For the last year, numbers for the town harbor have been continually down. Each monthly report has indicated the same downward trend for what many consider the crown jewel of Cape Charles. At last Thursday’s town council meeting, Councilman Buchholz noted, “The Harbor, it has always been full, and now we have empty slips? It’s never been like that.”
In response to this trend, the town created a committee to see just what could be done to reverse the downward spiral. Former mayor Dora Sullivan, along with Assistant Town Manager Bob Panek hold seats on the committee.
With Harbor Master Charlie Farlow presenting a report on proposed harbor rates for 2017, Mayor Proto changed the discussion to harbor revenues.
“Talk about the money that the harbor has collected year to date,” Proto asked.
“Yes, that is very important,” added Sullivan. “It is very misleading when you look at the harbor and it’s empty. However, talk to us about the money. Where we were last year and where we are this year. Hit it!”
“Granted, the numbers have been down…a lot of that is due to the fact that annual slip holders can go to other places,” said Farlow.
“You are saying the boat numbers are down, but as I look at your report the numbers for FY16 are 237,789.42 and for FY17 they are 302,210.13. That to looks like it’s up, and that is good news. I don’t want to go into why that is, it’s just good new,” Proto said.
Reviewing the report, it did indicate an increase in revenue from last year. But, we did notice that both columns in the ledger were not the same. FY 17 contained an entry titled ‘DOCK FEES-ALL’ for a total of $93,548.77. That entry was left blank for FY16.
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Increased revenue is great but what matters is profit. How much profit did the harbor clear for each of the last two fiscal years?
The chart begs a number of questions in addition to the questions raised in the article and the previous reply.
1) Where did the chart come from? The Harbormaster,The Committee, The Town Finance Officer, The?????
2) The totals for both years don’t match the inputs in the column above them. What else is missing?
3) All the individual numbers for 2017 were down except quarterly (small number), the lease (same) and the mystery number (very large). ????????????????
More information and discussion is needed on this subject. I would hate to see the management of our town harbor outsourced, as this jewel should/could be a major hub of boating activity and business.