9.5.2023 City Council - Economic Development and Tourism

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Economic Development and Tourism come to water will the clerk call the roll here pursuant to an open meeting law any person may make an audio video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and deemed acknowledged

and permissible did anybody sign up for citizen input time the item two on the agenda is to approve the minutes of the February 21st meeting motion to approve second motion has been made and seconded all in favor aye item number three on the agenda is the committee convened with the administration to discuss ownership development of the battleship Yacht Club and I believe Mr Akins is here

while he's coming down I'm going to read the resolution that the battleship is a well-known tourist attraction that provides a hub for economic growth historical education and Community engagement and whereas there is currently an area at the Battleship Cove Yacht Club that is not being utilized to generate revenue and tourism within the city and where these concerns regarding portions of ownership be it resolved at

the committee on Economic Development and Tourism convened with Administration to verify ownership of the property and discuss the potential of developing and regulating existing Moorings my understanding is that Battleship Yacht Club has a number of maoris at that the city also has Moorings there and that we also back in May 21st of 2017 I guess the police department purchased for the amount of twenty thousand

dollars all floating docks and attached structures that are owned by the battleship Yacht Club and previously used as dinghy docks located in the Battleship Cove just west of the Carousel Building this property is being sold as is where is with no representation of the condition of the property that's 2017. no no the price you said it's two thousand the price was two thousand dollars so Mr Akins can you

explain this to me because when I see this just as an invoice um there was no bill of sales Council didn't know anything about this and I know it was before your time so I'm wondering it should fill us in on that so this is my understanding of the history of this and if if anyone disagrees I'm open to a conversation about where we're we're wrong but what I understand is is Bob Smith a long time

Harbor Master in 2017 um had received complaints through the city council and residence regarding access to this area which at that point was known as the Battleship Cove Yacht Club I was a private group uh and at that point the docs were locked and not open to the public after certain complaints uh there was a conversation with DCR commissioner Leo Roy who allowed the city to remove the

Battleship Cove Yacht Club from the property and the city would operate the facility as a town dock now that town dock would include 15 transient docks so a 30-minute tie up time where somebody just visiting the city could come in pick things up drop things off get family members and then 25 annual or seasonal Moorings that are issued to the boat owners I can get into those in a second and I think the the transient

docs versus the seasonal Moorings they may not have happened all at the same time but from what I understand beginning in 2017 the Battleship Cove Yacht Club sold the docks to the city for the sum of two thousand dollars you see the invoice there I don't know why it never went before the city council I do know that it was a city check the reason that the police department is the purchaser on

the invoice is that Bob Smith and actually still buy um by ordinance the Harbor Master Works through the police department um and so the fact that our current Harbor Master who's out on injure uh injury is a police officer is not a coincidence the Harbor Master who for a long time wasn't a police officer was always managed through the police department so in 2017 there was a purchase from the Battleship Cove Yacht

Club at that point the agreement with DCR is that DCR would give residents access across its property to access these docks as a town dock which means open to the public at all times and the idea was that for the at least for the past five to six years the policy for this facility has been the city of Fall River owns it it's open to the building public at all times Mooring holders the

seasonal holders can tie up one dinghy to the docks in the water no diggies to the actual physical docks and it's a 30-minute not the seasonal holders but the uh the transient owners it's a 30-minute tie up for pickup or drop-off only unless authorized by the Harbor Master from what I understand now and because the Harbor Master has been out injured and I only learned this recently there

are allegations that the docs are now um sort of informally being seeded back over to the Battleship Cove Yacht Club which is not the agreement and that the Harbor Master has allowed those docs to remain locked and no longer accessible by the public from what I understand that there has never been any formal change in the arrangement this is ever since 2017 supposed to be open to the public and

apparently now it's not so we're going to try to resolve that but I have not gotten an answer at this point as to what the reason for that is whether it's a misunderstanding on the part of the Harbor Master when it changed from Mr Smith to the current Harbor Master or whether there has been some other Arrangement that I'm not aware of either way my understanding is that they should be open to the public

at all times for the 25 seasonal Moorings and the 15 transient ones so the city has 25 seasonal Moorings and 15 transient that they can only be there for 30 minutes yes who monitors that they're there for 30 minutes um so it's kind of crazy to say but the Harbor Master is supposed to monitor it but he's you know one person with a significant Waterfront so the idea that that he has the

um Staffing in the presence to do that is is probably not realistic no no and that's why I hate when there's a rule set but you can't implement the rule I do see attorney howieac who's here may shed light on public if you'll come down and I also see um Captain fechado are you here for this meeting yes yes I want to come down because maybe you can help us figure this out

attorney how weak would you know if there's a bill of sales or any document to see how this I believe was sold what you have right in front of you this is that I believe that's the documentation I think that's what you need there's no signature from the city nothing you don't need a signature it didn't have to be approved by the council back then um technically it's property being first of

two thousand that question I could look up I'm not quite sure what I think the paper before is all that I'm aware of that exists okay at the time those big Herald news article um I read that yeah it was in 2017. I know that the last four to six years has been open to the public well it's open to the public but what I'm hearing from people down there uh is

that the signs that said open to the public have all been removed now I don't know if we remove them if somebody robbed them um or if they were removed by the city I I don't have the answer to that yeah out of curious I did go down there before coming here just to see it and you're right the signs aren't there right and there was a lock on that gate

okay and there's a lock on the gate Council Washington is the battleship Yacht Club the Battleship Cove are they the same people the same owners are they a private entity I think it's a separate entity I haven't looked them up but I think they're not affiliated with the battleship code at all and are they located anyway there are some people um Council Washington who are here from

the Battleship Cove Yacht Club that can give us a history of that um thank you do you have anything to add from the police department on how this all was transferred I have no idea about that I didn't even know that the docks were in our possession so when I spoke to Jose uh officer about the Harbor Master he sent me an email in regards to um what he knew about the battleship uh

cool Yacht Club and then today I had a conversation with the Commodore of the yacht club Mr uh revac in regards to the Moorings and what they are you know because when I watched the February meeting referred to like property and I'm like well what property we do they have land there so I was just trying to familiarize myself with that so um apparently it's just Moorings that they have at this point

uh I was under the impression that they have 17 Moorings assigned to him the city has 33 Moorings 17 Moorings are paid for yearly they're owned by the yacht club but they pay the yearly 150 fee for each one of those Moorings there are 11 transient Moorings that the city rents out and then the remaining Moorings are just uh private ownership okay so there's 17 that the yacht club

have yep and 30 that the city have no so that's all together so 33 altogether 17 the yacht club pays for uh they own but they pay the yearly fee 11 transient Moorings and the remainder are the remainder I think what five or six are privately owned so we have a bunch of different numbers we have 15 and 30 and I mean 15 and 25 and that's the purpose that I scheduled

this meeting on I know that the battleship Yacht Club has been there for years and years and I honestly it was a group of people that had formed this and I know that they pay the 150 a year and I know that they are responsible for their own um I don't need to know if it's called the marring the chain that if it breaks they're responsible to pay

for that and once a year or so they are checked and that I didn't know that the city had their own there and when I had spoken officer baboza the city is charging 36.50 to hook up I didn't know anything about the 15-minute one or the 30-minute ones that we had but I checked around in other places you pay a lot more than 36 dollars um but I had looked at it because is it

worth putting water there or electric or something um that is more enticing for people to come and hook up and if we're going to be redoing Route 79 you want to get people off the water to come on the shore and do things um so I think at this point I would ask that people from the yacht club that are here that want to shed light because this isn't going to be the only meeting

obviously we have some questions but we want to all work together and figure out what's the best way to do it and how can we start now so that next summer we have something you know some game plan um could we do that if you could come down I don't know how many table chairs we're going to have every standing this right now

also are because we don't provide any Services okay because I check with other places and they charge substantially more but I I do it's because they have a bath house you know electric water so that's why you say our fees a lot less well could you state your name and address for the record I'm sorry um well whatever uh Tracy McElroy I'm representing the Battleship Cove Yacht Club and I'm from Wareham

just excessively involved in this for the last two years uh so this document that I don't know if I had enough for everyone but um this document here we put this together last year because I had spoken to you just briefly and then we had sat with the mayor about uh to give an overview of what the battleship Yacht Club was what the actual Mooring system is down there in general

um the season of Moorings the transient Moorings the dinghy docs when we were established we're a social club and it makes it kind of to take a step back um we were formed kind of as a social club and it really helps to kind of us to work as a group and communicate as a group down there and we still do that now so we have officially when I send out

all my email Communications we have 17 folks in our group two of which don't have boats but they're just a part of us and they come on our boats and so on and so forth um and so when I have communication reminders about documentation reminders about the season starting anything that like maybe officer proposal wants um the group to know or communicate killed call Dave or he'll reach out to me and then I send out mass

communication in an Ideal World everyone who had a seasonal Mooring would be part of the battleship code just because it's easier to get an information but we followed the same process as every seasonal Mooring holder so every year we submit our paperwork to the Harbor Master with our check for the town Mooring and then we're responsible for our boring we're responsible for the upkeep of it

if we were there's no new Moorings being put in but I'm responsible for if any there's damage to my Mooring the chain the pennant anything and then um they're inspected every year by Bill who's here um he makes sure that they're safe that they we have the um and that they are aligned with the type of boat that's there meaning size right so you're not going to put a 40-footer on a mooring

mint for a 25-foot boat so that kind of in a nutshell is what is what the battleship Yacht Club does okay so we own the Mooring kit and we get like any other Town Mooring medical leaves that wear him anything else we pay a fee seasonal it's a seasonal Town warrant okay um from there uh you have your transient Moorings that's always been kind of a little bit tricky especially kind of and and listen

it is what it is and I have very little limited information regarding this I know that you guys are trying to figure out the how the docs got sold from my understanding and I'll just say one sentence on this that was kind of independent even though it was acting on behalf of the battleship Yacht Club it sounds like it was an independent decision um having talked to previous members I'm relatively new

only the last few years um but it sounds like it was an independent decision on someone representing the battleship Yacht Club um and that's that's I mean that's all the information I have on that so I I feel who was representing the yacht club at the time who did that sale yeah so okay and vice Commodore Dave reback Jacqueline RTA are either so was there a vote taken by all the

yacht club on this to sell it according to that paperwork it was there was a boat taken it said we the undersigned and has five names and she said there's 17 Moorings so it doesn't say that there was a vote taken by everybody so on the invoice but not on this Jesus right below the two thousand dollars elected representatives had a special meeting for these people undersigned I'm

wondering if it was everybody know what I mean well it says the elected representatives yeah I see you soon know what I mean so unfortunately I can't speak to that because I wasn't a part of this time um but I was just based on kind of my uh kind of takeaway from that um regarding the transient Moorings now just to clear up one specific one item when we say it's a 30-minute limitation

that is at the dock so um that's literally at the dock so the docs are very small and you can tie up to the dock if you're picking people up or dropping people off or right uh you can keep your dinghies there um but you can't stay there and so sometimes especially seasonal holders know this but sometimes transients don't and so they think they can just type to

the dock and go and spend the day at the battleship and that and of course that blocks it for anybody else so that's the 30 minutes is literally just at the dock um if you sign up for a transient slip on dakwa which what reinstated again this year which is fantastic because it really opens us up I was actually talking to officer bubbles about it he says oh my gosh it's made such a

difference there's no handling of cash um they've taken in they've tripled Revenue I think he said don't quote me on that um this year just because of sure so I use dakua and I guess my question to you would be is what would anybody's incentive be to use dakua in the city of Fall River when they don't have access to get to the land oh so oh yes I'm getting to that okay

let me add something you're talking about transient no I'm talking about transient do you have anything to do the yacht club with transients or no just the city just the city so it would just be the Harvard Master who manages that okay the harm Master manages all Moorings um so if we need anything we contact him but he also manages the transient learning so anybody wanting to come into

our Harbor and stay for an extended period of time um to to go back to the lock um it's Public Access we'll give that information to we'll give the lock access to anybody who wants it transient comes in the Harvard Master gives him that access the problem with having it be really open is that it's a very small Dock and it's got a lot of dinghies there and we have had problems in the past where

folks because everyone hangs out at Heritage Park which is wonderful just come on down and then take dinghies that don't belong to them and so the lock is it ideal I don't know but what it does is people who maybe shouldn't be down there don't have access but any all seasonal Mooring holders and when you get a transient Mooring the Harbor Master will give you that access because otherwise it can't get onto the land

so if you stop in unannounced and can't get a hold of the officer then you have to wait till you can get a hold of the Harbor Master so that he can give you the code if one of us is down there we'll let you in and out um but that's why it's there it's not because it's private it's just because it's such a public space and we want

people to be down there we want this to to thrive but we also had dinghies that we had to go fish out because people just cut them loose or took them out because some people keep their motors on them still down there you know so It's a combination no I know who's is it the city of Fall River lock the home but you have access to them I have access yeah I have access to the

combination so if somebody's coming in and you're there you would open it for them to come in yeah so really the yacht club and the Harbor Master are the ones that have the combination so um so this is so this was also the area I think that this actually came to fruition too uh when people were going on the docks and then they started bothering the swans that were nesting in there right a

couple probably like three or four years ago they um Disturbed The Swan nest and there was a they killed this one yeah unfortunately so um they they did start locking that up with them do you want to see that Council

so since I've been a member no Mr reback if you'd like to participate come down

well you're so agile the battleship and close it could you just state your name and address

and you were going to say uh that at the time everything there's a combination and we used to give it up for this security and the battleship you can't hear it they won't be able to pick it up oh okay uh the security of the battleship used to open it in the early in the morning maybe seven eight o'clock and close it at Darkness and that was it that was all right

but my dinghy was cut open and they the diver had found it and had to come bring it back it was actually cut off twice two different years people used to go down there and just to destroy things like it's typical today you know with people in close proximity to the parking lot I think that that's part of the problem right Council uh Washington you had questions I have some questions it's a little

confusing to me I'm not a voter so maybe I'll get a boat and join you yeah you should okay but um Mr Reebok I know that you guys were saying that the sale so if I'm correct what we're talking about has been sold to the city of Fall River am I correct basically they kind of took it from us well I you say that in all due respect there is a signatures here was it a

closed meeting do they make you sign it there are five signatures I think more or less they told us that uh we wouldn't have access unless we've got it of course is over six thousand dollars to have the uh that uh Bill and they gave us like 2 000 when they took it over yes that's why we shouldn't assign this then but it's signed the signed document it's here everybody signed it right so the lock

like explain the lock to me all right so I don't know the rules of voting but I come in at 11 o'clock at night I'm on a boat my I'm out on the attorney Howie acts vote he's going to drop me off down at the boat yard down there yeah 11 o'clock now now I'm locked out drops me off at a map the thing who do I call is there a number so that the gate's locked

am I call on the Harbor Master when the transient comes in yep he's given the number to the ark her question's a little different she's not using a transient she wants me to drop her off at the dock I'm dropped so that Gate's locked so you're not familiar with that you're dropping her off at a completely unknown I'm not a voter so is that would that be a normal thing for someone too that

wouldn't be a normal thing because you'd have to navigate into a corner if I was going to drop you off then I would drop you off down at Bicentennial Park where they have the boat come right up up on the side of the boat ramp um I wouldn't be dropping you off it would I'm not saying it's not impossible um it's surely possible but it's is it common no if somebody was dropping you off they

most likely would be familiar with the area and maybe they'd be because we do that all the time we just drop people comment let me just drop them off and then go back out I would excuse me I would tell them the Code I would be familiar with the so so you would already so a person transient person would already have that code and get it and re-lock the gate okay right so then

I guess my only thing is how many so if I'm looking at this little bill of sales here it doesn't have a number of how many seasonal are attached to that Docker how many attached are there to that structure so I just want to clear up why we're talking about this specific invoice because this sounds like these are docs these are the docks to get onto the water these are dinghy dogs

no boats are there no big boats are there thingies are there you go do you know what because you're not a voter I'm not a voter so forgive me yeah if I'm if I'm a little square things right right yeah if I'm saying I might say something that sounds like like really oversimplified no oversimplified for me mouse that had to move because because it's not even big enough to accommodate

comedy the harbor amounts the boat along with the police patrol boat right so it's a small dinghy Dock and what dinghies are are little boats usually usually Inflatables they can be hard side to get to your big goal right so when seasonal seasonal pass folks they're both live there but then when transients come in that's how they get in and out yeah so they can get off and get on to land no actual there's no um

like slips there for big boats it's very small okay and then my next question is since the city has taken ownership of these dock has there been a problem for the battleship Yacht Club in that here's our problem and actually I don't know if it's a problem I think it's just us kind of uh trying to figure out who's responsible um those docs it's hard to get those docs maintained we do what we can as a

group to keep things nice and neat and we make adjustments as we need to with the help of the assistant have a mass to pull voyages he and I have done with carpental work and everything right we actually do the work down there things kind of fall apart we're the ones down there um and so the problem is I don't we don't care who owns it but when we have a problem like for instance

the docs were very uneven we have families down there I have two small children and so you want to get on docs that are safe and so who do we talk to when we need money for docs that that maybe need new flotation or need to be rebuilt or cleats the cleats are missing right so if you have with boats that can pull up but you're missing half your cleats which is what

you tie your ropes to yeah so your boat doesn't float away um thanks for the explanation I was thinking sneakers kind of but we're missing cleats we don't have cleats where we need to have please we talked to about that because we no longer own the docks we own the Ducks then you know or when we own the docks and that was something that we'd be like we're missing cleats we have to

deal with this but that's fine we can work together it's not a problem that it's a public doc I want to make money for the city of Florida I want us to be thriving and thriving waterfronts so so who do we go to when that happens so it should be the Harvard Master if there is because part of his duties is repair right so you're saying that those docs are in

disrepair they need they need some work okay I mean then you can walk on them and everything like that there's nothing like broken boards or anything but years ago we a couple of few years ago we had uh Dengue racks there were racks you know right yeah and then a few years ago somebody came down they look uncyclic they look terrible but every city some dinghies are better when they're

lifted out of the water not all but and we've put a lot of you know the document I hand it off to you I we put a lot of work into it um I'm talking about how we can make it how we can make these things better and so I read through all your stuff here and um and you know we've talked about stuff that can be improved some of it's very

small and silly and we can totally would be easy to implement some stuff is you know um more involved and more costly but I think if we really want to make it a town dock we really want to make it something where people are coming and they have reason to I believe that um whether they're coming for half the day to come see the battleship or go eat on Columbia Street or on Main Street

South Main or they're just coming for the overnight because they're coming from from a certain direction because from us in Fall River I don't know about underpower but um under sale we're six hours from Newport so if you're coming from the opposite direction you want a place to stop overnight and get food delivered to the dock I mean we don't lock for great things like this right we're ideal place

to stop and the transient but you know right now I think 36 dollars for a transient Mooring I think is an ideal price because we're just kind of getting started but that could be something where we could really compete as the city builds up as 79 develops correct um that that could be something that really brings it in and we can and we can manage that and if we could get all

the seasonal holders under the yacht club Banner not because it would just it's just easier to manage as a group you get those lists you get all that stuff where and we're we're your eyes because you're right our Master is one person we're always down there wear your eyes or when things are happening that maybe shouldn't be right so or When Things fall into disrepair or something we're we're seeing that quickly um so

I'm gonna get off my soapbox well it just before I yell I just want to say I appreciate your passion and you speak so kindly of the city and you're not from here and I love that I'm born here you want well I love your passion and so I appreciate your thoroughness with all of this with that I yield is there anybody else um that is here from the yacht club that wants to add something

we're looking at ideas and ways to make things better and this is a starting point for us so I would encourage you if there's anything that you can think of that would work well you know I'm glad that you mentioned that kayak rack the kayak racks less likely for people to cut them and take them pilings

which is keep my key people away and maybe a camera just in case but he also has two dots he wants to have and I think they're at the city barn on Lewiston Street or something like that two docs and he'd like to add that on so we can get more duties in there more around whatever you know okay excuse me sir could you push down like come on in

um could you both just state your name and address for the record Somerset Don Freya James pedrosso Wilbur Avenue Swansea Mass okay what are your ideas on making things better there are suggestions smooth away a little bit just because if you're coming in from outside and you're coming in and you want to slip or just to spend the night before the normal course is you don't just show up

you know it's not like you're pulling up a car into a drive-in we'll come to come in have a plan they're coming up to Fall River they're going to go from here down to Tiverton turnover to Newport and circle the bathe a lot of them the problem so right then and there they're in contact with the with the Harbor Master that's when they get the code for the stupid lock okay and I know

it's and I've also had a dinghy cut loose on you know that was just this year actually and that's why the lock went back on because we talked to the Harbor Master and said hey you know they're at it and I was a first one in and again they they cut me loose um and it's and it's it's kind of a pain so I'm off off my subject as far as it goes

when you come in you're going to have a plan you're going to get the code to get onto the docs okay the issue that and this is why I want to keep it into the land I want to be a little bit more realistic about it I have touted the Battleship Cove as a place to for my friends to come up from Wickford to come in from Westport because it's a nice day cruise up and a

nice day cruise back to a one the Braga bridge is right there and it's all night long and they curse me for it if 2-1 so to be realistic about what type of a setup you're going to be able to bring here in other words you can put 50 50 docs in there which is still not going to get a lot of people to spend the night just because of the bridge the noise

from the bridge is Constantine Bridge well you know you grew up here these guys from Wickford um yeah a little bit you know it's more gentrified than we are supposed to spoiled so my point is you have what you're going to get look at your waiting list I don't know how many people are on it now I was on it for a couple of years before I got a morning and the last time

I looked there wasn't a waiting list so you know and you've got 17 votes out there we're one good social media campaign yeah from becoming a I I'm convinced I I'm convinced but I I'm already converted so what you do need though is what was said was you do need more of a dark dark space for the city boats for the pump out boat for the patrol boats okay because they they come on and sometimes

especially in the storm they come in and they they tie up the whole Dock and if trying to get out to your boat to tie it down for the storm you kind of you're kind of up against it you're crossing their boats to do it as far as the city's responsibility goes that that was part and parcel of the big brouhaha a few years back about the uh the docks being locked up

you know it was a big private club and it isn't you know if no one's going to show up at 11 o'clock at night to tie it to to come on the dock trust me on that if you own a boat you want to be in by Sunset into a strange Harbor that's that's the norm that's that's the reality and always you're going to call ahead because you don't know what you're

going to encounter some some you could call ahead and say say on the Internet it's all everything's all set and then you call ahead and no no we're under construction so you know what I mean it's it's not like you you're pulling up to a gas station you're popping out of the car you know what I mean I mean you're planning this this trip that you it brings well thank you for you know

um sharing your ideas and Thoughts with us no another thing at night you might have problems in the parking lot of course it's a state parking lot and the state police goes through there and tax cars I put that here on the so on the second page right on the second page has all some kind of possible improvements and that's our last bit here Mooring doc Mooring or docuers are parking we don't have

overnight parking and so it's hard it becomes difficult because a lot of times you go away for a weekend like this past weekend you go away for Labor Day you're spending your time on Cuddy hug or whatever you need a place to put your car overnight and there's enough the state police put that gate in so even if you did park there at one point now you can't park there because you'd

be locked in right okay ideally if we had like a gate that had like a user code or like a key card or something I'm not saying we used to change Gates over but these are kind of ideas that we think about so that if you have a pass you can you know even in transients transients could be hand in a pass that could then just be deactivated you know when they when they leave sure so

myself I think the major problem is the administrative part of it we've had Harvard Masters and I know Jose and it's the communication that has to be right there because if somebody comes up the river and they say you know what let's stay here overnight so they pick up the radio if you're in Newport anywhere Papa Master the answers you got a mooring yeah go to 42.

go on dark wah and log in pay for it and I'll see you later have a good time and the code tawagi is what it is now as far as it be in public access if you take the lock off I'm going for sure because I got a lot invested in my dinghy my motor and this we know what the situation is with theft it's going to go so if it's not locked I love the harbor

100 percent and I tell people to come but if there's not a lock on that gate I'm not staying there I belong to the somerset Yacht Club I have another boat that I keep at Captain O'Connell's I'm a boater Hard Knocks every dime I have goes into the river so that being said a you need somebody can be us at the battleship Yacht Club that takes care of when somebody calls some

somebody's going to answer when I go to Bristol and I want to go Gray's Ice Cream and I want to pull up somewhere I just pick the radio up and call and yeah go over here go over there no problem but so that's I'm sorry that's a boat radio like a police right exactly exactly I can call the Coast Guard from that YouTube VHF right so that being said the first

thing we need to do down there is have a point person that's a hundred percent available all the time now does it have to be one person it can be a chain of people but when the radio goes off or when the phone call comes in or they're on dockwah they need an answer because like you said he comes all the way over from Wickford where do I go

so I'm there the other day guy pulls up with his boat somebody at the battleship told him that he could dock there well I know that's not what's supposed to happen so so he's there older couple like myself kids and the grandkids they die in iguana Battleship they have no dinghy so I can't send them out to amore what am I going to tell people so I said you know what here's the code

keep your radio with you go on to Battleship watch a boat from the battleship and if you can get a hold of the kava bass to tell them it's your boat that's there so forth and so on because I felt so bad for the kids because they did the strip in the boat and the grandfather and blah blah blah and they get there and they're like disappointed I couldn't I just didn't so

I said here's the code go I shouldn't have done that because although it's a public dock right it's kind of not a public dock if you if you can have if you can have anybody walk down that ramp sit on those benches do whatever they want to do down there then that's going to take what it is now which is not a lot it's good don't get me wrong

but it's going to take that and drive it right into the ground well it's a it's a public dock but it's not a public slip so everybody docks their 30 foot 40 foot boat at that dock then if I need to come in because I'm loading up for to go away for a week I can't get my vote there right it's a it's strictly a dingy dock it's a it's a loaded loaded right right

it's just like the driveway they have at the battleship to drive drop people off now go park in a parking lot right but but what I'm saying is that if you leave that unlocked it's going to be a nightmare and I'm liability standpoint for the city right because yeah you've got kids going playing on the dock of the dock before you know it I put the ladder in down there we didn't even have a light

on I put the dock lighter in the one that goes in the water so if you fall off the dock now you can get up and that's because of me before that happened because there was no ladder and you know why I put the ladder there two reasons that one and the other one is I'm so fat I can't get out of my thing and that's a fact no no

that's a fact that's a fact anybody that owns a dinghy you try and climb up a foot or two above you forget it he's 84 I'm 68 you know we all try and do our best down there some breaks we fix it but what so you either want to make a a solid plan a I think you need that contact person number one that's the number one thing and number two you have to address

that security lock thing if it's not going to be locked you got a problem for sure because I'm like I said for me I'm gone I know my dinghy is going to get I just paid 550 for an electric motor that I bought I have a chain to the boat who knows they can go down there and cut it whatever but if it's unlocked you can guarantee that's going to turn into a

disaster's boat and damage it all the time I think attorney Akins had something to have a question I have two questions because I've been researching this and in preparation for this hearing and trying to order as much as I can a lot of this happened before me uh before the city Ministry the first question is I was told that one of the intents with the city purchasing this in 17 was who

kayakers could put in at the stock does that happen and then how does that work with the walk so I think that we have potential to do that because we have a vote what we have a ramp right on the other side of the carousel we have a it's locked we don't we don't have anything to do with that but I think that's actually brilliant because even if you don't want to like we had

flooded the idea of kayak racks or whatever but you don't want to do that you need to strap it to your car like everybody else right and you go into that Circle and you take your kayak and now you have the flat launch because what we're asking people to do now is to go through a narrow gate to go down a narrow gangway with a kayak that can weigh anywhere from 50 to 100

pounds depending on what you're doing right to carry that down to the docks and then drop it in the water and then vice versa when you're done so I understand that and I hear that that may be a better solution but notwithstanding what could happen right now that's not happening it's not happening it's not happening it couldn't it couldn't happen because there was no ladder until this year okay

there was an idea there was a concept back in 17 right it really never came to promotion is what you're saying right no okay but but they have to add on to what you were saying is if you open up a lot across the street then they could put their little uh trailers you know those tiny trails yeah and park across the street and you could get money from them for parking across the street right and

and use the launch on the other side of the carousel because it's flat and you're just gonna walk down put your kayak only for non-motorize that is a realistic

that's okay um so see you guys own the wall yeah all right we own it personally yes right and so um takes those out at the end of the season they just get left they're really too heavy to take out right yeah you're supposed to if I'm done with voting I'm leaving um I'm responsible for that one okay so the only reason you would have to do something with it is actually if you

severed your relationship with that right okay it doesn't and so yeah he's the one who creates the grids yeah um but I'm responsible for that more I can't just leave it some people do abandon them so if you were on the wait list and you're like oh my gosh I have a 30-foot boat I would love to put on a mooring and you talk to the horror Master the Harvard Master says hey you're next on

the list there was a wait list or if there's not and they said well Tracy's got more equipment and um bill says it's worth you know XYZ and we go okay well listen I'll sell you my morning equipment so you don't have to buy it buy it off me and now you roll my Mooring equipment but you have to be pre-approved by the harb master to say hey you can take that space so the city

owns the access and the location but not the equipment to actually right yeah

Bill Could you um please state your name and address for the record uh Delete 75 Ferry Street um my idea was um I just wanted to get on the kayak rack I would when Bob was in office the first thing they did they took all those racks down and a lot of communities I go to a lot of communities and they a lot of them have like kayak racks Bristol's got him

East Greenwich Wickford and what you do is you buy you buy that park or you buy the cube to slip your kayak in and this is done right on that dock there was enough room to do it and then Mooring holders could could slip their smaller smaller dinghies in and then then you could you could actually rent the spaces for The Kayaks I don't know how feasible it is but but

at least the people now that you you've got down there they're they're using the Waterfront they're not destroying it or well I know that you know we're doing things Way Beyond 79 being completed but if the goal of the city and I know it's our goal to see the Waterfront developed and to be able to put things like this on the waterfront and this is just a very preliminary meeting because I've

heard you know things from different people but I'm not a boater are you a voter Andrew are you a voter I'm gonna yeah we're not a boating but so I couldn't say well yeah this is something that but that's why I asked you all to come I really appreciate all the information that you've given us to this point and I'm glad that attorney Akins who's our city administrator heard a lot

of this as well as attorney howieac to know unfortunately officer Barbosa did get injured but I know him well enough to know that he'll be watching this meeting and I'm sure Captain Furtado will be letting him know and any ideas you come up with let's convene again when he's well and let's come up with a plan whatever we can do on the city Side to help to get people in the water out

of the water to get people to come to our city is really what we want one question I have and I know we don't have anything to do with the Bristol a battleship Yacht Club per se but if you have these Moorings I pay 150 because I want to keep it because I think in four years I might want a boat can they do that you have to have a boat there

yeah okay if you don't have a boat on it you lose it okay

then you better have a good excuse you're supposed to I just wondered about that well I know one of the members he was trying to get his boat fixed and it's just this time of year it's difficult but I know he did call the hobby master and say if somebody needs mine use it which which I think was very nice of him to do but I just wondered about that but I thank you all very much

for coming we will do this again um as we progress forward to see what we can do and build up I mean the kayak racks I think that might be something that we can look into um repairing things whatever but thank you all very much for coming I'll entertain a motion to table second all in favor Barbara did your second be a journey all in favor