By Roger Gitlin – EYE ON DEL NORTE – March 16, 2022

Tuesday’s Crescent City Harbor meeting brought yet more frustration on the dredging issue compromising vessel ingress and egress in front of long-term tenant Fashion Blacksmith Marine Construction and Repair. The so-called good news reported by Harbormaster Tim Petrick that progress has been made with the State Water Quality Board and is moving forward on dredging protocol and disposal of sludge, but it just may be coming too late.

I commend Harbor President Rick Shepherd for placing the Dredging item on each and every Harbor Agenda for these past seven months but previous negative efforts by two long-standing Commissioners may make the whole dredging issue a moot one.

After the successful renovation of the Gladnik, Fashion Blacksmith was unable to assume large, major vessel repair work because the accumulated dredge buildup was not properly maintained over many years due to what I can only identify as Harbor Commission indifference. The dredge build up at the excavator was significant and compromised the heavy-duty cables allowing proper functioning of the excavator.

The two Commissioner culprits who quietly pushed their tourist only agenda were:

*Wes White

*Brian Stone,the latter who has pulled papers to run for the open Dist.4 Supervisor position.

If the same efforts that pushed the Water Board to move forward on Harbor dredging were supported a year or two or three earlier, Fashion Blacksmith Marine would not be in the position it finds itself today and would have been quite capable of taking in larger vessels. There is not much more I can say because there is on-going litigation between Fashion and the Harbor. I also found it curious, Harbormaster Petrick finally has begun making years long-overdue siding repairs on the FASHION building housing Fashion Blacksmith inventory.

It would appear the two misguided Commissioners Stone and White may ultimately see its Cannery Row vision come to a disappointing fruition.