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2014-01-15Harbor Management Authority Minutes January 15, 2014 CITY OF BEVERLY PUBLIC MEETING MINUTES Board: Harbor Management Authority Date: January 15, 2014 Location: Beverly Public Library (Barnett Gallery) Members Present Chair Paul Earl, David Suminsby, Rinus Oosthoek, Don Neuman, Paul Miedzionoski, David Lang, Chris D'Alfonso, Scott Housemen Members Absent: Pat McAleer George Simon Others Present: Rob Dever, Facilities Manager, Kevin Harutunian, Chief of Staff, Greg Howard (Public) Recorder: Paul Miedzionoski Earl called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Public Input There was no public input this evening. Approval of Minutes Oosthoek motioned to approve the November 2013 minutes, Lang second the motion. Motion carried 6 -0. (Houseman and D'Alfonso not present at vote). Approval of BHMA 2014 Calendar Earl presented the Harbor Authority 2014 calendar of events. Lang motioned to approve the calendar, Neuman second the motion. Motion carried 6 -0. (Houseman and D'Alfonso not present at vote). Facilities Committee Report Dever reported that he spoke with Mike Collins regarding the status of the Brown Building's priority for projects for the City. Dever indicated that there is one project in front of the Brown Building and that project should be completed within a week. Public Works will then put resources on the Brown Building with the focus on restrooms with showers including ADA access up to code. Oosthoek requested an email from Dever when the project starts and Dever agreed to the request. Earl asked if drawings for the project could be completed before the end of February but Dever indicated that he couldn't commit to that request. Dever and Earl reported that six recreational boaters have fully paid for slips the coming boating season. These boaters took advantage of the discount for paying in advance. Total collected is $30K with another $32K collected in partial payments. There was an additional collection of $6K for winter rentals. There are 15 boaters committed for the coming season out of the possible 22 to 24 slips. Page 1 of 5 Harbor Management Authority Minutes January 15, 2014 Dever and Earl reported that the commercial marina has collected $32.5K with a balance of $20K to be collected for a total of $45.5K. The projected revenues from the commercial marina in the FY -14 budget were $34K. Dever reported that three commercial fishermen, Le Thong, Michael Zdanowicz Sr. and Michael Zdanowicz Jr., have been expelled from the marina due to last of payment of fees. Total amount of back fees are $12K. Dever also stated that the City occupies five of the commercial slips and 30 are rented by fishermen for a total of 35 slips occupied on the commercial marina. Depending on the configuration there are 5 to 8 slips available to rent. Oosthoek suggested a press release, once the Brown building is finished, to promote the sale of slips. D'Alfonso inquired if the restrooms will be card access. Dever indicated that at first they will be card access but there is the potential of public access to the restrooms until 10:00pm then they would become card access. Neuman inquired whether there is anything else the Harbor Authority can do to market the marina slips. Neuman wants to ensure we don't lose our momentum of filling the lips, especially on the commercial marina. Dever suggested another mailing. Suminsby made a motion to establish the commercial marina rates for FY -15. The motion asked that the rates remain the same as FY -14 at $82 /foot. Oosthoek seconded the motion. The motion carried 6 -0 (Houseman and D'Alfonso not present at vote). Suminsby inquired if Sea Station could be enticed to dock at the commercial /recreational marina but Dever said that their boat is not suitable for the marina. In Dever's opinion he thinks they would do damage to their boat due to the style of their boat and the configuration of our docks. Neuman suggested an incentive to new boaters to fill the remaining slips. Neuman made a motion that if any existing tenant brings in a new boater, the existing tenant would receive a 5% discount regardless of when they bring in the new boater. This would be a finder fee for the existing tenant. A "new tenant" (boater) was defined as someone who hasn't been a tenant for at least one season. Suminsby second the motion. The motion carried 6 -0 (Houseman and D'Alfonso not present at vote). Earl asked Suminsby and Dever to put out a flyer and letter to the existing boaters about the "new boater's" incentive. Suminsby discussed the cost of a flyer and emailing, which was previously less than thousand dollars. It was agreed that the BHMA would do the mailing. Neuman emphasized that boaters make their decisions by March as to where they will dock for the coming boating season; therefore, the timing of the mailing is critical. Page 2 of 5 Harbor Management Authority Minutes January 15, 2014 Suminsby suggested disturbing postcards at boating related businesses to advertise the available slips. D'Alfonso volunteered to post the flyer at area grocery stores including stores in Gloucester. Finance Miedzionoski reported that he sent an email to the new finance director, Bryant Ayles, to introduce himself and requesting financial data for the BHMA. Miedzionoski indicated that as of this meeting he hadn't heard back from Mr. Ayles, but it was understandable since Mr. Ayles had only recently taken over the duties of finance director and with the change of administration in the Mayor's office that Mr. Ayles was surely extremely busy with his new duties. Miedzionoski indicated that if he does receive any financial data prior to the February meeting that he would distribute it to the Harbor Authority via email. Earl suggested a meeting with the new finance director in the next two weeks if possible. Earl indicated that he would invite the Mayor and perhaps other City officials to the next BHMA meeting. Earl asked if anyone would be interested in discussing the Black Cow's situation and if so he would like to go into executive session for these discussions. D'Alfonso moved that the HMA go into Executive Session at this time to discuss recent developments related to the Black Cow and that the HMA will be returning to open session at the conclusion of the Executive Session. Earl called for a roll call vote at this time as follows: Paul Earl Yes David Suminsby Yes Rinus Oosthoek Yes Don Neuman Yes Paul Miedzionoski Yes Chris D'Alfonso Yes David Lang Yes The motion carried (7 -0) Executive Session A roll call was then taken to return to the regular meeting. Bass River Permitting: Neuman indicated that David Gelineau said that the Seaport Grant of $50,000 would be here by next week. Neuman indicated that Bourne has signed a contract to work on this project. Earl stated that we have up to $110,000 to work on the brown building and commercial hoist. Page 3 of 5 Harbor Management Authority Minutes January 15, 2014 D'Alfonso expressed his concern about protecting the mural in the McDonald's building if the city decides to take down the McDonald's building. His concern was so noted. Hoist Dever is waiting to make the decision to buy the new hoist for the commercial marina. Dever claims he has three quotes I only brought one quote from November's meeting hence the reason we have not made a decision to move on buying the hoist. Earl suggested that Dever bring the three quotes to the February meeting and finalize the decision at that meeting. Earl said he would distribute the three quotes to the BHMA if Dever sends them to Earl. Pump -Out Station Dever indicated that they have looked at different locations but will probably end up being located at the bottom of the gangway. The consensus was that that is not the best place to locate the pump out Dever said he will update the authority in February. D'Alfonso made a motion that the Pump out station not be allowed to be located at the bottom of the gangway. Lang second the motion and the motion past 7 to 0 (Houseman was not present at this vote). Si2nne No update from Oosthoek. Dever owes Oosthoek a list of signs and will send it to Oosthoek. Documents Archiving Neuman has updated the archive database. Neuman distributed a handout of the BHMA file structure of the database. This is Neuman's structure and he indicated that if someone is willing to change the structure they are welcome to do so but this was the original structure which made sense to Neuman. Dever offered to have interns upload available digital documents to the server. We may have to do some organizing of the documents later. Neuman stressed that there is no search capability in this data base. Earl thanked Neuman for starting this process and maintaining this database. Grants Nothing new to report. New business Houseman arrived at the meeting, and it was mentioned by Earl that Ward One and Four are now represented on the Harbor Authority by David Lang and Scott Houseman respectively. Previously it was Wards One and Two. Earl indicated that he is planning to invite city officials to future meetings. Eight of eleven recent Authority meetings had city officials in attendance. Neuman suggested inviting the Mayor, City Solicitor, Finance Director and Planning Director to our future meetings to share their vision for the waterfront. Earl indicated he plans on meeting with the new Mayor before February's meeting. Earl indicated that he doesn't think we need a formal schedule for the invitees and Oosthoek stated that he doesn't think we should have them all at the same meeting. Page 4 of 5 Harbor Management Authority Minutes January 15, 2014 Earl suggested that a gift or plaque be given from the Harbor Authority to ward councilor's Maureen Troubetaris and Wes Slade in honor of their service and contribution to the Harbor Authority. We will take this under consideration for action later in the year - Oosthoek has the lead. Earl distributed a document containing proposed initiatives for the coming year (see document for details). Earl reviewed the list and proposed assignments. Earl also put together a list of 2013 accomplishments. Earl also suggested exploring sources of funding for Bass River. Research and analysis is something that Earl wants the HMA to be proactive at unless the new Mayor or other city officials have other visions for the waterfront. Earl indicated a priority should be updating the Waterfront Master Plan from 2003. Neuman discussed a proposed plan by CZA/Vine as to how to eliminate conflict between fishermen and boaters. The cost is $5000 for the study, which would be to find another location for the fishermen to fish. There was support of the idea, and Earl recommended that Neuman discuss the price with them, and try and reduce it. Next Meeting The next meeting of the Harbor Management Authority will be held on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at the Beverly Public Library. Adjournment There being no further business to come before the Beverly Harbor Management Authority this evening, Oosthoek made a motion to adjourn. Miedzionoski second and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Page 5 of 5