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Harbor Management Commission Minutes 01/14/2014
Minutes of a Meeting of
The Old Lyme Harbor Management Commission
January 14, 2013

Attendance:
Members present Robert Falaguerra, Ned Farman, Dave Frederiks, Bill Harris, Mike Mackey, Mike Magee, Tom Meyer, Mike Moran, Harry Plaut, and Steven Ross.
Alternate Member present - Curt Rasmussen, seated for Bob Doyen
Absent – Bob Doyen
Excused Absences:

A quorum being present, Chairman Ross called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

REPORTS
Clerk’s Report
The minutes of the previous meeting were reviewed and accepted as submitted.

Correspondence
Steven Ross reported that he had received a copy of the application from Amtrak to repair the abutments for the railroad bridge over the Lt. River.  Sue Bailey is going to restrict their activity to a certain channel width, but wide enough to be able to allow boats to pass through under the bridge without any trouble.  The DEEP will also restrict when Amtrak will be able to do the work so it doesn’t affect the nesting birds and the crabs.  

Steven also received two estimates for surveys at the Lt. River site at the old boat bridge.  One estimate is from Docko and the other is from McDonald/Sharpe.  In order to do any kind of a walkway or dock, HMC will need to have a survey done.  Steven spoke to First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder about it and she said HMC does not need to do a request for proposal because the amount is not significant and it is not from the Town’s budget, but the HMC’s budget.  

The only other correspondence, which had just arrived, was a Notice of Non-Compliance from the DEEP for Scanlon at 34 Homestead Circle.  Scanlon had added to his existing dock and the DEEP is asking him to eliminate part of it.  

Treasurer’s Report
Bill Harris presented the Treasurer’s Report, which was accepted for audit.  Since he was not in attendance at the December meeting, he presented two reports, one for October 2013 and the other for November-December 2013 and it was noted that there was no meeting of the commission in December.  A copy of the report is on file with the minutes.

OLD BUSINESS
Member Appointments
Steven Ross was pleased to report that the Board of Selectmen has appointed James Jake as an Alternate Member in January.  Steven noted that there is now one vacancy for an Alternate Member, but there is presently a full commission and good attendance.

Pilgrim Landing
It was reported that the racks are still there and that there are a lot of rocks.  There is also still an oversized useable boat sitting on the rack, which had been tagged, and it should be removed.    

Dinghy Dock
Dinghy Dock is out of the water.  The boards underneath will have to be looked at and repaired in the spring, if necessary.  Mike Moran said that you cannot get underneath it right now to inspect it.  Flipping the dock over would be the best way to look at it in the spring.  

Potential Public Access Site—West bank of Lt. River
Steven Ross said HMC is still waiting for a response from the DEEP on giving HMC the parcel between the Town land and Halls Road and he expects to have it soon.  He stated that he has two estimates for a topographic survey of the site, from Docko and McDonald/.  Steven passed both proposals around for the members to review.  An additional bid will be requested from Coastline Consulting.
He suggested that HMC hold off on ordering a survey until they hear what the DEEP decision is on the parcel because, if HMC gets the parcel as this may impact the location of the proposed ramp. It was agreed to wait before ordering the survey. The DEEP has completed their investigation of the site based on the old DOT  survey that had been submitted with the commission’s application to the DEEP to give the HMC the parcel of land.  Steven will call Bonnie to inquire about the status.  

Phase 2- Foot bridge across Lt. River—on hold.
Steven got a call from Jim Rice, the former First Selectman, who said that he and a group of other people were interested in establishing a sidewalk and other improvements from Lyme Street down to the shopping center . A representative from the group is supposed to be contacting Steven about it.  
Phase 3- Ramp application

Town Report Write-up
Ned Farman informed the members that he had included some aerial photos, one of each river, but the photos did not make it into an alternate draft for the Annual Town Report.  He stated there will be at least one photo accompanying the article for the report.  Ned said he focused on the Navigable Waterways Study and the dredging, which seemed to be most of what happened this past fiscal year.  Steven reminded the members that the report only goes until July 1, 2013 and any subsequent activity would be included in the next Annual Town Report.  

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Harbor Master
Mike Moran presented an invoice for pulling moorings from his boat last summer in July and August, but it was not accepted because it had been agreed that there would be no compensation for boat use in 2013 and a memo confirms the agreement.  
Mike informed the members that the abandoned moorings in the beach area were supposed to be pulled last winter, but weren’t pulled until this past fall.  He said that, even though it is a no bid situation, they have a person who does all the moorings in the Point O’ Woods area who would have known the owners of moorings even if they did not have writing on them, which would have lessened the number of moorings pulled.  
Steven clarified that it was Four Mile River Marina, who pulled 5 moorings the year before, but then they went and put at least 3 back in without collecting a fee.
Mike Moran asked Harry Plaut how the moorings he pulled were identified, as he did not see any identification on them a few weeks ago.  Harry said that all the moorings have been tagged.  
Mike suggested that it would have been easier to have had Four Mile River Marina do the Point O’ Woods area, as they know the area well and have been doing that area for a long time.  Between the moorings that were left out there during the summer and the moorings that were left from last winter, which should have been pulled, it created a problem as far as identifying legal and illegal moorings.  He also stated that there was a problem last summer with all the paperwork coming in for permits.  Some were properly completed with the permit, fee, and inspection for the mooring.  Many came in missing some of this information and it was very confusing trying to rectify the situation.
Mike stated that he went down there and remarked that the moorings were put in the middle of August without a permit.  Harry has pulled them and they are not marked.  Mike said that he had tagged about 15 moorings at Hawks Nest and said Harry should have picked up the moorings, but Harry said he only picked up maybe 1.  Steven said the others already pulled their moorings out.  
Steven noted that at Calves Island and in the rivers, which are not crowded mooring fields, we don’t seem to have a problem with illegal moorings.  He said that it is difficult to police the LI Sound area for illegal moorings and we should concentrate on the majority of season long unpermitted moorings.  
Mike’s report showed there were 132 paid moorings, which is exactly the number for which the HMC received fees.  He further noted that in that stretch of LI Sound from White Sands to Point O’ Woods, there were 40 moorings issued and 30 more were pulled as illegal.  This does not include those illegal moorings that are only in for a short period of time.  Steven stressed that the moorings HMC wants to police are those that stay in for the majority of the season.   
Steven indicated that there had been a lot of discussion at the meetings last fall about coordination between Mike Moran and Harry Plaut about what moorings Harry is supposed to pull.  Steven also said that,  if we have 30  illegal moorings and we don’t get a substantial amount of the people coming back for their moorings, it will cost HMC a lot of money plus the approximately $750 in  potential mooring fees, which the commission did not receive.  
Steven said that HMC needs a better plan for the coming year to prevent this from happening again.  Not having inspections this year should simplify matters and now having a boat in the area, they can tag and pull the moorings earlier and people might contact the Harbor Master because they will want their mooring back to use.  
Steven reminded Mike that his comment regarding it being a no bid situation was incorrect, that it had been fully discussed by the commission and their understanding with Mike (Perez)at Four Mile River Marina was that he was only interested in pulling moorings at Point O’ Woods. Mike had not been able to find anyone else willing to pull mooring in the LIS area, other than P’OW Steven also remarked that HMC’s history with Mike (Perez) was not for the benefit of the commission when he puts people’s moorings back in without collecting the hauling fee and after the commission paid him to pull them out.  This gives those people a free haul without HMC being reimbursed and the commission cannot do business that way.  Mike commented that Four Miler River Marina made a mistake with 3 moorings.  Steven said that regardless of who pulls the mooring the cost is  $125, so that is not an issue and it is the $75 fine that is really an issue.  He requested that Mike Moran contact Mike at Four Mile River Marina to see if he is interested in bidding on the work.  He requested that Mike Moran set the parameters with him and find out if he is willing to bid on the whole LI Sound area or just a section of it and the commission will consider it.  He further stated that they must understand that they are not to put someone’s mooring back in without collecting the fees owed to the HMC and that the check is made payable to HMC and not the marina.  Steven noted that Four Mile River Marina should have billed the people and collected the money for the HMC and that there was no intention to make this a closed no bid process.  This was a decision of the HMC based on those people available and willing to do that work for the commission.
Harry Plaut stated that around the beach community they know they will lose their mooring if it is there without a permit.  The question was raised as to whether or not this information should be published and Steven said the commission is obligated to publish the information if they decide to sell the abandoned  moorings to collect their funds and the commission will deal with that issue later in the year.  Steven asked Harry to mention this policy at the Federation meeting when he attends and Harry said he had already told the Sound View Commission.  Steven replied that HMC needs to notify everybody.  
Steven asked Mike if he had contacted John Manafort about his abandoned moorings and gave him his number at Island Cove Marina.  He had not done so. Steven stated that when we know whose mooring it is, it is the Harbor Master’s responsibility to contact them with a letter or a phone call.  

Mike Moran then regretfully announced his resignation as Harbor Master due to family matters.  Mike has served as Harbor Master since the Fall of 2006 and the Commission members expressed their deep appreciation for his many years of service to the Town of Old Lyme and wished him well.  Mike Moran left the meeting at this time.
Steven asked if anyone knew of someone who wants to apply to be Harbor Master or if any member is interested to contact him.  It is a State appointed position under the DOT based on applications and recommendations by the HMC and they are also an ex-officio member and an integral part of the HMC.  Steven mentioned that he knows someone, who contacted him several months ago, regarding the Harbor Master position, and he will follow up with him to see if he is still interested.
 Mike Mackey said he will take care of getting out the mooring permits in the interim once he gets the paperwork from Mike Moran.  Steven told him he would appreciate it if he could get the mooring applications out and that postage can be paid and envelopes obtained at the Town Hall.                                    

Dredging Study
Ned Farman reported that they have been in contact with Coastline Consulting recently with regard to the desired timeframe for completing Phases 2 and 3 of the Navigable Water Studies.  It is hoped that it will be completed in June or July which would give the Army Corps a month to decide, and then it will go to NY State for their sign off.  He stated that right now the commission is waiting to get the results of the Benthic Study, which is the most time consuming and expensive of the tests to be performed in Phase 2.  While they are waiting for the results, Coastline has gone ahead with Tasks 2.2 and 2.3 and they have been completed, invoiced and paid.  Ned said that with Task 2.4, Sediment Coring and Sample Collection and the final design plans, a lot of the reports that come out of Phase 2 are based on the hard data that was provided in Phase 1, so the study can move along a little more expeditiously.  Phase 3 is the regulatory permitting and, based on what HMC has heard from DEEP, there is room for optimism that the commission might prevail with them.  Once the Benthic Study has been completed, the rest of Phase 2 will go quickly.  Coastline is aware that we want to keep to the schedule we have contracted for and they are very good about doing that.   Dredging material will be used either for Hammonasset Beach Renourishment or brought to the eastern LI Sound disposal site.         

LIS Markers for OL river approaches
Steven said we have approval for the beacons.  Robert Falaguerra reported that we have the coordinates and only have to buy the beacons.  Harry Plaut will bring the information he has on the beacons to the next meeting.  The beacons will be red reflective markers and the commission has a date after which the markers cannot be dropped and a date when they have to pull out the markers.  .   

NEW BUSINESS
Dock Applications
Besides the dock application received by Amtrak COP for LT. River bridge repairs, which was passed around at the beginning of the meeting, an application was received from John Medeiros for a dock replacement at 44 Seaview Road.  In July of 2001, DEEP approved an application for a structure at Point O’Woods on LI Sound.  The application expired after 3 years.  What the applicant built was not what DEEP approved, but it was destroyed by the hurricane anyway.  Now, the new owner has applied for something other than what was originally approved.  Steven reminded Keith Neilson at Docko that the Town has a prohibition against moorings in LI Sound., If DEEP says that they approve it and they need local approval, the commission needs to decide what they are going to do.  In summary, the application expired before the Town enacted their ordinance and no one seems to know what was constructed there because Medeiros bought the property from the original applicant.   
Keith also called Steven about another new application he wanted Steven to look at off Mile Creek Road.  The applicant wants to put a walkway across the marsh to the edge of Mile Creek.  Steven advised him that he had to change the design because he cannot intrude into the narrow channel of Mile Creek where he wanted to build. Keith will bring the modified drawings to the March meeting.  Steven advised him he had to get a soil scientist out there to determine what is low and high marsh.  

On an aside, Steven spoke to Paul Capatosso from DEEP, and they had started work on Mile Creek Marsh in 2012 to re-ditch it and excavate the pond areas a little bit that had silted in. Work will resume in February.  On the east end, the State Historical Commission wants them to have an archaeologist on site when they are digging in case they find any Indian artifacts, forgetting that they dug all those ditches out about 10 years ago, so anything that might have been there was either removed when they dug the ditches in the 1930s or when it was subsequently re-ditched, but the DEEP has to hire an archaeologist to stand there while they are digging.

DEEP Violations
See correspondence RE: Scanlon

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 8:37 PM.


Submitted by:
Patti Myers, Clerk