll see. I've got the opportunity to do a transatlantic sale. So depending upon where we are.

Oh, come on. You got Starlink. Come on.

Starlink.

Maybe I can Starlink in.

If we can watch the kids playing at the landing, we could certainly hear from you. Depends upon I'm on if I'm on watch or off watch.

Are you taking your son with you or or is this just not this?

Not this one.

Be careful.

I could actually I'll if we have a waterways I'll just won't do the trip.

Love it.

Is this your first transatlantic?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty jazzed. Oh, very cool.

What's the boat Andy?

Um, do you know the boat in the harbor mongus?

Yeah, the catamaran. It's a sistership sisterhip to that. It's a Okay. Catamaran.

Yeah.

Be careful, Andy.

Always.

[clears throat] But I'll put it on my calendar just in case.

Okay. So, we got November 12 or November 10th at one o'clock.

Got it.

Great.

All right. movement.

Thank you.

I make a motion to adjourn.

All right. Second.

Second. Second.

Everybody say I.

I. I.

And