Harbor Advisory Committee - May 27, 2026

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

I sent everyone the minutes. Um, any corrections or additions?

I didn't I didn't I didn't say anything.

You know, a few spelling errors, but we're used to that, you know.

Can I have a motion to accept them?

I'll make a motion to accept the minutes of last meeting.

Second and Kevin.

All in favor?

I I I Okay,

it's all me.

All right, Mr. Chair, let's talk about dollars and cents.

Yeah. Can you give it to me and or whatever? I'm just going to start writing down. All right.

All right. So, if you want, we can just start with fees. I'll go right right in order here.

Uh, so as of 4:00 this afternoon, we have transactions of $120,080 even.

Okay. Okay.

120,000 12080 in the bank collected collect that's collecting fees.

Yep. That's total collected fees as of 4:00.

Not what was already in there.

Can you break down?

Yes. Um you know that's the total Kyle.

That's that's the gross that we've taken.

That's the total right. So there are 218 private moorings that have been paid for. By the way I think this is a correction 218 private moing. Private moing. So, they came out to $10,900.

10,900.

And the non-resident fees, uh, $9,500 even. I think that one was a mistake.

5900 9500 9500.

Yep.

What What did it say? Say one more time.

So, so this the non-resident fees.

Yeah.

$9,500.

9,000.

The 218 private mortgage. What was that number, Bill? The uh uh it's 50 bucks a pop. So $10,900.

$10,900.

Rest of it is just slip fees.

That's your $6 a foot right there.

218 private morins. How about the the the waterways?

Well, if the to the total gross is 120.

So we got to subtract 9500 to the subtract 10,900 to 9500 and and that's the waterways.

You'll have the waterways fees basically subtract 20,000 from it.

Yeah. Basically $100,000.

There you go. Roughly $100,000. Yes.

Waterways fee.

$100,000.

Now, they've got a couple more days left in the $100 late fees implemented, right?

June 1st.

Is it June 1st? Yes.

Well, June 1st.

We We're trying to be next week.

We're trying to be judicious with this, right?

Um and I know that the first guy to get dinged for $100 late fee is not going to be a happy camper.

I don't know what to say about that. At some point, there's got to be some consequence. Um otherwise we'll be doing this stuff in December again.

If if we're not if we don't enforce it then then it's the honor system then it's you know you say well you didn't enforce it for him why you you know what I mean it's going to be pro problem.

Okay so so through lings we have the ability to communicate with everybody finally.

Okay. So, I sent out an email. Didn't go very well, but it basically laid out what we're doing, how we're doing it, and I just said, "We are about to set up this late fee." I didn't give a date. Again, we're just trying to be I know Josh was a little bit slow getting boats in, so we're trying to be accommodating as accommodating as we can, right? So, um

I I think the best way to answer that, John, is uh we'll just kind of play that one by air.

Okay.

But suffice to say, it's coming.

Can you move the whole date forward?

Like we we can set that up anytime we want.

It's just a little Yes.

But if you don't if you if we don't on June on June 1st, everyone's going to automatically there'll be $100 added to be $100 added to So, you got a couple days to figure that out.

Yeah. So, I sent out an email to everyone who has paid.

Um, yeah.

And giving them, you know, paragraph.

Yeah. The Yeah, that didn't come out right. I'm sure you got it. Uh, and then we have the capability to send out SMS, which is just a text. And so I did that with all of those who just have a phone number with us. And basically those are the guys and the gals who have not paid yet. So it was a friendly reminder that the $100 late fee is coming.

We will send it out one more time.

What's the What's the percentage right now, Bill, of people that have paid? I mean half paid 60%.

No, I think it's about 60% right now.

So 40 40%. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I actually I was trying to get that number for you because I had a feeling somebody would ask.

Um but we just around Yeah. 60% I think is pretty damn close.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, just if a little comparison to last year, um we had $143,000 in slip and mooring fees. Last year, we're already up to 120. Now, we didn't have the uh non-resident fee last year.

So, subtract 10 grand. So, we're basically at 110 out of 145 as far as money's collected. Now, remember, there's more money coming in from the private moorings, right?

There's more money coming in from the commercial borings. Um, so I think at the end of the day, we're going to be in in pretty good shape as far as revenues collected here.

Yeah, we could look be looking at uh if things go well, I mean, we were collecting what up until November last year, December 15th.

December 15th. Okay, it's May. We probably are going to be we could be 20 to 25% above where we were last easily.

easily if and if you can see about instead of giving a hard date when we're if you do that we're you're going to get the people that are it's I think we're getting there. We're well, you know, I mean, we trained people in the past to not pay. I mean, you know, we didn't we didn't have any any any penalty if they didn't. So, people Oh, yeah. We'll get around to

we'll get around to Oh, yeah. You know, so now this year, you know, you know, yeah, it's got to start sometime.

There you go.

Somewhere, you know. So I mean maybe if you you know being the first year maybe you put a twoe extension on that and send an email out you know because this is the first year we're implementing this and want to give everybody a fair shot we're going to put a two week moratorum you know on you know however June 15th boom you know I'm just throwing it out there

let me give you a little example of what they do in Dartmouth Aenum whatever you want to call But if you haven't paid your moing fee by May 1st, you lose it.

You're out. It's gone.

But they've been doing that for a long time, right?

No, is Yeah.

So, you can see, so the original introductory letter that we sent out, how you doing, Mil?

To uh everyone said it said that day May 1st there would be a late fee. That was on the letter that everybody got.

Now May 1st obviously is coming gone and there's still no late fee. So, we are being, I think, judicious and a little understanding.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

But suffice to say, it's coming.

And there will be those who end up paying it. And if they're rolling around in July and, you know, they still haven't paid, they won't get any mercy from us. The time for mercy and compassion is now. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

Yeah.

Milt, I just took took notes. Um, okay. Waterways fee about a h 100,000 100,000 just a 100,000 okay okay that's easy um uh two 218 private morren 10,900 10,000 okay that is yeah different a non-resident fee 9500 really for a total of one Well, 12080 $120,80 total. So, what about the town moorings?

Was that town moorings? We have not We don't have any. Are you talking about the town dock or you talking about the town moorings?

Town town moorings. We We used to have town.

Yes.

Maybe a half dozen or so.

Uh there were 3,000. There was five last year.

Five of them. Yeah. So, we we maintained nine. Um, and by the way, we just um Andelino just stove on them Friday. Um, they're in pretty good shape actually, but two of them unfortunately are still down. He couldn't find them. So, we've got seven right now that will be ready.

We've ordered new top floating gear, moing balls for all of them, so it's all going to start from scratch. Still waiting for those to show up. Um, so they'll be uh in good shape, inspected, and they'll have good top gear on them.

And and the state ramp, state ramp, we've taken in right about $200 so far.

Oh, state ramp.

How does that happen?

Uh rain.

Well, we we're going to talk about that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh as far as the commercial morning bills, the guys at the uh town warf, those are going out before the first, I hope. Um the I mentioned the Tom Moing got inspected. Um and I think that's all the money side of things. John, is there anything I might have missed?

So town Tom Morris we basically got to start from scratch, right?

Okay. Maintenance and repairs. We didn't talk about that one. Let me So back back to the June 1st date. You guys were talking about extending that.

Are we deciding to do that or we just not?

We're we're we're waiting for the perfect moment to to to apply all of those built. So, uh we're trying to be understanding.

Uh but that has limits and I guess that's where the conversation went. So, okay. So, it's it's still June 1st then.

Yes.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay.

So, it originally was May 1st, right?

Yes. Yes, it was.

Okay. See, I was thinking it was June. I thought it was May 30th and then June 1st the fee was applied, but it's no April 30th.

No, the the letter the letter that they got said May 1st.

Okay. All right. All right.

And it was Ali Ali said that's a little too aggressive, boys. Maybe you should make it, you know, June or a little bit later because it's a transition year.

Yep.

And I think Al's advice was was very good.

Yeah. Yeah. So then you're going to be sending out shortly.

We we have uh they they all got uh day before. Was it what's today? Wednesday.

Monday I sent out an SMS to all of them who have not paid reminding them that the $100 late fee is coming. They will get another one and probably two more before the hammer comes down.

So there you go.

So there'll be no excuses for Well, yeah. I didn't know.

Yep.

You know. Yeah. On the other hand, you know, a definite date, you know, instead of, you know, you keep extending it. Oh, they'll extend it. They'll they'll they'll extend it, you know, until they don't anymore.

Well, well, yeah. Yeah. Then one day it's going to be, you know, I mean, the goal is to get them to pay it, you know.

So, you know, but there's one thing I have found, Kyle, in the last year or so. Change is hard.

People have a hard time with change.

Oh, God. I mean, just the little red cards that we put down the state boat ramp, it just Yeah.

people tripped a second break around.

Oh, yeah. I hear it. You know, people people don't they don't know that I'm on this board either, you know.

But now, well, do you know this? Do you know do you understand this? Do you do you understand that? Yeah. You know, and when you when you talk to them that way, they're like, oh, okay. You know, makes sense.

Okay. It makes sense. you know, so not to say that you're not getting the word out there with everything, but people, you know, they want to hear what they want to hear, and then all of a sudden it's okay. So, I think it'll all settle in eventually, you know.

No one's telling me, "Don't put my boat in the water this year. I don't want to pay those fees." So, you know, I think we're right. And then the non-resident guys are still there because I've already heard from a couple of them. We were out open yesterday. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Well, especially the the Dartmouth guys, you know. I said, "Well, how come I got to pay? I'm in." I said, "Because you're not in Westport, you know." Well, what else do you want to know? You know, so to me, it's all about real estate taxes, right? You just You live in town, you pay real estate taxes or you don't.

Yeah.

So, if you don't, well, you use our services and we're still cheaper than a lot of places around. So, you know, I mean, not even close.

Not even close. Not even close.

Not even close.

Well, I said wait till next year.

Um, so the last couple days it has been a big uptick in just from the communication. There's been a tremendous uptick in people saying calling saying I don't want to get dinged $100. What do I do? What do I mean?

I spent half my day today getting 10 people, 12 people through the system paid like this. You know, they're just saying they're throwing their credit card down. Boom. And we'll just finishing the process. It's working.

the reluctance of putting out a hard date. I think the strategy that that Kath has is is effective right now. It's working. It's it's right. We we made some noise. We shook the money tree, if you will. Right. So, and some people, by the way, have come out of the shadows as well. I have to point that out.

A lot of new people, new contacts that have been around for a long time. It's okay, whatever. But that's the nature.

I've had my boat at trips for 20 years, but you can't find them anywhere.

So, he sends Harry Potter out in front of the shack. He sends her in.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those are those are the real good guys.

That's all right. I mean, we've had a few of those.

Let me go tell them.

Yeah.

Look, as long as we get them out of Sure. You tell him this, you know, long as we get them out of the shadows and into the database, you know, we're all good.

All right. Where do we leave off? Uh, maintenance. Maintenance and repairs.

Okay.

Let's talk about the ALC car. That's our hero of the day. Um, when we retired the angler, uh, we had to come up with something to hold us over until we get the new vessel, right?

So, we took the Alcar, which is, who is it? 18 ft of 21. They make 21 22 21 22. Yeah.

We took the 200 horse that came off the old privateier. We put the 200 horse on the alcar. Yeah, that's enough horsepower. Um, it's got a pumping system that works really, really well.

So, the old one had an electric motor to turn this Edson 120 pump. This one's got a little We put It's not even a Briggs and Stratton off that you get from uh Harbor Freight.

Yeah.

And it bolted right up.

So, it's just a little pull start. Now, you got to listen to the noise while you're pumping it. But, man, that thing can pump some fluid.

Fastest pump up boat in the South Coast.

No, seriously.

Kevin and I took it up my ship shiply.

Woke up.

Yeah, the big motor woke it up. Yeah.

Um so it anyway, we spent um a fair amount of money on that boat getting it ready to go. Um, that money is reimbursed to the town through the Clean Vessel Act. So, we brought both boats over to Drews. He took the 200 off the privateier, installed that along with the steering on the ALC car, and we're doing the rest. So, that whole bill, which was right around $6,000, uh, will be reimburseable through CVA.

So I think for fairly short money we got an operational pump out vessel again and Kevin and I had it out yesterday.

Be a temporary fix.

Yes. Right. So the the grant uh monies were approved at town meeting. Um the vessel is two weeks from completion and I think at this point I'm up against bureaucracy as far as when we get it when we get it delivered. Um but it's there. I've been talking to the builder at least every week. Um, and it comes with a trailer, too, right?

Yes, it comes with a trailer. Yes. Which Kevin and I were talking about, you know, he launched his boat and we may have if we have a problem, we got to use the trailer to pull Yeah. Yeah, I'm a mess up because the old boat is on the You might see Kevin's trailer in the Fourth of July parade.

Do do what we got to do.

That's it.

I was going to use mine, but my boat is waiting to get bottom paint right now.

And actually Kevin's is much bigger. I I'm not sure what the total weight is of M1, but it certainly needs a bigger trailer.

Yep.

Uh speaking of uh add an albin on that.

We'll be It'll be okay. It'll be with aluminum. That's a big that's a big truck trailer. So, and uh as far as the maintenance and repair goes, uh that vessel that 300 horse Yamaha has to go to Drews for service. So, I hope we get there next week if we can fit it in at Drews. I know he's awful busy right now. Um but that uh outboard has not been serviced yet this year. So,

okay. So, that's got to go for service.

That's got to go for service big time.

Cap, can I make one more comment about the ALC car?

Yeah. Um, am I correct in that when it's retired as a pumpout boat hopefully in a couple weeks, it will become an exceptional part of the fleet for us.

Oh, absolutely.

It's a It's going to be cleaned, sanitized, and it will be a excellent working boat for the department.

Mhm.

It's It's in great condition. It's dry.

When I say bone dry, I checked again today. Bone dry build. Bone dry. Not one lick of fluid down there. I don't know if but we put we put Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. When it's not just here for a couple of weeks and then gone.

Yeah.

We'll put it to use for a $6,000 investment. It's like it it'll work. It'll work for Harbor Master or Shellfish as well, too.

So, well, Rick's got the old Gary Sherman's aluminum boat. We put some money into that guy. Uh Josh did the bottom for us.

Uh Pinehill. uh patched up some cracks and you know put in a couple of plates, not plates, just patches. Um so we spent a couple grand on it. Keep it going. Uh it's a good strong little boat. It's got a brand new one.

New ones. It's It's worth putting some more money for what we know.

For sure.

Yeah.

Um anything else on the money side? Uh Mr. Chair, I think that's it.

Yeah. Um, are we going to talk about the status of the town do town dock blanking and feasibility study? Did you already use uh We can. Yeah, it's actually I thought you Yes, it is right here.

I I missed it.

All right. So, two phases of this have been done.

Uh, the first phase was topographic where they basically come in here with lasers and, you know, they just draw it out like engineers do. Uh the second phase was a limited uh underwater inspection. They did bring a underwater drone down. Um that was back on the 13th. Um we were all doing uh an oil spill drill over at Spindle Rock. So I could not be there with them. That was

the only day they had uh for that because he's got to do subcontractors and so on and so forth. So we could not be there for that. Uh he's got one more phase which is basically bringing the divers in and having them inspect everything below the below the water line and uh see where it goes.

The underwater drone limit just looked at the general conditions or whatever.

Yeah, I actually did just get a report this afternoon from uh uh Alex, I forget Alex's last name. Alex Krauss, I think it is. Uh he's the chief engineer there.

Um and I haven't looked at it yet, but I'll certainly forward that along to you guys.

So, do they give you some kind of a 3D map of what's under there with the drone? Uh, I don't know exactly yet, uh, Milt, but um, whatever they have in my inbox here, I'll send along to you guys. Um, I don't it was it was just two PDFs, so I I don't think it was any kind of video.

Yeah, just some data.

Just a written summary, I suspect.

So, the third phase, the divers will go in and and do a more thorough inspection.

Yeah, he's got a coordinating the divers, I guess, has been uh a little problematic for him. And they said they might ask for an extension because this is supposed to be completed by the end of June. Uh if they do need an extension, well, that's between them and the seapport uh grant people.

Okay.

uh the state ramp QR code. We're still waiting on the signs from highway. Uh as soon as we get those um we will be transitioning over to the online payment that state fight all the signs down.

Absolutely.

Please.

You want that cash box, John? You can have that as a momentto small mooring.

Small boring.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I need a big one. Yeah. Yeah.

Real big one.

Yeah.

Um Haboui number 14 just got replaced.

What day was that?

That was the Oh, it's in. Good.

That was the one that you questioned.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, we had called the Coast Guard.

This was God, maybe two weeks ago, and we'll get to it. We'll get to it.

And then Paulie ran a ground. Well, he he wasn't paying attention. Um so we had to uh we took 400 horsepower to get him off. We got him.

We did get him off. Um but that's right where 14 should have been.

Yeah.

Uh anyway, so Rick called over to uh Bristol uh and uh and got their attention. They started putting out broadcasts on channel 16 about Buoie 14 being missing in the Westport River. It went on like every hour because I'm sitting in the shack listening to channel 16 and it was just constant broadcast. Then the next day they were there.

Good. And it turned out the 014 was outside the harbor.

It It looked like 11, but it was red, right? It was just Yeah, it was snugged up against half mileile rock. It was a little close. Yeah, it was off station for sure.

So, that guy's back on station where it belongs. And that's going to be a critical navigation.

Yeah. I mean, especially when the sailboat's come coming in, you know, which Yeah.

coming in now.

I went out there with a 36ft boat. I was se trial and you know you know something looks strange out here. I'm like yeah you know you're looking at GPS and it's showing you on the G GPS so like wow we got to get this get this in because people you know they're going to go oh buoy to buoy and yes it was too far. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah. Now outside the harbor you said that Mhm.

when going out around half mile half mile rock one this little irregularity one of the boys is way that was the 11 that would that that was the 11 was 11.

That's what made it look all weird.

Yeah.

You looking at it saying that why is that you know you kind of that's what it was.

You got dragged.

It looks a little bit more clean now.

Yeah. Okay. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that throw people off especially if they don't don't see it on their on their GPS you know and guys that's sanding in already over there I 14 and it just it's the north entry to Boat Beach by the jetty.

You got to go really close to the jetty now. And when I say low tide you there's going to be a lot of hang-ups over there this year. It's just getting it's really narrow in there this year.

Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of sand moving around. A lot of sand moving around.

Lot of sand.

Water's higher. Sand's moving around.

It's just, you know, we take it out and it comes back.

Yeah.

What happens?

We've got all of the uh private aids in.

Uh number 50 disappeared on us. Uh right after we put it in. It didn't last very long. Uh I don't know where it is. If you see it, let me know.

Who's tying the knots?

Uh I we That That's shackled in.

Yeah. Shackled in. We It's shackled and moused. Yeah, we um Yeah, I think we had poly on it and I think we were in shallow water and we had a little too much scope on it.

Too much scope more than likely.

Yeah.

I wonder if we shouldn't switch over to some version of nylon, you know, where it doesn't sink.

Something we've been thinking about. Um what else here? The We did the buoys.

Hicks bridge.

Um, well, both Hicksbridge and the state boat ramp got a little bit of uh, oh, what's the word? They got weed whacked. Um, and, uh, Kevin and Alex Raw, newest, uh, Harbor Master, they purchased a new heavy duty weed whacker and just, you know, did a great job with it. Uh, Alex brought over his, he had a gas powered blower, right? So, the two of them just teamed up.

and it looks pretty good. Um, there are two heads over there, two portaotties at a cost of 225 per month each.

And the reason for that is that one last year uh serviced once a week uh was not nearly enough. And uh you might recall probably from a previous meeting last year uh with the one porta party there was a doctor that showed up at the ramp and he was so appalled by what was inside there he called the board of health he didn't call me called the board of health and they called Paula

and Paul called me. So, uh, Rick and I were in the truck at the time and, uh, he called over to Freys and Freys says, "Well, we can service these twice a week." And so, we said, "Go." And that seemed to solve the problem. I just wanted to take it to the next level. So, instead of one being serviced twice a week, we have two being serviced twice a week.

Yeah.

Is that a little overkill in May? Yeah, it is.

That's right. Having a clean port is important. I I do. I do, too. Exactly. Right. I think a lot of the use I mean you get construction and the guys Yeah. Those guys I'm sure they're using it all the time and that's you know that's what it's for but I mean that may be the reason you know that they're going to get more use.

Yeah.

Once the Hicksbridge road project is done.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well the one at Hickbridgeidge out of there and and all that other stuff.

Yeah. The Hicksbridge uh port of party is the same situation. It's service twice a week and it's 225 a month. So, we're spending $675 a month on porta parties, not to mention the one the luxurious one that we have down at the point.

Anyway, enough of that fun subject. Oh, so we started the pumpouts on uh Tuesday. Actually, it started Saturday.

Um I got a call from somebody over on FDOC and said, uh, my tank is full already. So, I knew it was an easy one to service because of who she is. Uh, so I went over myself on Saturday and took care of it. Obviously, they were very happy to get that.

So, Kevin and I started on Tuesday. Uh, we only had five um, so far. So, the same process as last year. Send us an email. We put you on the list. It's a little something different this year.

We're going to look into links log first. Make sure you've paid your waterway fees before we come.

Not bad, huh?

I think that's a great idea.

Yeah, that's You don't You don't even have to talk about $100 late fee.

Just look, you need a pump up, fine.

Pay up a fee.

We'll be right there.

And I did that actually the four that we did, but they're the the the ones that we all know and love over there on EOC, right? So, yeah. Yeah.

Uh, we took care of them.

So, we talked to a about instant navigation. Oh, we got a couple. We've still got some um no wake buoys, right?

Yeah. Yeah, we we've only got one at Lakes Island right now. Um, starting from the upper stretches of the east branch. Uh there's one in Kirby Cove. There's one just north of Hicksbridge. There's one just south of Hicksbridge. There's one at Lakes Island.

Yep.

Uh there's one at the upper end of Spectacle Island. Yeah, upper Spectacle.

The other one is down by Sylvia's Lane.

That whole narrow stretch there, we put those in last year. Um mixed reviews.

Um what else we got? The one at Ship Rock is in there and it's got the chain.

So, I dare them to try to cut that one this year.

Um, one off of um right off the marina there between the marina and the yacht club and uh the other one is out by Charlton's Wolf. So, we've still got a few to fill in yet. Yep.

One of the things that we found is that the manufacturer of these particular uh aids to navigation um they were kind of poorly engineered.

Right? So you basically have a floating disc full of foam and then a cylindrical part up here. Where those two parts meet is it's almost like someone took a some glass and resin and stuck it together.

They're very easy to break. and we've broken a couple of them just handling them. So, um you know, we're down to just two right now. Um two left uh that we can put to service. So, we'll get those in the water as well as soon as we can, but we're going to need I think another manufacturer. There's a few of them out there.

Uh, one in particular is just a single mold, if you will, just, you know, I don't know what composite they use, but it's just a single piece with a bail in it. That's all we need. And they're colorcoded as well. So, anyway, we're looking around at other manufacturers for the uh, no wakeake buoys and probably for the the local aids as well.

Something more durable or something more durable, whatever.

Yeah.

New reflective tape on all the greens and reds, too.

Oh, yes. You should have no problem finding your way up and down either branch because we spent some money on reflective tape and this works. It really does stuff. Yep.

And many nights out there in the fog and the launch, you know, it's like So, we've already had a couple of call outs. Uh last Sunday there were a couple of young ladies that were ground off of u west side of Great Island. We got a call from a um good Samaritan living living up on Drift Road. Um and they were stuck in the mud at the lowest of low tides. Um took me a half

an hour to get them floating again. And I was the ground myself with the little 18t Carolina skiff. That's how high and dry they were. Um so we took them back to Spindle Rock, which is where they came from. And dad was there waiting. Uh Kevin and I did uh I mentioned uh a lobster boat that was up on the uh the sandbar the other day and uh Rick and I

got called out at uh 3:30 4:00 in the morning um just the other day for a vessel that was taking on water off of Sakana Point. So we kind of get those, you know, those calls going to the west.

I know Kevin responded a few times last year. Uh I did myself. So did Rick. Um, so we find ourselves covering that western shore over to Sakana Point.

So the Buzzers Bay task force got activated and that generated a phone call to the fire department dispatch and generated a call to me. Um, so away we went. Uh, we got up to the harbor entrance and I called the Coast Guard at Castle Hill. They said, "No, our boat's already there, so go back to bed." So, we came back and that was the end of it.

But, it was a good drill.

So, it's been getting a little busy, I guess. Um, on the mooring side of things, uh, we've got ASA. Um, I'm hearing some really good things about ASA. I spoke to Frankie Ray the other day. Um Frankie Ray and I have been friends for 65 years.

Uh yeah, really. Um and he's had some really good things to say about Asa. He said he was punctual.

He's doing a great job over there. So I guess ASA is handling all of um Spindler Rock's moorings.

Um we have not started mapping out uh any of the mooring fields yet. just haven't got to it at this point. Um, and I've made Asa an administrator in links log so he can go in and see like if he does Carl's private mooring or John's private mooring then, you know, add it right in.

My spot is there, but my mooring is missing.

Moing is missing.

It's they broke it.

Well, servicing it.

We called the hob master and they hadn't paid your fee yet. So it Oh, that's now the truth comes out.

There it is.

Um, made.

So that's good. It's all poured.

Oh, it's poured.

Yeah. Yeah, it's done. Yeah, that's progress.

By the way, if any of Do any of you have any kind of information as far as charts where boring is laid out? I know you've got your own commercial stuff going on.

Is there anything any information here that we can start with? I mean, has somebody got a a chart that says these are the current private moorings?

Probably not.

We used We used to We used to have an old one on the I mean, but Richard Eur used to Everything was made by hand. I mean, everything was, you know, I'll check and see.

I don't know how useful it would be really. You know, it's probably so outdated.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's the coordinates were just Yeah.

But I'll check and let you know. I mean, maybe there's something there.

We've got something from Richie, but it was just it was so outdated that it just, you know, um I have approved four private moorings u for four of the residents. Uh gentleman up at Hillrest Acres. Uh another gentleman out by the Nubble. uh one way up in the west branch and one of them over by Crack Rock. Um and there's one other individual who has asked for a private mooring in the vicinity of

Spindle Rock. Said he was a member. Uh so I reached out to Frankie to see what's available over there. I don't want to step on his toes. Um I haven't heard back from yet. So these are people that had put abs in before the moratorium.

Yes. So yes.

Yes. So Paul Kadu, Harmony Jome, Chris Panos, the other gentleman, I didn't write his name down, I'm sorry. Um, they have all spoken to us in the past.

Harmony was asking for a private moing.

Yeah.

First day we started.

Yeah. She's been asking for for She's been doing Yeah.

So last Wednesday we did the oil spill drill over at Spindler Rock. I want to say thanks to the board of directors at Spindler Rock and to Frankie uh as well.

Uh they opened up the place for us. Um it was a it we as far as drills go, I think we we got a lot out of this.

Originally, we were supposed to take a 600 ft length of containment boom and tow that over to Canoe Rock and just kind of spread it out basically in three sections.

Um, and the idea was to create a diversion where the oil could be collected. Anyway, long story short, we didn't end up with 600 ft. We ended up with 100 ft. So, uh, we took it out there, towed it out there, uh, put it in place, put the anchors down, uh, and got it back up and back to the, uh, the ramp at Spindle Rock without snagging her mooring. I think that in and of itself

was quite an accomplishment.

Maybe it was good. It was only 100 ft.

It It was It was blowing 37.

Yeah.

With an incoming tide.

Yeah.

At Canoe Rock.

Yeah.

It It was We were supposed to shore use a shore anchor and and that wasn't going to happen with with There was no It's a challenge. I mean, whatever you do down there, especially that's one of the worst currents right now.

So, hey, it was a good drill. It's very effective.

Great drill. It wasn't just the boom either. I mean, the trailer that they use has got a lot of equipment in it.

So, they basically broke it all down for us. This is where the boom is. This is where the anchors are stowed. This is where all the absorbent pads are. So on and so forth.

Um, where was that trailer kept?

Who are the people who brought that in?

Fire department.

That trailer is kept at the fire department fire department.

Okay. Fire department's got There's 80 across the state of the Commonwealth. Every coastal town has one in case and and this these teams the state goes around and runs these drills in these areas all year round. So at least we have some training on how to use these things.

So that's behind the fire department.

Correct.

Yeah.

Well, the reason is John because I I said why isn't down at the point?

Why isn't down at the marina?

Yep.

And the reason is they need to use it for situations like a what type of pond it could be. It could be could be a tanker that Yeah.

turns over.

They've got to be able to respond anywhere. So, it's not just us.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Um while we're in the middle of all this, you know, Rick Ricky gets himself around. Uh he was in touch with uh one of the uh I forget which. There were so many departments there, but it sounds like we might be able to get our hands on another one uh that we could keep down at the point or maybe at the marina if that works out, you know.

Yeah.

Well, something some place that's easy to deploy number one, right?

Yeah.

So, it was it was a great drill. I mean, we had uh we had us, we had Westport Fire, Westport Police, Dartmouth Fire, Dartmouth Hopper Master didn't show up.

We had Coast Guard, we had Department of Environmental Protection, we had the folks who man and supply these trailers.

Moran, I think, or Yeah, Moran. Yeah, it was quite a quite a quite a crowd. Probably about 30 of us, I guess. Um, but I think everyone uh at the end of the day said, "Wow, this was this was terrific." And I would count myself amongst them. Yeah, you know, we don't know when that's going to happen. Hopefully, it never does, but you've got to play touchyfey with this equipment, you know,

but on the other hand, you got to act fast, too, you know. So, we brought four boats. We had three flat bottom skips and we had M1. Uh, and we needed needed them all. Yep.

Yeah.

There was an inflatable from Dartmouth.

There was a couple jet skis.

Couple of jet skis from Dartmouth as well. Yeah. But I I I thought we we showed ourselves very well.

Good drill.

We learned quite a bit. So, uh what's next? Town meeting was very good to us.

Um I've said thank you to everyone in town, publicly, privately, as many times as they can. Essentially, what we gained out of this uh is a budget for FY27 that's $53,000 above the previous budget.

We have secured $100,000 to repair the Hobbit master shack.

Uh that will be exterior.

How what was the plus up on the budget?

53,000.

So the $100,000 for the shack will be a roof. It'll be siding. It'll be trim. Uh it'll be a heat pump and it'll be insulation.

And I've already got the uh letter of appropriateness from the historical commission. So, they're all happy with it. Uh, so it's just a question of the bureaucracy now. How long is it going to take to get it out for bid and actually get the job done? I mean, doing the job is probably going to be the shortest.

So, is that the same footprint?

It is. Uh, Mel, there's not not too many options there. You know, we talked about, you know, with the historical commission, should we raise it right now? Should we leave it where it is? Um, and the the end of the day it was like, "Okay, let's just repair the building and let's worry about the altitude, you know, above sea level a little bit later."

Um, what is what does it sit on? Is it sits on six cement piles?

Okay.

Which I mean, you could literally pick this thing up and you Yeah. Down the road you could pick pick it up and put something more permanent. I mean, it's Yeah. should be probably at some point.

No water.

Yeah, there's no water. No, but you put the heat pump and that's going to have a that's going to have a a unit outside though now is going to be attached to the Yeah. So, the heat pump is going to be on the north side of the building.

And if you recall, there's that beautiful mural inside. We're trying to preserve that if we can, but that's the north side as well.

Um, but if the historical commission wants it on the north side, well, then that's where it's going. So yeah, uh what else did we get out of that? We had that. We had the budget. Oh, and the grant money was approved, of course, for the uh uh for the new pumpout vessel. So the way that works, I may have explained this before. So the it's a matching grant. So the Clean Vessel Act folks supply $56,250

towards the purchase of the vessel.

the rest of the 123,000 and change has to come from the town.

The way I see it, the simple math uh here is that this is a vessel with no wood components. It is all fiberglass and resin. And I think it's very safe to assume it'll be good for 20 years.

This is not just a pump out boat. This is dualpurpose. it's it's going to have a toeb bar and a crash bar around the outboard as well.

So, this can go both ways. And if you say, "Okay, this is our second patrol vessel and it's only costing the town $60,000 over 20 years."

When you look at the cost of some of these safe boats, I mean, they're six and $700,000. I mean, three times more than our total budget. We can't even go there. So, I think this is a smart move.

Uh, finding something dual purpose like this. Um, and I think once we finally wrestle it and get it here, um, we'll be in very good shape as far as vessels go.

Sounds like it. Yeah. Yeah.

Same thing with the outboards. The outboard fleet. I mean, Chris left us a really good really good position position outboards.

This one, this pumpout vessel will have a Suzuki, but Drew services Suzukis as well. So, um, is there a target date sometime in July or So, it's all about the fiscal year, John.

The physical money.

Yeah. So, I mean, I I I talked to Chris Vitali about it probably more times than I should. Um, he's just like, you know, it's it's a FY27 thing. So, whatever that I wanted to have it in the Fourth of July parade. That was kind of the target. And we may still um if not, we will have a vessel in the Fourth of July parade. If we have to put M1 on Kevin's

trailer and tow it with the truck, then so be it. But we're going to be there.

Okay.

Uh I've got a few more notes here. Uh the West Dock at the Town Wolf. Um Kevin and I knocked off a bunch of planks there last week or replace some of the old ones. That's going to be an ongoing battle.

Mhm.

Um and boy, that's tough work.

How many we have spare? We paid for.

What do we have? 24.

24 total. So, I don't know. What have we got? 18 left. Maybe 18 left. So, we can still Yeah, I think once those 18 are down that we should be in good shape, right?

Once they're once they're all replaced, uh we are going to be extending the floating dock. You know that we've got I don't know 30 ft of floating dock maybe for all these vessels.

We took the old floats from Hicksbridge, towed them down the river, and we've got them kind of lashed together right now.

Uh so Wayne and Andrew Manchester, as soon as they get around to us, they're going to drive a couple of piles in for us. We're gonna extend that floating pier out so we got room on both sides for everybody, you know. So, so that's in the works as well.

Still that piece of float off Cher Blaine there that uh it is it right.

Yeah, it's I totally forgot all about that guy.

Listen, it's we can go out there have some fun coming out a new moon. Maybe we can catch it on just I just the other day and I have some people out on a seat seat trout. She goes, "Is that you know she thought somebody was building something?" I said, "No, it's been there since February."

Five. Yeah. I gonna say four or five months now. I'm looking for a dock for my place. I said, "Well, I think Hopper Master put a line on it." So he has dibs, you know. So moon high.

Yeah.

Slack.

Yeah.

Time.

It looks like it's in good shape.

Looks like it's in really good shape, you know. I mean, so man, we better slap a stopper on that guy, right?

Yeah.

Um, as far as uh staff, you got the four of us again. Uh, we have approved four more individuals, Alex Ralph, Lizzie Canain, Zack Carter, and Aiden Holyard.

I think I talked about these guys the last meeting. I'm not sure if I did not.

Um, this is the lineup. Alex Ralph is he lives on Sodom Road. 13 years in the US Coast Guard. He is a was a chief bosen's mate. He's actually in the reserves and he's actually doing his reserve duty right now. We had him for a few days last week. He and Kevin work very well together. Uh Lizzie Canain, secondyear cadet at Mass Maritime. She lives down on uh Drift Road. Zach is Kevin's son.

Uh lives on Sodom Road. He's a first year cadet at Mass Maritime.

And then we have uh Aiden Holyard who is also in his second year at Mass Maritime. So we've got three cadetses and we've got an ex coasty to help us out. Now that's a lot of bodies when you mix it in with the four of us. The way I see it, um they're all youngsters.

They're all going to have social lives.

So we're going to have to mix and match however we can to keep them as busy as we can. So So I'm really looking forward to that. I bought more shirts for them. I want everybody to look the part. I think we established a standard of appearance last year that I believe is important.

You really have to look the part. Rick calls it command presence. I absolutely agree with that.

Something to that. Absolutely.

Yeah. You know, I'm I'm sorry. A tattered t-shirt with a cigarette in your mouth and cut off jeans ain't working for me. You know, can can you give me a list or email me a list of the y people in the department, you know, and give you a couple of weeks and I'll remind you.

Okay.

Yeah.

Just just so I I have it on record.

What was that, John?

Listing.

He wants list of all the all the harbor masters of the part time.

Oh, yeah. uh everybody, you know, I think we should have that, you know.

Yeah, I'll get that to you guys.

Caps, was there a a state component that we got for the for the docks? Was there a grant or something from the No, the grant you probably talking about the feasibility stud that that was grant money, the launch the launch state ramp.

Oh, yes. Thank you. Um just just hit me.

Yes. I totally forgot about that.

Good component. So, Steve Wulette, the new rep, he had said to us at one point, not that long ago, uh, he says it's earmark time. You have anything that you would like to put forth for an earmark?

Yeah, of course we would.

So, we calculated the cost of the new floats up at Higsbridge Landing. Came out just short of $75 per square foot.

Then we uh measured out the floating docks at state boat ramp which are now our responsibility and also the the small floating dock at the mud dock between central warf and and Kerrian that's in really tough shape. Add those all up it came up to $59,000.

On top of that, we're looking to set up some security cameras throughout the river at the boat ramp and at Hicks Bridge, places where we're not normally looking, not to look in someone's backyard, but to look in the river to see what's going on. So, Steve said, "Look, I'll put and that was about I rounded it up to $100,000.

These uh these security cameras are not cheap. Uh Kevin's been doing the research on them. You can get what they call the cop cameras for like $7,000, but you can get a really good remote camera for about $3,500. The kind that have some infrared capability and the ability to pivot as well. Um, so that was the balance of $100,000 and Steve said, "I'll see if we can come up with a uh

with a FEMA grant to to pay for that part." So, so if I understand, do you want to replace the floating docks at the state ramp?

Yes.

Is there a problem with them?

I just used one the other day.

Um, yes and no, Milt. Um, where we really need docks.

Mhm.

Is over in our little cove. The ones that I mentioned that we're going to have the pilings drove, those are the leftovers from Hicks.

Right.

They were destined to get ground up behind the highway department.

They are not in good condition. So we put we brought those in there. So we will take the old ones and put new ones at the state boat ramp and take the old ones and put those in the cocon.

There you go.

Yeah.

And that way at least the town has got new floating docks at the state ramp that we won't have to worry about.

Yeah.

Um I remember talking to Jim Hot about it. He said, "Wow, if that ever if they ever got damaged, we'd have to look for an earmark to pay for them." Well, an earmark came to us like, "Okay, here's what we need. What can you do?" Anyway, Steve did get back to us uh week and a half ago, I guess. Um the House had passed its budget and out of the 59 that

we asked for, he said, "We've come up with 50."

Um and then after of course it's got to go to the Senate as well. So you know Mike Rodri is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means.

Um and he is well aware of what we asked for as well because he said whatever you give to Steve, give to me, I'll give it to my staff. They'll see it coming. That kind of thing. So I think um and then the Senate passed their version of the budget as well just a few days ago. So now it's got to meet in conference and then it goes to the governor. So I think

we we are pretty safe with the $50,000 at this point. At least that's what Steve tells us. Um so that's where that money would be going to just to update those floating docks and then help us to update help us to update ours. Um so it's a kind of shift if you will.

Yeah. Thank you to our representatives.

Yeah. I know Steve Steve has been great.

Uh uh Mike Rodri's equally as helpful. I mean politics is not my will guys. The maritime is my world. But I'm learning a few things about all of this. You know who do you need to talk to? Who are the movers and the shakers? And I would have to say that um Representative Wulette and Senator Rogers have been very helpful to everything that we're trying to do here. So we we do appreciate that very much.

Um, we will have the uh WPD Marine detail with us again on the weekends, Saturdays and Sundays and some holidays, 4th of July, Labor Day, that kind of thing. Uh, it will be the same uh unobtrusive hopefully.

Uh, what's the word I'm searching for?

We we just want them to be there, show the badge.

Uh what is it that Rick says? Educate, engage, and when necessary, enforce. The three E of policing. That I think is exactly what we got out of them last year. And that's what we're looking for again.

And the last thing I have on all my notes was the boat ramp just waiting on the signs, but I think I mentioned that already. So, that's a mouthful, Mr. Chair.

Good. I have a question. Um, in front of my dock, there are two orange floats. Look like markers for maybe a a crab trap or something. So, I pulled them up to find out what they were, and they were marked uh state, I think, uh, Department of Marine Fisheries, DMF.

And I assume it has something to do with the the oysters oyster bed. They're going to lay there.

Yeah. This is the oyster restoration project. No.

Yeah. Do you know what why those things are there?

I I I may I just curious.

Uh they were in front of us uh on conservation last night. Um and what they're going to be doing is small uh samplings within the sediment uh to see what what we're actually working with.

So what they do is they take a plug, okay? They analyze it and then they put the plug right back in the water and wherever the hole was, they put it back in. Okay. Um, so that's that's what they're going to be doing. They're going to be just testing some different spots.

So, it's uh going to be good habitat for the oysters in those areas. So, they're going to test them first. I think it's a company out of Maryland that comes up and does this and does all the testing.

Um, and once the testing results come back, they'll finalize where they're doing uh the oysters. And I think what we're looking at timewise, if things go smoothly, come November of this year, we may have them come in with a barge and they'll start putting coach down in these areas and then seating uh to to get these oysters going and moving forward. And it's a very positive project all the way

around. I don't I can't think of anything other than you having to look at those right now.

You know, other than growing off your dog.

Yeah. Yeah. I I think you're going to like the benefits.

Actually, there quite a few oysters in our garden. There'll be a lot more.

Yes.

I have to get sympathy. You know, when I look out at my water view, I see all Yeah. Okay. Okay. You know.

Right. Right. Yeah. It's going to be a lot of I was just curious.

You're curious about what they were.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

In a couple years it's going to be better when you have a couple people out and make what are you doing? Let's just go down and grab a couple oysters and they'll crack them.

Yeah. That's pretty I think the agreement there was leave them alone for three years. Yes. Before you go in and harvest Yeah. Let them spat Let them spat out.

Do their thing.

Right. Um that's great.

Next meeting.

Um, end of June. June 24th, Wednesday. Good.

Or somebody need another day the week.

It's my wedding anniversary, but we don't celebrate too much anyway. You know, okay. You want to go on the 23rd?

No. What is the 20?

It's a Wednesday. Wednesday's the 24th.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you want You want to go to 23rd?

Yeah. Why don't we? If we have a choice, we'll go June. June 23rd.

Good idea.

Okay. June 23rd is a Tuesday at um Tuesday 5:00 p.m.

Okay.

Hopefully, we'll have the the QR codes and Well, I I'm here.

I like the boat.

I'm happy number 14's back. So, you know, whatever else happens is great.

I I looked for the QR code and all I could saw the signs for five months and what? So, so I and then and then Captain explains Yeah.

the whole thing.

So, I mean, we're it's hinged on right when town meeting when the landings thing came up and they were talking about fining.

All right. In in certain areas of town, the fine would be $200 and the question was, is that 200 f would that fine go over to the state ramp?

Yeah.

And the I think the answer is no. Right.

Am I right? But you had to see that through.

Yeah. before you kind of could make a you know because you didn't want to because if you could put 200 that'd be very effective right that would be very effective but you can't right so and that just played out the fine right now is 20 it's $25 and that we cannot get around that right now we're going to have to look at that yes all and correct one of the things that correct

I I think it's going out to public hearing yeah it's yeah it's got to be a hearing though Yes.

So Rick was holding off on that because we didn't know if it's going to be 25 200 it needs to go on that sign.

Um so now we know where we're going.

Okay.

I call for I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I I Okay. Thank you.