Watching our money being wasted away
My yachting days are long in the past but for years I used to enjoy zipping around in an old 23-foot Glastron bowrider. Then I starting getting seasick, even on large craft. And my Glastron, like all older boats, always needed a lot of work. So that was that.
But one of my readers is a boater who frequents our marina and he mentioned to me that he’s never seen more than 3 jet skis parked at the newly re-opened dock “A”. I went to have a look for myself last week and snapped this photo:
Sure enough, three jet skis.
Dock “A” used to be a row of 25-foot boat slips and was popular with owners of smaller craft who didn’t want to pay for unused slip space. Then hurricane Sandy washed it away. The decision to convert it after Sandy as a dock for personal watercraft was obviously costing the borough a lot of revenue so I OPRAed the leases pre and post Sandy to find out how much. (The dock was not re-opened until this year so I asked for the 2012 leases and the 2015 leases.)
Yep, only 3 slips rented. The slips cost $750 for residents and $1000 for non-residents. The lease agreements didn’t show the addresses of the renters but the most we are getting is $3000 total. And probably at least one renter is from Belmar.
OK, so how much exactly did we used to get? Well, as you read in the email the old leases were lost in the storm. We could still find out but it would a lot of work for April or maybe for Colleen and it’s really not worth the bother. We can make a pretty good guess.
I found some pre-Sandy photos of dock “A”. It looks like there were 14 slips.
Dock “A” is the last dock, the one along the road there.
I asked April for the October 2011 resolution that set the slip rental rates for the 2012 season.
She got it to me in 2 minutes! Wow!
Here it is:
So each slip went for about $3200 ($128.75 x 25′) if taken for the season or $3550 ($142.14 x 25′) if taken for the year. In the photos above there are 9 boats parked, so whenever the picture was taken we had at least that many slips rented. Even if only maybe 10 of the 14 slips were rented in 2012 it would still produce somewhere around $33,000 total revenue for the year.
In 2015 we’re seeing less than 10% of that amount. Maybe we should put dock “A” back the way it was.
14 Comments
I wonder what other records were lost because of Hurricane Sandy. I do not recall Borough Hall being flooded or having a fire. It ain’t Watergate, but it makes me wonder.
check out avon marina slip costs, neptune as well. maybe chefs international has reserved all of the other slips do their delivery (long term rental opportunity)?
Great Job ! investigating this. You have my support for your bid for Borough Council. Brennan who sits on the Harbor Commission does zip except to make false statements that “Belmar’s administration runs a tight ship”. Maybe I should say he made a slip of the tongue. Pun intended.
Here are the rates for the Atlantic Highlands Marina.
http://www.ahnj.com/ahnj/Harbor/Berth-Mooring/2015%20Season%20Rates.pdf
You’re only looking at the lost revenue. Let’s not forget the cost of these floating jet ski docks. They are not cheap !
Just take it out of the beach utility. Its free money.
Sure, create a new controversy because there isn’t enough to argue about already. How about trying to bring the town together instead of pitting people in town against each other? You clearly have way too much time on your hands.
Yes, remain calm. All is well!
The more rocks we turn over, the more creepy crawlies will emerge. Correction cannot occur unless the “missteps” are exposed and identified. Keeping heads buried in the ground like ostriches does not solve anything.
“Can we all get along?” – Rodney King
Well, I doubt that is possible in Belmar as long as there is a Democrat Machine running the town with an autocratic mayor and a compliant council. The gravy train has to be derailed.
#7.How is it even possible that this article about waste via the Marina…pits people against each other?
That is like saying that the facts about NJ spending more per mile on road repairs pits folks in the State against each other. Have another drink.
Records lost during hurricane? Boro hall was dry, that’s where they had the Red Cross stationed.
Why so much intrigue with anything involving the town?
#7 Your response requires me to take two more aspirins right away.
Dock ‘A’ is probably a poor location for docking jet skis (if there is such a market?) …. too close to the ‘L’ Street beach and residential properties across Route 35 …. Most jet skis produce noise that would wake-up the dead.
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