To dredge or not to dredge? to be continued …

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
March 28, 2017 1:00 a.m.

During the March 21, 2017 Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC) meeting, Commissioner Roy Smith asked commissioners to discuss their positions on increasing the scope of the upcoming dredging activity at the City Marina.

Vice Mayor Len Kreger asked how much the broadened scope would cost, but no proponent of the project had any hard figures to offer. Commissioner Tim Poynter asked why, if the city had just purchased property with the intent of moving the marina north into deeper water, the city would be paying to deepen the south basin of the existing marina.

The ensuing hour-long discussion did not answer either Kreger’s or Poynter’s questions, although a presentation from Rob Semmes of Applied Technology and Management, Inc. (ATM) attempted to add some clarity to the discussion.

It was the consensus of the commission to seek bids for increasing the upcoming, budgeted dredging bid as an additive alternative. Should the cost prove too high, the additional dredging would not be approved without further FBCC consideration.

Commissioner Roy Smith sought FBCC input.

In introducing the topic, Smith said that the city has the opportunity to place an additive alternative on the existing dredging bid to dredge the south end of the marina toward Rayonier to a depth 8 feet lower than it stands currently. He asked audience member Lynn Williams, the local FIND commissioner and active marina proponent, to verify this. This, according to Smith, would result in a considerable amount of dredging. He said that the bids would probably come in at $10-11 per cubic yard. He said that the future cost of mechanical dredging would escalate because the airport will not be available as a dredge disposal site. He supported doing the additional dredging as part of the upcoming dredge project.

Smith suggested that the city pay the additional dredging costs with money reserved in the city’s capital improvement budget to pay for the Alachua Street rail crossing in addition to city money already budgeted, money from a Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) grant, and future potential FIND money that could be available this fall. Smith estimated that about 60,000 cubic yards of dredge would be needed, meaning that the city could accomplish the additional dredging for roughly $660,000.

In order to accomplish the additional dredging, the city would need to remove dock pilings so that the dredge could work in the target area. “But we’re never going to get a better deal than this,” Smith said. “Otherwise we’re never going to get to the depth we need in the marina. I think it’s the opportune time to do it. The money for Alachua has been sitting there. That’s not going to happen this year anyways. It makes sense to do it.”

City Manager Dale Martin, with advice from Comptroller Patti Clifford, informed commissioners that the $800K Smith cited as available from the Alachua project is not available for this project because it was obtained for capital improvement projects.

ATM briefs on past, present and maybe future

At the invitation of the FBCC, Rob Semmes of ATM briefed the commissioners on work that his firm has undertaken on behalf of the marina over the past few years. He spoke about future plans and obstacles to achieving those plans.

Semmes explained that water flow through the marina is adversely affected by the docks that are perpendicular to the shore. He presented a slide showing how the city’s recent purchase of property to the north will enable the marina to expand northward into naturally deep water.

There is an opportunity to realign in the current south basin docks to allow more boats to dock in deep water in that location as well for “quite some time—7-10 years.”

Semmes also discussed the proposed expansion of the mooring field to 100 balls. This action has been approved by the state but not yet by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE). Discussions with appropriate bodies could take 6 months to a year, depending on the various politics.

The issue that has plagued the city since the 1990’s, according to Semmes, is the federal deep draft shipping channel. The area, 300 feet wide and 26 feet deep, has not been used or dredged since the 1980’s, but it still exists on paper. “It is sitting right on the edge of our breakwater on the north side of the marina,” Semmes said. “Federal guidance says the marina needs to be 100 feet off that.”

In the 1990’s, when ATM got the permit on behalf of the city to move the marina north, a proposal went forward to move the channel 100 feet westward and deactivate the Rayonier turning basin. The proposed change to move the channel received congressional authorization from then-Representative the late Tillie Fowler, but according to Semmes, “for some reason it was never done.”

Based upon recommendation from FIND Commissioner Williams, the current plan is to move the channel to remove the curve in it and align it more properly with the marker buoys. To get that approval, the city will need an endorsement from the Port of Fernandina and continued agreement from Rayonier. Semmes said that the additional cost of dredging the federal channel is offset by the elimination of the Rayonier turning basin. There would be no cost to the city.

A current problem caused by Hurricane Matthew is the damage to the attenuator pier on the outside of the existing marina. “It needs to be replaced,” according to Semmes, who added that it could then be moved to deeper water. That move would bring even the dinghy docks into deeper water.

Vice Mayor Kreger seeks cost data.

Vice Mayor Len Kreger said that he was a little confused by the presentation, which dealt with proposed ACE dredging. He asked to return to the original topic of FIND dredging. He cited a series of different cost figures provided by different people. “What are we really talking about money-wise here?” he asked. “None of this is in the capital improvement plan beyond this year. We need a number before we can make any decision, I think.”

Westrec’s Joe Springer reported that the carefully formulated and phased plans for the marina had been totally disrupted by Hurricane Matthew, causing mullti-year projects to be collapsed into a shorter time frame. “What I need,” Springer said, “is big picture guidance.” He said mooring field expansion will be able to proceed as planned, but for the proposed south end dredging, there are pilings in the way. “Does it make sense to pull them out and put them back in?” he asked. “Or are we just going to move the whole [marina] north? Do I want to move north? Absolutely. But I need you to tell me what you want me to do.”

Kreger continued to stress the need for hard facts and numbers. The proposed additional dredging, according to Springer would take the marina to a depth it has never had by removing 70,000 cubic yards of silt. “The most we’ve ever removed is 12,000,” Springer said. Springer expressed frustration over requests for costs when there are so many variables to consider.

Commissioner Poynter asks: Does city need both south & north marina space?

Commissioner Tim Poynter said he understood the economy of scale by piggybacking on the ACE’s efforts. “But I’m questioning why,” he said. “How big a marina do we need to have? We’ve purchased the land to the north where we hopefully will not need to dredge, because that area is deep and self-cleaning. Why are we devoting so much time, energy and dollars to the current docks? We seem to be fighting this [siltation problem] time after time, year after year. Why don’t we just allow that area to fill in and move the marina north? We can have the same size marina by doing that. It seems to me that we are spending so much money year after year [on the south marina], when people have told me that we built that marina in the wrong place in the first place.”

In response to a question from Poynter, Springer replied that the marina is nowhere near recouping the dredging costs by providing dinghy slips in the dredged area. “We did that because we had nowhere else to go,” Springer said. “Going forward, I have no problems with eliminating the close-in docks.” Springer supported moving the main marina northward.

Smith said to Poynter, “We don’t know when or if that channel will be moved westward. If you move north you won’t have near the number of docks you have now.”

Poynter replied that he was interested in hearing the net gains or losses of the various scenarios. “Spending $400K every other year that we cannot recoup is a bad investment,” Poynter said.

Smith said, “I agree. That’s why we are talking about dredging to a level of minus eight. That will last a long time. If you do away with the south section, [the move north] won’t make up for that. We don’t know that that channel will ever get moved out there. We’ve got to get the marina back in operation.”

Semmes told commissioners that with regard to keeping the south marina, the city is on the hook for a certain percentage of grant money. He said that the mooring field grant requires docking space for dinghies, but that they could continue to dock there. He added, “I’m probably going to get hung for this, but that boat ramp really shouldn’t be there. You need to fix the county ramp [at the north end of the island] or build another ramp somewhere else. It’s not going to work with any plans that the land planners do. It still causes congestion and disruption to a park. You are bringing boat trailers downtown. It’s in a bad spot.”

Still no cost estimates

Kreger once more tried to get the discussion on track. “I’d like to know how much it is going to cost the city to piggyback on this dredging contract,” he said. He believed that the plans presented in the ATM slide show would not happen in the short term. “What is the cost? What money is available, whether it is FIND grants, city, etc.? We need to know all that to be able to make a decision. The plans are nice, but that’s not relevant to what we need to know for the current discussion.”

Lynn Williams claimed that if the city does not dredge now, the city is in effect abandoning the south end of the marina. If the city goes forward with an add-on bid, costs will probably be available late April-early May. In response to commissioner questions, he said that the total cost looks like $1-1.2M.

Miller asked Westrec if they felt that the money invested in this project would be justified by the financial return from marina bookings. Gary Groenewold of Westrec said that at this point they also need to know the cost of the project before they could respond.

Other speakers also addressed the Commission. Mark Silva opposed expanding the mooring field, indicating that he is mobilizing environmental groups to stop the expansion. Philip Chapman suggested that the discussion be left until the firm awarded the waterfront master plan can address the issues. Lawrence Piper pleaded with commissioners to consider the charter boat fisherman who work out of the marina and make their living there.

Kevin McCarthy, proprietor of Amelia River Cruises, said that the discussion has raised many questions regarding implications for local businesses and boaters if the south basin docks are removed for the dredging or permanently. “Whatever happens here, we need to find a home for those of us who make a living on the waterfront while this is happening,” he said. “Some of those docks need to remain functioning so we can continue to work out of there.”

After an hour of discussion, it was the consensus of the commissioners to go forward with the additive alternate bid to get firm numbers on what the added dredging would cost. Poynter said that there were many factors that needed to be considered, and that in his opinion, commissioners were not even close to having the information they need to make a decision. Miller agreed, as did Kreger, who echoed the need for more options with respect to dredging depth. Lentz agreed with Poynter and called for more options for a dinghy dock.

Post meeting comments sought from commissioners

Following the meeting on March 22, this reporter posed the following question to each commissioner via email: If airplane users are expected to pay for airport improvements and golf course patrons are expected to pay for golf course improvements, why should taxpayers be expected to pay for maintenance in the form of dredging for the city marina?  To date neither Commissioner John Miller nor Commissioner Roy Smith has responded.

Vice Mayor Len Kreger responded: “I believe that dredging should be part of the Marina costs.  As noted by the Audit report the Golf course received $237,000 from the general fund, and still lost money. The Marina received $307,000 from the General Fund, and the dredging is paid from the General Fund.”

Mayor Robin Lentz wrote, “I couldn’t agree with you more!  I think we need to examine the economic impact of the marina.  I thought Commissioner Poynter brought up a good point [during the meeting] about moving the marina north, not expanding it and considering the idea to abandon the siltation station.”

Commissioner Tim Poynter provided a 3-paragraph comment:

As a commissioner, I must evaluate the cost/benefit for each and every expense we ask our citizens to shoulder. Unfortunately, most all of our Enterprise businesses do not actually cover the costs of operations but do serve a bigger benefit to our community as a whole. An example of this might be the golf course. We know that the fees collected by the City do not cover all the expenses so the City makes up the shortfall out of the General Fund account. However,with those dollars, the entire community has the benefit of 170 acres of open space with no chance of a big housing development coming in (unless voted on by the citizens). If the City did not supplement the golf enterprise fund, we would not be able to operate and the property would have to be sold. Even if we just closed the courses, there would still be a cost to the community in the way of maintenance without any possibility of recouping those costs.

With the marina, I believe we as a community have the same responsibility described above within reason. Money needs to be spent carefully. I am also in favor of downsizing the marina if by doing so reduces the dredging dollars that are required every other year.  Spending $400K every other year or so taking out mud that Mother Nature continues to put back seems ridiculous. I think it is important that the City continues to support the marina but limiting the ongoing expenses moving forward. The downtown, the boaters, and the citizens all benefit from the activities on the river. We just need to adjust to what extent. Remember, we purchased property to the north to move docks out of the mud… So lets do that. I don’t think we should expand the docks to the north and continue to maintain the southern docks by still having to dredge every other year.

Government is not here to make money on its services but it is to spend what money it has wisely. That is exactly what I continue to set out to do.

Editor’s Note: Suanne Z. Thamm is a native of Chautauqua County, NY, who moved to Fernandina Beach from Alexandria,VA, in 1994. As a long time city resident and city watcher, she provides interesting insight into the many issues that impact our city. We are grateful for Suanne’s many contributions to the Fernandina Observer.