Saturday, 4 of February of 2012
The magazine dedicated to marina and boatyard management.
The long neglected State Park Marina in Morro Bay, Calif., will finally get some much needed attention. The city has received two grants from the California Department of Boating and Waterways, totaling nearly one million dollars, for assistance in dredging the bay.
For the full Dredging Today report, click here.
Edgewater Marina in Edgewater, N.J., will soon be dredged to remove silt that built up as a result of the nor’easter in March 2010, according to a June 3 Edgewater View report.
The storm on March 13 and 14 caused silt to build up at the marina. While the bouough applied for FEMA aid for the actual dredging, it is also hoping to acquire FEMA funds to purchase its own equipment.
The borough applied for and is expected to receive $742,996 in Federal Emergency Management Agency aid for the dredging and is currently working on bid specifications for the project.
Because of constant silting and the potential of storms, Bourough Administrator Greg Franz said the marina needs to be dredged on a regular basis.
But rather than reapplying for FEMA funds every time a storm hits, the borough is working with legislator to get approval to use FEMA funds for the purchase of its own equipment.
“Alternatives to dredging have developed, and we would like to use the funds to purchase a dredge machine that will help solve our long-term silting problem,” said Franz. “Using the funds in the manner in which FEMA prescribes will leave the marina susceptible to additional silting if we have a major storm.’
After years of negotiation and paperwork, construction will finally be starting within the next month or two on a $29.5 million drydock, the final element of the new LaShip yard at the Port of Terrebonne in Louisiana, according to a June 2 Dredging Today report.
The port and the winning bidder, Gulf Island Fabrication of Houma, La., were given final approval from the state. After a pre-construction meeting, the contractor will be given the final go-ahead to proceed. From there, the 320-foot shipyard, which will be owned by the port but leased by LaShip, will take about 15 months to build.
The start to construction closes a marathon of negotiations and grant applications surrounding the last element of the LaShip project at the port. Edison Chouest Offshore’s newest shipyard has promised to create 1,000 jobs with salaries averaging $55,000. Much of the construction, including dredging, bulkheads and a large construction building, is already complete. As of mid-February, 500 people had been hired.
The future of the project hung in the balance as recently as two weeks ago after the sole bid for the 320-foot structure submitted by Gulf Island Fabrication came in more than $5 million over budget. But David Rabalais, the port’s director, said Tuesday night that LaShip had committed in writing to providing $6 million in addition to the $24 million in public and private economic-development incentives the port had lined up.
A substantial breakwater rebuild at Port Hadlock Marina in Port Hadlock, Wash., is nearly complete, according to a June 1 report from The Port Townshend & Jefferson County Leader.
During Thanksgiving 2010, a bad storm caused boats moored just outside the marina to break from their anchors and smash into the piling-secured breakwater at the north end of the marina, destroying parts of the wall. Five vessels sank; none of them were marina customers, and many of them were uninsured.
Since Bob Wise of Bainbridge Island purchased the marina, work to rebuild the marina’s northerly protection from those rare winds has been steady and ongoing, as are many other improvements.
A substantial rebuild of the breakwater wall is nearly complete, and includes the replacement of pilings and gigantic horizontal beams that tie the wall together and give it strength. Finger piers have been rebuilt and repaired, ensuring that all docks are even with the water and fully secured. A new pumpout system is soon to be installed.
Upland showers, bathroom and laundry room also are being rebuilt, offering safe and comfortable facilities for marina customers.
Wise said he is working to make the Port Hadlock Marina one of the premier marinas in the Pacific Northwest.
The marina is an environmentally conscientious operation, with additional steps taken to ensure that its boats do not add any pollutants to the water. The marina has been certified as a Five Star Clean Marina, based on its programs to ensure clean water.
Local contractors will do the work on the marina, Wise said.
The marina offers free Wi-Fi, kayak rentals, full hookups and has a dedicated floatplane dock. Its harbormasters are Tod and Dianne Hornick, who operated the Eagle Harbor Marina on Bainbridge Island before coming to Port Hadlock.
Wise said the marina has 160 slips, of which only about five are still open.
The National Park Service and Forever Resorts, LLC dedicated the world’s first floating building project to be registered for LEED certification at Lake Mead National Recreation Area’s Cottonwood Cove Resort and Marina on Lake Mohave in Nevada on June 6.
The building, which will serve as the marina’s operations office, is expected to be certified at the LEED Gold rating by the end of this year.
The floating eco-friendly structure features sustainable modular construction and state-of-the-art, energy efficient and environmentally responsible materials and fixtures.
The decking is made of a rice hulls and recycled plastic composite, and the exterior stucco is made of recycled tires. To improve overall indoor air quality, the use of low or no volatile organic compound materials, paints and adhesives will rid the building of the typical new building smell.
“It was a visionary team made up of private industry and government led by our partner Forever Resorts that transformed this idea into action,” said Superintendent Bill Dickinson. “We’re setting the standard for eco-friendly floating buildings. There is no better place than in a national park to do that.”
The project’s key earth-minded elements and commitments include the Forever Resorts Forever Earth Environmental Management System and a mix of new and existing programs, such as the Green Cleaning Program, the Green Purchasing Program, and the Energy and Environmental Education Programs for boaters and community members.
The environmentally sensitive features of the new building include the use of:
Bay Club Hotel and Marina on Shelter Island in San Diego just completed a total rebuild of the docks, according to a June 9 report in The Log.
Bay Club worked with Blue Water Marina and Dock Specialties to develop an environmentally friendly dock system built with 100 percent recyclable materials.
“This dock system is unique in that not only is there the green aspect of it, but it offers a sliding cleat placement system and built-in non-marking rubrail,” said Bay Club Marina Dockmaster Shelley Griffin. “We also have tow party dock areas that are available for tenants to use and they offer great views of the nearby Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay.”
The decking is constructed of post-consumer recycled materials such as milk jugs, plastic grocery bags, pallet wraps and detergent bottles, while the structure is composed of aluminum.
Griffin, who recently completed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) associate program, has been working to reach LEED certification for the marina, which involved creating a minimal impact on the environment, including using recycled material for construction, using renewable energy and minimizing energy consumption.
“The LED lighting on the docks is both efficient and beautiful,” Griffin said. “All of the other marinas in San Diego are amber colored, but ours is blue-lit; it’s spectacular to see it.”
The Rivera Beach, Fla., city council agreed to borrow $25.6 million to pay for public improvements around the municipal marina and waterfront area. The council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board (CRA), unanimously approved the 15-year loan from BB&T Corp., according to an April 27 report in The Palm Beach Post.
“It’s the best thing that happened in 30 years here,” said Mike Clark, vice president of Viking Developers, the city’s master developer for the marina.
CRA will have three years to spend the money. Because the loan is tax-free, it must be used for public projects.
CRA plans to use the money to:
Another $2.5 million will be set aside for unforeseen costs, and $1 million will be used to make grants to businesses in the CRA district under a grant program begun last year.
The 15-year loan will be at a fixed annual interest rate of 4.44 percent. The loan is secured by giving BB&T first lien on the CRA tax revenue. Total payments to BB&T, including principal and interest, will be $34.9 million.
On May 11, The Palm Beach Post also reported that CRA hired design firm C3TS. It will design the new Newcomb Hall and a site plan for the marina property. CRA staff will negotiate a work order with C3TS and its design partner, Gentile, Holloway, O’Mahoney & Associates, and bring it back to the council for final approval.
The C3TS concept, dubbed Marina Place at Riviera Beach, also includes a public market building next to Newcomb Hall, a tiki-style restaurant and small vendor huts for waterfront businesses.
While the owners of Mullock Creek Marina in Fort Myers, Fla., push a plan to turn the 60-year-old fishermen’s hangout into a semi-enclosed pavilion with a full bar and formal parking lot, tension is flaring, as some neighbors fear live music, more traffic and more noise, according to May 3 report in The News-Press.
Gated communities, million-dollar retirement homes and golf courses surround Mullock Creek Marina.
“There are always two valid points of view,” said Joan LaGuardia, county development department spokeswoman. “There are people who support the entertainment of it and those who prefer the quiet.”
Now the marina serves beer and wine in a small snack bar under an open-air pavilion. The parking lot is informal and often chaotic. It may be the oldest continually operated marina in Estero Bay, said planner David Depew. He is representing Sarasota, Fla., marina owner John Cullen, who bought the property in 2008.
The permits working through the county would add a full-service bar and kitchen and replace the open-air pavilion with a 2,160-square-foot canopy, featuring roll-down sound baffles to block the noise. Cullen also wants to fix the parking lot, tie into the municipal sewer system and create a landscaped buffer.
“It’s not an expansion of the activity there,” said Depew. “It’s simply reconstruction and redeveloping the existing facility into something that is more environmentally responsible and more compatible with the nearby properties.”
Nick Batos, who lives nearby, is not convinced.
“It’s going to increase the amount of noise. You have homes as close as 150 to 175 yards away,” Batos said.
Homeowners built near the marina with the expectation that the spot would not change, nor emit noise above the rumble of outboard motors, Batos said. “It’s going to adversely affect those people,” he said.
A decision on the project, to be made later this month, falls to a Lee County hearing examiner. Commissioners will have the final say.
To pay for the renovation of the West Marina Yacht Harbor, the oldest basin of San Francisco Marina, the cash-strapped Recreation and Park Department is relying on a $23.4 million state loan, according to a May 3 report on The San Francisco Examiner.
San Francisco Marina has two harbors. The West Harbor has 327 berths, and the East Harbor has 342. The loan will pay for the work on the West Harbor.
The project includes dredging, bathroom renovations and construction of new docks and boat slips.
The department plans to rely on revenue from the West Yacht Harbor facilities, from berth rental fees and concessions, to pay back the loan.
The city has the state loan at 4.5 percent annual interest. In the end, the Recreation and Park Department will pay the state a total of $46 million for the $23.4 million loan.
Martinez Marina in Martinez, Calif., is in hot water, financially speaking, and some Martinez officials are ready to close the marina down and let it return to its natural state, according to an April 29 Dredging Today report.
The facility needs millions of dollars worth of repairs, including renovation to the eastern breakwater wall and a $300,000 dredging job.
Currently, state lawmakers are weighing a bill that would take a bigger share of the marina’s diminished revenues in exchange for turning the dilapidated facility over to the city. The city is scrambling to meet increasingly stringent terms of a $3.1 million state loan.
With all that in place, the marina’s private operator has vowed to spend $3 million to install 150 new concrete docks on the east side, which is currently inoperable. However, that won’t happen if the city cannot find the necessary $4.5 million to make the initial repairs, of which it is $1.3 million short.
Closing down the marina is also on the table. “We’re paying (the state Department of Boating and Waterways) and saying at the same time that we need money back. That is bureaucracy at its best,” said Commissioner John Fuller of the city Park, Recreation, Marina and Cultural Commission. “I would like to see what it would take to close down the marina.”
Fuller was referring to the terms of a proposed state senate bill (SB 151) that would turn the marina property over to the city, in exchange for 20 percent of marina revenues. City officials are negotiating with the state to reduce that amount.
The $3.1 million loan from the state Department of Boating and Waterways (DBW), originally approved in 2008, has since been subject to an increasingly stringent set of conditions, including a provision that projects funded through the loan generate enough revenue to repay the loan.
Much of the money will be spent on repair of the eastern wall, which is now allowing silt to pour into the marina, rendering the eastern portion too shallow to allow boats in and out. The city also needs to dredge the entire harbor at a cost of $300,000.
Recreation manager Mitch Austin said the city staff is considering closing the marina and returning it to the state, in the event that DBW does not commit to an additional $1.3 million loan in the future to complete the work.
If the city ends up giving the land back to DBW, Austin said the State Lands Commission would require the city to return the facility to its natural state. However, returning the marina to its natural state would create a problem for DBW, Austin said, because then there would be no revenue to pay back the loans to the city.