At Thursday’s Regular Meeting of the Cape Charles Town Council, interim harbormaster Barbera Michaux noted that the Town Harbor has been losing slip holders, as well as staff to Smitty at the Oyster Farm. When questioned by members Steve Bennett and Frank Wendell, Michaux said that the exodus was due to folks that had built a relationship with Smitty Dize over the years, and had decided to follow him (Dize resigned as the Town’s harbormaster last year, and accepted the harbormaster position at the Oyster Farm marina). The total amount of full time slip holders that have gone to the Oyster Farm was not made available, however Michaux did note that only one full-time staff member had left to work with Dize. The other staff members that had made commitments to the Oyster Farm were seasonal.
During the treasurer’s report, with the harbor on the table, Councilman Wendell questioned the financial viability of the harbor. Wendell noted that, for some time, the town had promoted the notion that the harbor was somehow self-funding, however that was, at best a myth. Wendell pointed out that the harbor actually operated at $17,000.00 annual loss, “So, where does the money come from to make up for that?” Treasurer Deborah Pocock responded that the funding to make up for the loss comes from the general fund. Mayor Proto quickly added that the Town budgets for any shortfalls each fiscal year.
As the graphic below indicates, the harbor is on track to once again be well into the red. Looking at the General Fund, the $107k surplus is dropped down and added to the harbor as a way to limit the shortfall. Certainly creative, it should be noted that it is the general fund that is actually keeping the floating docks floating.
In a phone call from the Mirror, Councilman Wendell said, “Look, for a long time, they implied that the harbor was doing fine, was paying for itself, but that just isn’t the case. So, what you have is system that is taking money from the General Fund, that is taking from taxpayers, most of whom cannot afford an expensive boat, to finance the recreation of much wealthier citizens…this hardly seems equitable or fair, and the town needs to start paying a little closer attention to how they not only manage the money, but also how and why we incur so much debt down there. Like the breakwaters, which are, we are told, calming the waters to make it more enjoyable for boaters…when you talk to other people, other harbor masters around, that theory is…well, it is up for debate…”
Councilman Godwin questioned whether it was amenities that was causing boaters to leave, “I mean, could it be that it is a lack of, or whether the amenities that we have are not up to snuff, that they have more over there (Oyster Farm)?”
Michaux responded, “They do have more, they have a store. But we have our own, we can get them golf carts too.”
Assistant Town Manager Panek added, “We have made improvements, we added the floating docks, we added the bath house.”
From a couple that spent a summer at the City dock, location, location, location! Granted, city docks have all the emenities the town has to offer but they are too exposed to the swell of the Bay! Not to mention, the most capable and conscientious dock master has moved to calmer waters.
Now the town is upset with the town marina! Don’t get me wrong but why did the people in charge of the town think it was a good idea to try to compete with the old Bay Creek Marina now the Oyster Farm? Bay Creek Marina already was struggling and the town thought it was a good ideal to dump a ton of money in to the harbor by adding floating piers and a new bathhouse. As a life long boater Bay Creek Marina / The Oyster Farm is one of the nicest marinas on the east coast! It offers protected waters, a beautiful bath house, a picturesque setting and a so called pool…but the town still thought it was wise to try to compete against them. From my observations the town now has two marinas that are around 20% of capacity.
There are basically three types of boaters.
1) Commercial. Looking for a economic slip with easy road access, fuel and the ability to make a mess.
2) Full time pleasure boaters. Looking for a safe place to keep their boat. Nice piers, calm water, fuel, clean bathhouse and a pool. If they use their boat not as concerned with a pool.
3) Transient boater. A) Day transient– they are looking for a place to eat and drink or maybe shop. Faster boats will travel 20-40 miles for a cool setting and will spend money on food and drink. They also like to have a slip where people can admire their boats. They are addicted to palm trees and tiki bar settings!
B) Overnight transient– Larger boats looking for restaurants, shopping, pools, clean bathhouses, fuel and beautiful settings. Free shuttle service and various rentals a big plus.
Figuring out the target market for the marinas should be a next step. Unfortunately it is a bit late, but the town, businesses and marinas should have planned this together rather than setting up a recipe for failure.
One last thing. Did the town approach the other businesses that use the harbour and will benefit from the new breakwater to help off set the cost?
Editor’s Note: We agree with most of this comment, however if you had actually attended the council meeting, you would be aware that there was a good deal of discussion and concern over the harbor. The interim Harbor Master responded to several inquiries regarding slip holders leaving for the Oyster Farm, however, as we said, no totals were reported. In the report, you will see that we also said only one full time staff member left (what percentage of full-time staff is that?), and that the others that left were seasonal (if more or less have left, let us know and we will correct that). We also reported that the harbor is once again losing money, which is a fact contained in this month’s treasurer’s report. As you accurately note, the current debt service on loans for harbor upgrades and the breakwaters, is a major source of the loss, and will be for a few more years, something that has been reported in Ms. Pocock’s treasurer’s report every month, and will be for the foreseeable future. As was reported here, Councilman Wendell questioned the town treasurer about this at this month’s regular meeting.
I have watched and listened for several months while miss-truths have been put into a public forum regarding budget numbers as well as boats and staff leaving the harbor for the Oyster Farm Marina. Two of these boats are ours, ours meaning mine and Smitty’s and it seems only reasonable that our boats would move to the marina when Smitty moved to the marina. That leaves three boats that have left the harbor and moved to the marina. You may want to take a look across the harbor at the number of boats currently pulled out at the Yacht Center. More than a few of the boats typically in the harbor are pulled out – which is just smart. In terms of staff, there is one staff member who has left the harbor to work at the marina since Smitty’s departure. There is one additional staff member who is seasonal who used to work at the harbor but left to work at the marina prior to Smitty going to work at the Oyster Farm. If you have questions about the marina operating in the red, it would be interesting to dig deeper to understand the loan structure of the current capital improvement loan. Could it be that the loan as presented and approved by a previous council was a 30 year loan but when ultimately signed, turned out to be a 7 year loan. You figure out the debt service on a 7 year loan compared to what was presented as a 30 year commitment on a $500,000 loan. Perhaps it is not the operations of the harbor that are problematic, perhaps it is the harbor carrying a debt structure that was never presented to council but signed off on nonetheless.
This is an interesting and personal commentary but is hardly objective.
The fact of the matter is that the town should not be in the marina business. It requires a huge subsidy and you can hire someone who is either a great dock master or someone who is a great financial and personnel manager. You aren’t going to get both without paying a lot of money.
The town should put the harbor operation out to bid. There are many private groups that could take it over, run it efficiently and probably return at least some cash to the town.
I am endlessly entertained by the art of the illusionist. They always say “Look here” while the real action is “over there.” They draw your attention to the playing cards in their left hand, which they hold up high, encourage scrutiny and criticism in order to hold their audiences’ attention, all the while messing around with the other cards in their right hand. Then we are all surprised when we discover the right hands’ manipulated cards that were never really out of sight, but from which our attention was deliberately distracted.
I refer specifically to the art of the illusionists occupying the offices of the Cape Charles City Counsel. They say, “Look at the expensive mess of the Town Harbor,” all the while attempting to distract your attention away from the really expensive, perhaps criminal and unnecessary mess of the new sewer treatment plant.
What stinks in Cape Charles is not the harbor.