It’s Time for the Village Board to Let Us Know What’s Happening

November 10, 2019

In March of 2018, the Village Board started talking about massive repairs to the Village Marina. Over the following months, we kept hearing about these needed repairs and in October of 2018 a presentation was made by the engineering firm “Rising Tide” at a Public Meeting as to what the proposed new Village Marina would look like.

The Village Board seemed happy with Rising Tide’s recommendations and indicated that the Board was ready for the work to begin as soon as a bid was sent out and an engineering firm selected to do the work. The Village Board said that the work could be done over the winter months of 2018 and the new Village Dock would be completed by the spring so it wouldn’t interfere with the 2019 boating season.

Well, the Village Board may have been happy with the plan Rising Tide came up with, but Village Residents made it clear that they were not. Some of the objections included the proposed fencing around the dock area that would make it almost impossible to see the water if you were sitting in a parked car. In addition, this fencing would make it impossible to fish or crab on the dock. The fencing would also make it impossible for boaters to have access to their boats if they were tied up to the Marina’s bulkheading. The new grading of the Village Dock’s parking area was also questioned.

Ultimately, the Village Board patted the residents on the head saying, don’t worry, we’ll come up with a solution that will work and that they were going forward with the work. I think they also said all boats would have to be removed from the Marina by December.

The winter of 2018-2019 came and went and no work was started on the project. Eventually, the Village Board said they had run out of time and the project would have to be pushed off to the fall of 2019. That would give them plenty of time to get ready for the work to be done during the winter of 2019-2020 and work would start promptly on November 1, 2019.

In September of 2019, a large sign appeared at the Marina telling boaters that there was a firm deadline of November 1, 2019 for them to remove their boats from the marina so that work could begin. Was the work finally going to start? We sure hoped so because the condition of the Village Dock had been declining rapidly. I guess that because this major project was coming up, the regular maintenance of the Village Marina wasn’t being done and as a result, the dock area was now in pretty bad shape.

Considering the lead time involved, a year and a half, you can imagine my surprise when, at the October 21, 2019 Village Board Meeting, Trustee Gagliano announced that the bids for the Marina Project would be “opened soon.” Opened soon? You mean you’re still working on the bid with the work expected to start in eleven days? In addition, Trustee Gagliano said something about an “extension of funds” that might affect the calendar for the project, but because the public isn’t allowed to ask questions during this portion of Village Board Meetings, we never received clarification of this point, so I’ll ask some of my questions now:

• Does this mean the Village Board isn’t sure of how they are going to pay for all of this work?
• What is all of this work going to cost?
• If FEMA funds are involved, given the current climate in Washington, how sure is the Village Board that the promised funds will appear and what’s their Plan B if the funds don’t appear?
• When will the work really start and when is it expected to be completed?
• What is the Marina and Dock area going to look like?
• Will the Marina be ready for fishing, crabbing, boating, picnics etc. for the summer of 2020?
• And finally, considering the huge potential costs associated with the seemingly unavoidable demise of the Village’s Pavilion over at Ho Hum Beach, can the Village really afford multiple megabuck projects?
• When are Village taxes going to stabilize? I’ve already given up on them being reduced anytime soon.

I visited the Marina on November 1, 2019 and although the gates were closed, closing the Marina, no work had begun. The rest of the week the gates and the dock were open to the public and one week later, on November 8, 2019, still nothin’ doin.' The photo above of the entrance to the Village Marina was taken late afternoon on November 8, 2019. We’ll keep you posted.