The Ports & Harbors Commission discussed suggested changes to an ordinance designed to help remove abandoned vessels stored in the marine services yard.
The ordinance had originally been passed out of a first public hearing and sent to the borough assembly. Members rejected the ordinance out of concerns about the wording of existing portions of the ordinance, not revisions created by the new ordinance.
Harbormaster Greg Meissner told commissioners the suggested changes, which entailed objections to a phrase empowering the harbormaster to impound a vote for “any” violation of the harbor rules and concerns about a public notice statute wouldn’t impact his ability to do his job. Objections raised by assembly member Daniel Blake at the Oct. 22 meeting largely ignored the role of oversight by the borough manager and other officials to prevent harbormasters from abusing their power, as well as existing statutes dictating a list of notices required before impoundment could happen, Meissner said. The two officials had discussed the issue, Meissner said.
“The only immediate impound we could do short of a big process would be if I think you’re gonna beat feet and not pay us … or if we think there’s a health or property or environmental damage about to happen, the boat’s about to sink or catch fire or something like that,” he said. “It’s literally a four-and-a-half month process before we ever impound something, generally.”
The phrase involving the word ‘any’ was designed to create flexibility in the harbormaster’s role in impoundment, rather than specifically enumerating reasons for the harbormaster, Meissner said.
“It’s trying to be a catchall,” he said.
Without using ‘any,’ officials would have “to sit down and think of everything under the sun that may go wrong in a harbor, that may go wrong with a boat, and give you some reason to impound it … you’ll miss one, without a doubt you’ll miss something,” he added. “You’ve gotta leave it general enough to just function.”
A second concern raised by assembly member James Stough at the same meeting pointed out a discrepancy between sections of the code related to impoundment and other standard public notice processes carried out by the borough. Impoundments require a one-week advance notice instead of two weeks typically required for similar notices for other public functions.
Commissioners briefly considered recommending the changes directly, but eventually settled on taking no official action on the ordinance, which was on the agenda for Tuesday’s regularly scheduled assembly meeting, except to recommend that any changes enacted by the assembly not alter the original intent of the ordinance.
The ordinance, which targets up to a half-dozen boats currently being stored in the Marine Services yard, would allow the harbormaster to remove the boats and allow for more storage.
Commissioners said they planned to attend the assembly meeting to answer additional questions the assembly might have.
In other business, commissioners briefly discussed progress being made on a plan to seek financial aid from the Rasmuson Foundation for the construction of a mariner’s memorial.
The application had been “three quarters finished,” according to Commissioner John Yeager, before he had decided to revise the application.
“Where my writing block is at the moment is how much detail should this have in it at first?” he said. “How detailed do we want to have this?”
Commissioners said they would work together to complete a draft request that matched the needs of the foundation.
Commissioners also briefly discussed re-grading a parking lot at Shoemaker Harbor to eliminate persistent mud puddles, a project which will have to be performed by the borough’s Department of Public Works, and lights out in inner harbor.
The new 300-ton marine hoist will likely be in place by February, Meissner said, and he hoped to promote the machine’s capabilities at a conference of Pacific Northwest harbor officials later this month.
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