By Roger Gitlin – April 30, 2021
Some weeks back, I received phone calls and a few emails of complaints of closed restrooms and fecal and urine matter at the closed bathrooms at the boat ramps. I personally observed these conditions and upon conversation with the interim Harbormaster, was told the restrooms near the boat ramps would be re-opened and the human waste would be cleaned up.
The Harbor has been slow to respond to correcting this unacceptable condition and, to date, the bathrooms remain closed and the health / hygiene matter has yet to be corrected.
I will now elevate my complaint officially to the next level up.
The community is abuzz with lots of visitors. It is unacceptable to allow our Harbor District to be indifferent to showing our best face to our visitors.
These restrooms must be maintained and kept pristine. The restrooms must be open to match the hours of adjacent tenants like the Chartroom. Jambalaya and Englund Marine.
The question begs to be asked WHY is our Harbor so shabby looking, weeds everywhere, ruts and potholes along Anchor Way.
Unacceptable!
Is this about lack of money to properly maintain one of our key visitor sites? Is this about blaming Covid 19 for poor administration?
No!
Many of you may recall, the Board of Supervisors supported a 2% increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) to 10%. That is a charge visitors pay on their motel, vacation rentals in the County.
The Board also supported dedicating that 2% increase to the Harbor District who complained current funding was inadequate. Each vote was 4-1.
Here are the numbers:
This past fiscal year, the County collected $397,000 in TOT. The County also dedicated 20% of those Transient Ocupancy funds ( 8% to 10%) to the Harbor District. The figure transferred was $77,000 !!!
Why isn’t that funding utilized to maintain the Harbor, cut the weeds, fix the potholes, open ALL the bathrooms, and clean up human waste?
WHY?
I am demanding a forensic audit of our Harbor.
Where does all the money go?
It is my hope the newer members of the District will ask the hard questions of financial accountability and maintenance to the president of the Harbor District:
Brian L. Stone.
707 464-6174
707 501-7419 Cell
The other Commissioners are:
Wes White, Secretary
Harry Adams
Rick Shepherd
Gerhard Weber
EYE ON DEL NORTE seeks to bring a higher level of scrutiny and quality and hold the Harbor District responsible and accountable and to do its job!
What say you folks?
EYE ON DEL NORTE
I’d be willing to bet none of the supervisors own s boat. If they did they could see the deficiencies of the public launch ramp. Check out the craters next to the fish cleaning station. Who wants to haver their boat fall into that hole, so If that’s the way it’s going to be this summer, I don’t think I’ll bother buying a launch permit. Why pay for something you don’t get? Who’s going to check? What does Brookings charge their boaters to launch? Then see their facilities. What a shame and embarrassment!
Brookings harbor launch fees. $5:00 a day. $150.00 seasonal pass. C.C. rates $6.00 a day. $85.50 seasonal pass.
The harbor is a direct reflection of elected commissioners. Unfortunately, if you could go to their personal residence you could see why the harbor is in such a disarray. Filthy people don’t see dirt. I imagine they have dog shit in their yards, garbage in their houses, and to them, it looks fine. That is the problem when you elect people who have no sense of pride of their own homes, how in the hell do you expect them to keep something as beautiful as a harbor pristine?
Supervisor, you could not be more correct. The harbor truly is a cornerstone of our tourism industry and an attractive appearance should be priority one.
With new commissioners, the lack of energy is somewhat disappointing. Why not take a page out of your playbook and organize some community cleanups? It can’t possibly be as bad as cleaning up the homeless camps that you superbly organized for the county.