By Dale Martin
City Manager
Fernandina Beach
March 23, 2018
An editorial in Wednesday’s edition of the News Leader raised several issues related to the lack of progress in repairing the City’s Marina, which was significantly damaged by Hurricane Matthew nearly eighteen months ago. Several of the issues require clarification.
The headline of the editorial is “The Money Pit Marina Business,” and further states, “The city runs a money pit called the Fernandina Harbor Marina. Though it is supposed to be a self-sufficient enterprise fund where ‘revenues are intended to fund department operations,’ the general fund of the city has regularly injected hundreds of thousands into the marina’s budget.” This is true: over the last five years, the City’s General Fund (which is primarily funded through property tax revenues) has contributed approximately $300,000 annually to support the Marina. For the past twelve years, the Marina’s expenses have exceeded revenues in every single year: ten of those years by more than $200,000. Based upon those figures, it’s not a money pit, but a money abyss!
Despite that bleak fiscal history, the editorial questions the City Commission’s and my reluctance to spend emergency funds or take out loans to do expensive restoration of the current facility. The estimated cost of repairs to the Marina (prepared separately by both the City’s maritime consultant and a FEMA Coastal Specialist) surpassed $6 million: the ENTIRE General Fund reserve is slightly over $5 million. That is exactly why I advised the City Commission to not spend the money until FEMA guaranteed reimbursement. It didn’t matter that admonishing the bureaucrats had no effect- we’re doing our jobs as professional administrators, not social media watchers: it was simply sound financial management of City resources rather than sacrificing those resources to the “Money Pit Marina Business.”
And other marinas, specifically the facilities at St. Mary’s, Georgia, and St. Augustine, Florida mentioned in the article, are not much better despite the claim of the editorial. A call to the St. Mary’s marina indicated that St. Mary’s has no fueling capability, no transient docks, and its repair plan is still in development. A December report from First Coast News revealed similar conditions in St. Augustine: sixty percent of the slips are inoperable and the lingering damage has reduced revenues by half. The St. Augustine Harbormaster stated, “There are marinas destroyed up and down the east coast of Florida right now.” The Harbormaster’s estimate of repair costs to his marina is only $2 million, less than a third of Fernandina’s.
The expected reimbursement of the Marina repairs for which the City patiently secured will be approximately 90%: 75% funded through FEMA and another 12.5% funded through the State of Florida. From the perspective of the City’s maritime consultant, the Marina was an aging facility that was likely in need of replacement within the next few years anyway. As a result of Hurricane Matthew, the City will expend approximately $800,000 for new pilings and the attenuator, including new and upgraded utility services to support Marina and waterfront operations, instead of $6.5 million for the same replacement.
The southern repairs and the northern expansion are two separate issues. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reluctant to issue the permit for the southern repairs because the attenuator (dock) is only 70 feet from the navigational channel, which is in conflict with Corps “guidance” requiring 100-foot separation. The Corps had previously permitted the dock in its current location and readily admits that the channel has been inactive for deep-draft shipping for nearly thirty years. This lack of this permit is what is preventing the City from commencing the southern repairs.
The federal funding awarded for the northern expansion requires a matching $1.6 million contribution from the “money pit.” If the City is willing to provide those matching funds, the channel must be shifted west to again achieve the necessary 100-foot separation. The Corps was authorized to implement the shift in 2000, but contends that no funds were allocated for the shift. The Congressional legislation, however, indicated the costs were not to be funded by the Corps anyway, so the lack of funding should be immaterial.
The request for public support shared with others as part of the Corps Public Notice process to issue the permit for the southern repairs. It is a small but important opportunity for those who want to help get the marina restored. Once restored, the decision of further investment, construction, and expansion can be appropriately considered.
That consideration must include the willingness of the community to continue the deep financial commitment of General Fund tax dollars to support the “money pit” Marina operations.
Thank you, Dale. This is the first spirited and informed explanation I’ve seen of the reasoning at city hall re delays to marine repairs.
The marina is a terrible waste of money. Taxpayers should be informed of the continuous expense. Once informed their enthusiasm to maintain this money pit will end. The current Mayor and Commissioners have inherited a high risk time consuming financial mess. We should see a proposal to remove the south side, and sell the north side. Taxpayers are supporting boaters! Let the private marina who pay their own taxes take care of boaters.
Dale, an informative article with the facts, not just opinion and false speculation by others. How ironic, or hypocritical, are those that contend they are so concerned about the use of taxpayer monies; yet they were willing to risk depleting the City’s entire reserve fund to begin work on the marina repairs before a reimbursement guarantee was given by FEMA. Great to have the true facts about the state of the marinas at St. Mary’s and St. Augustine.
As to the “money pit”, the constant dredging expense has been the albatross for the marina over the last decade. If you excluded dredging expense and the debt service from dock repairs, the marina actually made money on an operating basis. I know, that is like saying if I didn’t have a mortgage and car payment I would be rich. But those items were inherited and the current state of the marina and its significant impact on revenue only have made the matter worse.
The northern expansion is the only one that makes sense but as is pointed out, there are a number of preconditions that must be achieved before that effort can continue. The acquisition of the riparian rights was the first step and now we wait on the CoE to move forward. One item omitted from the article addressing those that question why didn’t the City move forward on the northern expansion before. The City did attempt to do so in the early 2000s. The Commission authorized City Manager Bob Mearns to attempt to negotiate with the property owners north of the marina to acquire the riparian rights. CM Mearns reported back that the property owners had no interest in selling so the City moved forward with the “BigP” plan for the reconfiguration of the south rather than the “ATM” plan that was totally dependent upon the acquisition of those riparian rights.
Hi Dave, St. Marys began their rebuilding process almost as soon as Hurricane Irma passed. On Nov. 13, they held a ribbon cutting for the re-opening of the Gilman/Gateway Dock facility (the Cumberland Island ferry dock). The DNR (Meeting Street) public dock and boat ramp were fully operational by Dec. 2017, per their city manager’s report.
The Wheeler Street Boat Ramp and Dock in St. Marys as well as their Fireworks Dock are set to be in operation by July 2018, according to recent boating visitor Wally Moran. Wally writes for some major boating publications and is a reliable source.
Even 91-year-old Calvin Lang was already rebuilding his destroyed marina, as Wally pointed out in his letter to the editor in January, which he copied to me, Dale Martin, and the city commissioners.
Wally pointed to the repairs that St. Marys managed to start and make fairly quickly after Irma. “He also wrote: “And despite the devastation, St. Marys again hosted their annual Cruisers Thanksgiving Potluck, hosting somewhere around 40 boats and 150 cruisers for the holiday.”
Wally is also the boating expert who pointed out to me in November 2016, after Hurricane Matthew, that he and his 120-member group of sailboat tourists were in St. Marys and did not plan on stopping here due to the damage from Hurricane Matthew:
“Next on our calendars would be spending time in Fernandina Beach, one of the loveliest small cities in Florida. Or at least, that was the plan until Hurricane Matthew.”
Their plan at the time he wrote me in November 2016, after Matthew, was to go to – you guessed it – St. Augustine.
Please also keep in mind that the St. Augustine Municipal Marina is not the only choice for boaters in that area. (Camachee Island, Conch House, Rivers Edge, etc.)
I understand about half of the city marina’s boat slips in St. Augustine are operational since Irma – with electricity – and they were ready to sell diesel and gas before the end of last year. As Wally wrote to me: “St Augustine was able to get the repairs done in time last December to handle my 15 Rally boats, after canceling on us right after Irma.”
If the city manager wants to parse a sentence out of the editorial in the News-Leader in an attempt to cast aspersions on the veracity of what I wrote about St. Marys and St. Augustine, that is certainly both revealing and up to him, but I stand by what was published.
Peg, thanks for the additional information. I guess I will have to do a little bit more digging. One big question is where the money to repair the Gilman/Gateway was sourced? I would suspect that in its efforts to get the visitation restarted to Cumberland the NPS had something to do with that. Stayed tuned, the 60 minutes crew will be coming shortly! LOL
I think the financial rewards are not just from the money actually brought in by the marina to make if self supporting, but the whole picture of the asset it is to downtown merchants and the ambiance of the whole downtown and island. To be a port city and not have a marina is not smart business wise for the whole area. However the redesign which would remove the constant dredging seems to be to be the only sensible option. If it were only to break even then it would be a sound business asset tot he whole area. If it is Bretts and the shop there holding up any changes in the waterfront then that is not a real reason for keeping it the way it is. Those businesses could still operate but with them financing whatever water access they desire themselves. It doesn’t have to stay the way it is just because it has always been that way!
Leave St. Mary’s out of this. Mother nature over time has spoken volumes about why Fernandina’s marina is in the wrong place on the south side of Bretts. Get on with dealing with the channel and marina development north of Bretts.
Mr. Martin clearly has solid understanding of the city’s finances and is making sound recommendations to the City Commission on how to proceed. Financial reserves should only be used for emergencies and the problems at the marina do not qualify. We will be grateful for his foresight when the economy stumbles and the reserves are needed to shore up essential public services. The marina can wait. It was losing money before Irma and will lose money once it fully reopens. That’s the price we pay if we want a marina. Or a golf course for that matter.