Harbor Management Commission - Regular Meeting

And I'm not trying to say one way or another. I guess I'm saying maybe make a determination. And I'm happy to try to carry it through, but I do need, like, a determination to start carrying it through.

Well, I would be happy to take a look at it, but, you know, I would really have to confer with the Marine police, too. I mean, you know, they're really controlling that area and, you know, see what they think. Okay, great. Thank you.

Unless it's a heavily trafficked area, You know, everybody has a good reason to have it if it's second hand.

On the proposal, and I sent that link, there's an example of a ship that is stranded on it. So there are people who have had incidents and been injured on it, which is, I guess, why people have previously put rogue ones up. And, you know, we don't want that happening either. But, yeah.

So, Evan, as chair of safety, we'll certainly kick that around some more. I do appreciate your concerns and we'll take them seriously. I do have a question, though, for you. Who's your contact in deep?

Oh, I don't have a contact in deep. It's like if you look at their forms or whatnot, it's like bureaucratic stuff on their site. I've not spoken to anyone there, at least with regards to this. Yeah. I guess I want to make, I don't want to, I need to, like I said, I need that for the first step of that, of having the city want it first place before Connecticut approves it. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Let me sort of wrap this, right? We are getting recommendations from a property owner that in the near distance to their property, right? They have informed the state appointed harbor There has been a body of local representatives or officials that have assessed it. Is it the finding of those group of officials that have assessed this area that it be a recommendation of the harbor master and by way of the harbor master, also the harbor management Commission that these rocks need, specifically need the attention of this body to right the floating of warning buoys? I think that's the question that needs to be answered. You don't have to answer it now, but I think that's the question that should be answered. And that gives the legs to be able to will of the authorities to do so. While we're talking about the legs to do things, Jeff, remind us what the process is if we wanted to further change the speed zone in Westcott Cove like we did all those years

Yeah, that's a lengthy process too, and it has to be done through a city ordinance. It does, you know, we would interact with the DEEP boating division. Mr. Delgado in the boating division is who we've communicated with before and in other towns about the markers. So I call him, but yeah, I'll go back and look at the process for identifying, establishing a restricted speed zone, but it requires a city ordinance. Where did you want to move it?

I have, so to go back to what I was saying before, I've fielded a number of complaint calls by residents in the general area about the discourse of the, you know, sort of the invasion of jet skis that are in Westcott Cove from, you know, seemingly all hours of the day and night. I instructed Sergeant Fitzgibbons to, or I didn't instruct him, he doesn't work for me, but I asked him, if he would step up, in the hopes that they could you know maybe dissuade poor behavior you know certainly those folks aren't doing anything wrong if they're following all you know reasonable laws and speeds and safety you know there were no infractions that you can write just because people are having a dog fight with their jet skis right and So in that conversation, there were calls to perhaps create a speed zone through the entirety of Westcott Cove. Right now, it is really just the channel. Originally, it was just the channel just out past West Beach. And you'd throttle up and buzz the tower through the eastern side of Westcott, or the western side of Westcott Cove back in the day. I want to say it was probably about 10 years ago that we changed it so that there was, you know, sort of the half moon of the channel out to the really basically the extent of Westcott Cove where the where the no wake marker is. However, what people are doing, especially with jet skis, is they come out of West Beach, they turn to the east, and as soon as they cross over that no wake marker, they're out of there, right? But for some reason, they seem to like to stay within the shelter of the, you know, sort of the other half moon of the bay. So one idea would be to create a full no-wake zone within all of Westcott Cove. There are also, in Evan's proposal, is a map of a projected no-wake zone sort of around his island. And that may also provide, you know, some relief to the locals. You know, there's a persuasive argument that, you know, that sort of activity would dissuade other users of the harbor, kayakers, swimmers, other light craft that might want to go out to the island and enjoy it. Yeah, somebody just dropped, I think Evan just dropped vinceisland.com backslash co-safety in the chat. If anybody wants to go look at that. So, you know, again, I don't want to make this meeting any longer than it has to be, but I think, you know, it's an important thing that we should have that conversation of, you know, are we at a point where we need to adjust the no wake zone to all of Westcott Cove, part of Westcott Cove. So I'd like some recommendations on that based on the, you know, the, the upwelling of, of upset that has happened within, you know, do we need to adjust that?

Mr. Chairman, we could take that up with the next safety committee and bring it back. But I do have one question for you. Did you say the jet ski issue was also at night? I think it's in the evenings.

Shouldn't be.

They're not allowed out after dark.

Yeah, correct. They don't have running lights. Right. I believe it's in the evenings.

Sergeant Fitzgibbons indicated that they've stepped up some nighttime patrols for that. So I'm curious if that has had a positive effect on the issue.

Yeah, I'd like to recognize Mr. Lack. He is one of the folks who reached out to me. And Johnny, you're like the neighborhood representative, correct?

Well, maybe unofficially. I happen to be the president of the Wallach's Point HOA, and I have a statement here by the President of the, whatever they call it, Kenilworth HOA. Rachel had to jump off the call. They represent 60-odd homes. I represent 20-odd homes. If I can just jump in on the issue that Joseph mentions. It's not so much a problem sometimes at twilight, but not at night. But if I may speak for a couple of minutes, Damian, I just want to talk to the severity of this issue. May I?

Sure.

Thank you. So first, I just want to say, hi, everybody. I'm Johnny Locke. I want to thank you guys for this chance to speak for just a couple of minutes. I'll be brief. And also to thank you for all of you, all of you for your gift of time. As Mr. As Russ put it, Henderson, I think. I'm sorry, I got your name wrong. The waterways and coast here are absolutely a treasure, and I know you're looking out for them. This is the first time I've participated in one of your meetings. I'm extremely impressed, and I'm grateful. So PWCs, I'll call them jet skis because almost everybody does. They're fun. This is a very, very serious problem in the view of very many of us who live close to the water. It's a serious hazard. Swimmers, bathers, small craft, others are rightly scared away. It's just changed the composition of the use of Wescott Cove. This invasion, as you put it, I think is a fair term. There are some neighbors, more than two, three, have actually said to me that they avoid going outside when they hear jet skis because it's so loud. Now, as you say, Damian, you're quite right. They are fully entitled to go full speed as long as they're 200 feet away from a shore. This is legal. And I think this is what we need to change. So I'm here to talk about or support Evan's proposal for the making of all of Wescott Cove a no-wake zone of some sort. I think someone's going to get hurt. It's just a matter of time. Obviously, more of a summer problem, and we're past summer. And there's also an issue of just respect for others and noise. Powerboaters are under generally the same rules. It's 100 feet instead of 200 feet. They're generally very respectful and safe, no complaints about power boats, but in our experience, jet skis are really a very different breed in terms of how they're behaving. Our community and Rachel's as well, participated in funding the police ski-do that you're talking about, which is the only thing that can probably catch these guys. And I think they have stepped up their patrols, and it maybe has helped some, but it is still a very, very serious, dangerous problem. I just want to draw an analogy, if I may. Imagine a warm summer day, you're in a beautiful Stanford Park, any of them, and people are doing what they do in parks. They're laying out, they're sunning, they're playing ball, throwing a ball around, riding bikes. Imagine if in those parks, we allowed motorcycles with open pipes, the really loud kinds, to go 70 miles an hour in the park. It's not a perfect analogy, but I would say essentially, mostly, That is what we are doing. And the reason the analogy is better than you might think, and of course we'd never tolerate that and be crazy, dangerous, noisy, crazy. The reason the analogy is better than you might think is jet skis go 70 miles an hour, they can. A jet ski is as loud as a motorcycle with open pipes, the really loud ones. Just an interesting data point. Jet skis add up to about 11% of registered recreational boats in the US, yet account for 25% of all recreational boating accidents, according to Google Gemini. So they're over twice as dangerous as power boats, just on the data of the count of incidents. No one's looking for a ban. Jet skis are fun. We're just looking for really sensible, safe regulation. The current rule, again, the 200-foot rule, is practically impossible to gauge. Obviously, that's a moving target. There's no equipment to enforce that. So, in effect, there is no effective rule on jet ski speed and noise. So the homeowners in our neighborhood and Rachel's, that's over 80 households, as far as I know, support Evan's proposal in full to expand the Sloan Awake Zone to cover all of Wescott Cove. There's a huge body of water out there called Long Island Sound. There's plenty of room for the jet skis to go out there, do their thing, and have all the fun. So If I may, it was something that Evan sent around. If I may share my screen, I'll just show you 20 seconds of video. May I do that?

Works for me.

Okay, thank you. So I'm going to share my screen. And it's this screen. You folks just tell me. Yep, we've got you. Okay, good. So here's a 12-second video. You see my cursor?

Yes.

Thank you. So here's a 20-second video. Sorry, 12-second video. which is Evan's video. Unfortunately, there's no sound. I'd like you to just imagine this at full volume, like, you know, really loud open pipe motorcycle volume. This is what we're talking about. And this is absolutely legal. Second thing I'm gonna show you is just this video, just another 10 seconds or so. You see, very often there are 10, 15 of them out there. There are people really intimidated. It almost feels like a motorcycle gang. Anyway, that's all I have to say. And I just want to say thanks very much for the opportunity to address you and for considering this. We consider it an extremely serious, just outrageous situation. Thank you. I'll unshare my screen.

Thank you. Jeff, go ahead.

Just quickly, it's section 15-136 of the general statutes that authorizes any town to establish regulations for the operation of vessels. But it has to be done by an ordinance, and then it's provided to DEEP for approval. So essentially that means in developing the ordinance, you have to interact with DEEP before you do it. but then it requires review by deep afterwards. And it's Mr. Delgado and Peter Francis is the director of the boating division. So those are two people that we've talked with previously in other towns and also with the restricted speed area in the harbor. But it's clearly something that the commission could decide to do or to propose. The commission can't do it, but the to propose and to pursue. It's within the commission's authority to pursue that and the city's authority to adopt it.

I'm all in favor. Okay. Do we need this to go through safety and be metered out or?

If I may, Mr. Chairman, if Johnny and Evan could come to our next safety committee meeting, we do it hybrid. We could hash out something there and bring it back to the commission. I think that's a wonderful idea. Johnny, I know you tried to come to one of our meetings, but we had some time zone issues.

I'd be happy to attend the next one if I can. Thank you. I'll try to be there.

I'll send out a notice to both gentlemen.

Great. Anything more on safety? I'm good. Thank you to all those that hung in there with us tonight to speak about this. It is an important issue and I I like the idea of making everybody happy if we can. Johnny, to your point, there's a whole big Long Island Sound out there. And I know you don't have as many eyeballs looking at you from West Beach if you're all the way out there, but it's still an adrenaline dump if you're doing it by yourself. So, yeah, if you guys can look through, talk that out and come back to us with a good recommendation, we'd love to hear it. what we can do to continue to help. All right. Moving on from there, financial committee. I don't think there's anything there. Yale Harbormaster.

Okay. I think we've covered a lot of what I was going to talk about, but just to recap about the hurricane barrier closing, we do need to, we have gotten a lot of requests for moorings, how many people are going to follow through, who knows, but we do need to rent space for a dinghy dock. There's got to be something in the safe harbor, BLT, TGM, pick any of the letters. We need to find a space for them to put dinghies, which brought me to something else I thought about. Wasn't BLT supposed to have finished their marina by now? They were supposed to have put hundreds of docks where they took the other ones down, and all they did was put in about 80 – you know, 60 to 40 to 60 foot docks there. They didn't replace any of the small docks. you know, I'm not sure what's going on with that, but I have...

There's a multi-decade long tradition in Stanford of not holding certain developers to task in completing what they say they're going to complete.

I'm well aware of that. But it would be, I mean, it would be in their best interest to finish it because it's money for them, so... You know, the problem is, with R.B.

Raquel, it's not putting any deadlines or any penalties, etc. The only responsibility that BLT has is they cannot do anything on the 14-acre site without satisfying all the agreements that they made. And that was replacing the slips of docks with 242 docks. So they've only put in, I don't know, 100 or whatever.

No, not even. I think it's like 79, 80. But they put the big ones in on the west side of the peninsula.

They're doing it to raise some money to continue getting some dollars in. But they're only doing it at their personal interest, but not because of us. So we've investigated this umpteen times. Just like they were supposed to put that other area on McGee for trailerable boats. There's a number of things that they're still obligated to do. But there's no time limit on it. And they've taken their time. If they had a plan to renovate, to rebuild, to do something with the 14 acres, guess what? All of those things would get done. But right now, there's not a whole lot of pressure that we could put on them.

I guess. I got three words for you guys. Claw back agreement.

Right. Well, it seems like it's only in their best interest to put those stocks in because they'll be renting them. They won't be letting people use them for free. So it just defies reason as a business model. But okay. Okay. I mean, it's guaranteed business, so you would think that they would be motivated by the money, but who knows what goes on there. What else do we have? So we've talked about the hurricane barrier. Speaking of the hurricane barrier, we're going to have to get a dock for the harbor master boat because it's going to be stuck inside the hurricane barrier. So just to give you a heads up, we don't want to be the last one looking for a dock and be the boat that doesn't have one. I don't know what you want to do about that, but I would certainly do that sooner rather than later because we're going to be competing with all the hundreds of other boats that are going to be looking for a dock outside of the hurricane barrier.

Can you reposition the cove?

I don't know what's available. I'd have to speak with Frank. I don't know what's available there. Frankie B.?

It depends on how big the boat is. How big is the boat?

23 feet.

Yeah, we can probably find something for you over there. Just got to let Kevin know that we're going to move it over there.

Okay. All right. Well, I'll talk to you about that later. Okay. What else? We did have something happened in the north part of the east branch. It looks like a barge may have hit the dock at the wheel. It's all banged up. No one's No one has volunteered any responsibility for that. No one got hurt, but it was just interesting that the whole dock is smashed over there. What else do we have? Does everyone know we're getting a new restaurant at the Crab Shell? Coming in. Russ, what's the name of it? I blanked on it, but it's the same owners of the guys that own restaurants out on Bank Street.

Something like Ocean 46 or something like that.

Yeah, I think that's it. Are they planning on to be open by next season? Do you know? Because that's going to increase traffic in the harbor again. The traffic was pretty light this summer because all the people who come over, it's like the exchange program. We go to Long Island to the restaurants, and the people from Long Island come over here. We had very light traffic from Long Island, which was nice this summer, but I guess it'll be coming back. next summer um i think that's about it um as we said at the safety meeting in the well i think we got seven and a half inches of rain on sunday two boats went down i think um i know i saw them pulling the boat out sito was over at uh cesec raising the boat there i believe another one uh sank over at cove and then i think uh uh the marine police saved another four that were going down kept them from going down but um You know, again, brings us to the issue of the marinas making sure that boaters maintain their boats. So if something like this happens, we get some rain, they have enough charge in their battery to bail them out with the bilge pump so they don't sink because seven boats is a lot to go down. What else do we have? I think that's about it. We covered most of it earlier talking about the hurricane barrier.

Okay. Any questions for Yale? All right. Thanks, Captain. Appreciate what you do. Frank, financial and marina supervisor.

Yep. Good evening. Nothing to report on the finance report. Same as last month. Starting balance 242, 242,180 dollars and 90 cents. Nothing came in. Nothing went out. Same final balance. I was in touch with Sprague again. Finally, they are supposed to be mailing a check out this week. So when that shows up, hopefully it'll be on next month's report. Marina-wise, as Yale touched on, I'll touch on what Yale said. We had a half a dozen boats over at Cove Marina also that we got in touch. We saved two of them from going down. And a few others came down and pumped their boats out that were taking on water. So only two were down. Both are out of the water now. And that's pretty much it for the Marines after the storm.

And do we have a line of sight on the 860 Canal Fund balance?

Yeah, I'm sorry. That last I checked, still $350,860. Okay, thank you.

Can I just jump in on that? Sure. I did pursue this twice and have not gotten a response back from Teresa or Tony. They were going to look at investing it. So I don't know, Mr. Chairman, why we're not getting a response on this issue.

Yeah, I don't know. I think there was something about it being sort of small potatoes for.

Right. But they were, you know, they're not I'm not getting any answer. That happens in this city. But Mr. Chairman, it shouldn't happen.

I agree. I agree. Yeah, I don't know. I would say keep pounding. My favorite email is third attempt, please advise.

Right. I mean, OK, I'll talk to you offline.

OK. All right. Any questions for Frank on financial or marina supervisor? Nope. Okay. And again, Frank Fideli is not here for our special assistant, but we've heard and seen most of what he's working on. Moving over to old business, harbor user fees. We need to continue to noodle on modification for 2627 due to barrier closure, you know, in the same way that hopefully the city actually kind of goes back to you, Frank. Have there been any meetings on pivot strategy for the barrier closure? From an ops point of view for the city marinas?

No, nothing that I've heard of. They're not sure what they're going to be doing next year. I'll have to sit down with Kevin in the near future to find out how it's going to be going on for boaters. The only thing I'm getting is from a lot of boaters that want to go to Cove. But again, the Cove boaters have the first right to go back there.

Yeah, of course. Okay. All right. CHMA unchanged other than, well, I think there's an effort afoot to breathe some life into the Connecticut Harbor Management Association. So more to come on that as it develops. Cumming Marina rebuild status unchanged with the exception of, I think that they started doing dredge testing. Town line border negotiations unchanged. Lighthouse restoration initiative. The contracts have been signed for the rebuilding of the revetments out there. That's going to happen over winter.

Jeff? Regarding the municipal boundary line, I don't know if you had a chance. I talked with Ray Redness at the end of last week, and he was finally able to put together, he said, all of the documents that he's assembled over the years regarding the boundary line. So he said he put those into a thumb drive, and he mailed a copy to me, and he said he was mailing a copy to you as well.

Okay.

So that's all the information he was able to put together. I will say that also that the town of Greenwich, which is the equal partner in figuring out how to do this, is applying for a ship grant to update the harbor management plan or to prepare an addendum to the Greenwich Harbor Management Plan. And one of the topics to address in that work is the town boundary. So I think we have some, you know, a little bit of re-energize that effort. but Ray said it will take us a long time to go through all of his material. And it was so, it was so extensive. He couldn't email it. He put it all on a disc.

Look forward to that. That's great. Glad he finally came through with that. For those new to the party, there is no defined border between Greenwich and Stanford on the water. And so we have been working over a number of years with a, former member and land surveyor in town, Ray Redness. He has a bunch of historical data that goes way back to, I don't know, the 16th, 1700s, whatever it is, that goes way back that helped to define what it is. And we want to go through Greenwich. Harvard Commission is interested as well. We want to actually just nail down something so that we do have specific Latin law All right. Where else? Hurricane Barry closure. We talked about Cape Park. We talked about Fund 25. We talked about water quality testing with Soundwaters. We talked about any new business.

Mr. Chairman, any update on Harbor One?

Uh, no, last I had heard that there was no, uh, no progress had been made on rebuilding Harbor one. Harbor one is the police boat that, uh, was dropped on, on the brand new police boat, less than a year old that was dropped off the hoist at, uh, Hinkley, um, early this spring and, uh, damaged beyond repair. Um, so, uh, it was out of service this whole season. Um, and Hinkley, uh, I, I, there was something on the Hinkley side, I believe that was, was jamming it up, but, uh, I, I have pinged, uh, the, the director a couple of times to Rubis, um, and haven't haven't gotten an answer as to what's going on. But I did mention that we were willing to help in any way that we could to help pressure the rebuilding or building of our Harbor One so we can get it back in service because that boat was far superior from anything that PD has on the water now. Excepting the jet ski, but they never did put the machine gun on the front of it like I wanted. That's a joke. Okay. Any other new business? Hearing none, let's go ahead and open up to public participation. It looks like Maureen has her hand up. Hi Maureen, how are you? Unmute yourself and unload with both barrels.

Hi boys, how are you?

It's been a while.

Hey, listen, real quick. Just wanted to talk about and agree with Mr. Johnny Locke and Evan. This is the first I'm hearing of it. I will concur. I live at Marina Bay, which is right next to the boat launch. And currently there's six jet skis that are in Seaview House, Marina. And our pool is right there. So we see the activity of the jet skis coming in and off the boat launch and whatnot. I would also, who's ever speaking with Officer Fitzgibbons, that another issue is that these jet skis have... huge stereos on them and are blasting music that you can hear all the way on the other side of the soccer field. So that's how loud they are. So noise ordinance, I know we have a noise ordinance regarding that. Um, but however, if that could be, um, also added to the discussion and, um, Joseph, I wouldn't mind, um, including myself into that meeting that you're going to have with Johnny and, um, Evan, I'd like to be a part of that. Cause I could add to that as well. Um, Also, in regards to the no-wake zone, 100% for that because they're speeding right past when they get past the pier. they go back and forth. They go between the moorings and all the way over to the beach, and it's constant. There's no regulation. We don't have enough Stanford Marine Police, and that's another issue. So enforcement is a big issue as far as that. So that could be addressed as well. Is there a date yet on when the hurricane barrier will close?

It's tentatively, what is it, April through July of 27?

April through July. Have you thought about getting in contact with Rayon at Safe Harbor? And I guess whoever runs the marinas at Schooner Cove and Farmer Landing?

They are on the list that ACOE has, and that's their circus. So those are their monkeys to wrangle.

Gotcha. Okay. And let's think about Cape Park. I get the study needs to be done. And I am 100% agreement that we do need a boat launch. My thing is with this city and this administration, Cape Park is the stepchild to all the other parks. and everything else, Mill River, Cove Park, they're all getting updates, they're all getting funding, and yet the lights and the pathways at this K-Park, and I know it's not really a purview, but just keep that in mind. K-Park is the stepchild to all the other parks, and it's... It's in really bad shape over there. Potholes, lights being out and whatnot.

I'll tell you why that is, Mo, is that to replace a light there, like all those lights and stuff, it's like $2 million with the permitting that has to happen because of the landfill status. It's exponentially time consuming and expensive with the hindrance that is the with the boat ramp study too uh but that's why it you know it gets budgeted for and then it gets cut because it's easy uh easy to trim that uh because you know a hundred thousand dollars goes a lot farther than one of the other parks so they do things that have higher impact so you're saying that a light there at cape park

is more expensive than a traffic light that they want to put a roundabout in in Japan.

Well, you know, listen, I'm not saying that they play fair, but that's not the Harbor Commission's purview.

I know, I know. I'm just looking at budgeting.

There is a piece to it that is just that the work there is really expensive. And, you know, don't kill Kevin Murray because he's been trying and trying and trying. And we really do hope that as a function of this whole thing, that we're, you know, shining light on... what's going on down there because it does deserve, I mean, it's the one of the freaking crown jewels of this city, right? It is.

And I just feel all the attention and all the funding goes to mill river and they just got like another $500,000. I'm like, this is crazy. You know, show, show the love to Cape park, you know, pave the roads down there, do something, you know,

I couldn't agree with you more. And, you know, it's it's a part of of our, you know, line of sight on this now that we've heard feedback from the board of reps in that process that like, you know, normally we're thinking about a ramp. We're thinking about a kayak rack. We're thinking about parking spaces. We're thinking about a turnaround. but I'm starting to think about, all right, what can we do to improve the entryway to this boat ramp? Because that is a part of a boat ramp, right? Is the entryway, which might also bear fruit for the park itself. Well, how can we fill the potholes, repave the things, you know, as a, just as a part of the overall plan of this project, because it needs it, right? We wouldn't, we wouldn't have left when, when, when, when, and, you know, dirt road leading up to it. So, you know, again, what I said earlier, I'm not sure if you were here, but is that we're hoping that a rising tide, you know, carries all boats up with it.

Another thought is, what about the, maybe just for storage, I don't know, just for April for the dinghies, the old rock climbing place on Harbor Drive that's now been taken over by Safe Harbor?

That's inside of the barrier.

Oh, it is inside. That's right. That's right. All right. So much fun. All right. Thanks, guys.

Yep. Thank you. Sue, go ahead.

Hi. Sorry. I just, you know, you know, I've been talking about Kosciuszko Park forever. I've lived down the street here for 40 years and I haven't seen anything done in there. It's just frustrating. And, you know, it's even more frustrating because I know BLT has obligations to do work in this park. And actually, two weeks ago, I contacted Vanita at Land Use and asked about you know, what the heck is going on with BLT? And she sends me an email back saying, the obligation for Cusco improvements is tied to the future final site plan approvals for the 14-acre site. Subject to required board and commission approvals, applicant will construct public improvements in Cusco Park, including improvements to trails, landscape, lighting, and construction of a fishing pier and kayak launch, or improvements of equivalent scope and expense. So, you know, we've known for 13 years that BLT has these obligations to Cusco Park. because restitution for the boat yard. And if it's such, I don't understand. I just, and I'm sure you guys are frustrated too, but the park needs so much work. And, and, Can't something be done to get this going? I just don't understand.

Next time we vote for a mayor, vote for somebody who wants to save the boatyard and will actually live up to that campaign promise. That's not Mayor Simmons, of course. But I'm being glib. But yeah, I mean, there are at this point probably millions of dollars that could have been fines that could have been collected. There's a clawback agreement that could be used to take back, but to pressure. But the party line has been that the developer is not under any obligation to do anything on their property. That was in bright contrast or in bright relief with the hole in Stanford, the downtown hole, whatever that site is called now, Irby. That was a big pockmark in the center of town, right? And it just stood and stood and stood. And as long as they were willing to pay the property taxes on the place, But the same reason McGee, 205 McGee hasn't been built, the same reason they haven't paid into the $850,000 that they were supposed to pay for the West Beach boat ramp construction, the same reason they haven't been held to any of the other promises that they made for upkeep and improvements in Cape Park. All of that stuff is tied to them finally having a plan of putting all analogy would be putting all their cards on the table right um and you know apparently for whatever reason they're waiting waiting waiting and um you know perhaps that's a good strategy for them i don't know well i sent you pictures um i sent you you know in the beginning of this meeting i just wanted to make sure i sent them to leslie and you dr or a tally

About the condition of the park now, I mean, there's vagrancy, you know, there's a cat colony there, people have set up made little homes for cats and they're feeding them. It's just a disgrace. And I've sent those pictures to Mayor Simmons, too, and everybody else to try and get something done. You know, and that's why it's frustrating for us when we see, you know, you guys are getting permission to do this boat launch study and we can't get a light fixed or, you know, take care of these basic necessities, you know.

So my understanding is Mayor Simmons' administration, right, they really wanted to prioritize the fix it Stanford method, like to the point where they were even telling us if there's something floating in the harbor, send it to fix it Stanford. It gets tagged and it gets routed. Um, and that, that there are, are, um, internal guidelines or, or, or internal audits that happen. And if, if this comes in and it's a park issue and that, that park issue is 30 days old, like people, people get their, uh, you know, asses in a sling if, if stuff's not being done, um, And so rather than emailing the mayor directly, because that could go who knows where, right, send it to Fix-It Stanford, it gets a case number, and that case is then audited down the road to see what kind of action has been done to it. And, you know, perhaps if, you know, we set up a Les Mis kind of program pile of stuff digitally in the middle of Main Street, we can get some action on some of these things. That would be my suggestion is we fix it as an opponent because it is their preferred venue of communication. But yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I think the parks deserve, right? There's ever growing less and less free space in Stanford. And certainly nobody on this commission asked for all that Harbor Point development to happen, but it's there now. And so I think the free space that is there should be, you know, maintained and regulated and beautified so that it can be the, you know, shining crown jewel that it is and not tarnish. Jeff, go ahead. Thank you.

Well, I don't mean to interrupt, but interestingly, last week I was in Norwich and the city of Norwich, the economic development group received a, I don't know how many millions of dollars through the community investment fund and it prepared some, Of course, they're not without controversy, but they receive that substantial amount of money for improvements at the waterfront park on Norwich Harbor. So I'm assuming that Stanford has pursued funds through this program as well, through the Department of Economic and Community Development. But there's an example of a waterfront coastal town at the head of the Thames River. that applied for and received a substantial amount of money for improvements at a waterfront park, at the principal town park. It's much smaller than Kosciuszko Park, and it's right near the downtown. But, you know, it might be something to look just as an example, not an example, but as some research to see.

That sounds good. Thank you.

Yeah, Sue, and thank you for that article that you wrote to the editor. There was some really interesting history in there. That was fascinating. I didn't know that.

Oh, thanks. Well, I've been following this stuff, especially since BLT moved into town. Yeah.

Well, and really, you know, bravo to you, to Maureen, to all those folks that are so passionate about this, right? Like we're volunteers, but we're kind of like, you know, we've been told we have to do this. Like you guys don't have to do this, right? This is, you're doing all this on your own spare time. You get very little acknowledgement for it. You know, at least we get badges and we get to, you know, ride around in a, in a in a harbor boat once a year um but you know you guys are it's a it's an unthanked job so thank you thank you and helping us to to do our jobs better um all right any any other uh comments who i didn't want to cut you off you got a mr adams thank you yes yeah yeah uh mr adams go ahead

He's muted.

There we go.

Thank you, Chair. Good evening, Harbor Management Commission. My name's Dave Adams. Some of you may have heard my name before, maybe not. I just wanted to comment on a couple of different things. The first thing that I wanted to comment on is Evan Weiss's proposal for a no-wake zone in Westcott Cove. I have been on his island more than a few times over the 10 years I've lived in town. And I have definitely experienced the exact same conditions that everyone has been complaining about these jet skis, uh, definitely come through at a blistering speed, uh, very, very close to swimmers in the water. Um, and it's, it's, you know, it is a serious safety hazard in my eyes. Um, and from my experience, uh, the other thing that I wanted to say was that, um, I appreciate, uh, you know, your, your, What you guys are doing, you're doing an amazing job. It's very evident that you take this very seriously. And I recognize that your focus is very, very purposefully laser focused on just Harbor business. You've been... loose enough to dabble in some extracurricular activities in terms of topics this evening, which I appreciate, and it really speaks to the depth of your understanding of the situation, so I don't want to belabor the boat launch issue at Kosciuszko Park. I do think that it is something that I think that you do have a... a privilege in your official capacity to correspond with the mayor's office and or the board of reps seeking guidance and or action on the agreement that was established with BLT. Because as has been mentioned, there is the pressure of the clawback that is available And I'm not saying that we need to take things back. I think it's incredibly horrible to hear the story of the boatyard for Stanford in general. But there were things that were lost in that boatyard that we are now trying desperately to replace at the city's expense. And one of those is the access that you're seeking at Kosciuszko Park. And I understand why that is so important to you and why you've been working so hard on it. I read through the feasibility report from last year. I've read a lot of documents over the course of the last couple of weeks. It's very clear how we ended up at this site. You know, it's obvious. Um, it is going to chew up, uh, I would imagine 2.3 acres. And I think that is important to remember. Uh, I know you think it's going to be less than that, but you know, even in the, in the feasibility site, it, it said that for one lane ramp, you're going to want 30, 30 spaces, you know, um, it 30 spaces, you know, all right. Trailer spaces, that's going to be twice or three times the depth. This is going to chew up a fair amount of space, and I just want us to be realistic about that. And I don't, I'm not, I just want to reiterate that I understand why you're seeking this, and you should understand that regardless of how this goes, the pressure that you're applying by seeking it is bringing attention to a very, very important piece of the story, which is that agreement with BLT. And you should all be proud of yourselves regardless, because I can see how hard you work and how much passion you have for this. And I am not looking forward to the struggles that are probably going to be quite evident once BLT, the hurricane barrier is in the hands of the Army Corps of Engineers. That's going to be a huge struggle. And that's, in my mind, a much bigger issue for you folks than a boat launch. But the boat launch obviously plays into it because it gives you, you know, some relief of pressure. Yeah. Good luck. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for your service. And thank you for understanding the depth of the conversation. It's appreciated. And keep doing what you're doing because you're doing Stanford a great service. Thank you.

Thank you. And, you know, your name should have been listed on that thank you of advocates just a moment ago because I know you put a lot of your time into this. you know, what's going on in Stanford, not just this issue. And yeah, the feasibility study did suggest 20 to 30 spots, you know, and that's roughly what, 12,000 square feet, right? Which is not, I don't know what the math works out to be in terms of an acreage, but, you know, ultimately I think this ramp is probably and more about the safety use. So I think, you know, unless there's some sort of a ratio, you know, most times you build a building, there's a specific number of parking spots you need per unit of occupancy. And I don't know that that happens with a boat ramp. And, you know, so we might even elect to have fewer parking spaces to accommodate help to limit the amount of people reusing it. Um, because really, you know, in, in our, in our heart of hearts, it's about accessibility in and out really more in a really more out, sorry. Um, you know, come a storm, um, and, and, uh, yes, access, you know, when we're commissioning the fleet and when we're pulling the fleet. Um, but, um, You know, I think I said this to a couple of the reps last week, like if I'm if I'm Joe Boater and I'm coming from North Stanford with my 25 footer, 20 footer or whatever, my Boston Whaler. Right. And I have the choice to go to the ramp in the harbor. at Cape Park, or I have the choice to go to the ramp at West Beach, or I have the choice to go to the ramp at Cove, I'm going to Cove, right? Because Cove is a, you know, drop the ramp and you are, what, 100 yards from the end of the no wake? And then bam, you're out in the sound, right? Whereas coming from West Beach, If you follow the rules, right, you putt all the way out and around that half moon bay to the end of the no wake, right? That'd probably take you 10 minutes. And if you're at the west or if you're at Cape Park, right, that's probably a good 15 minutes of putt to get out to, you know, just south of the breakwalls. pick between a you know two minute putt a 10 minute putt and a 15 minute putt um i'm gonna pick the two minute putt because i want to be out there with my hair on fire going fast to chase the fish or whatever um so uh you know really i think you know we don't uh necessarily need it to be the highest volume ramp in the city i guess is what i'm getting at um but I think this process has been difficult, but it's been good that it helped open our focus up to the larger impact. And again, I will stick to that we are all on the side of best for Stanford. Maureen, you had something else?

Yeah, just real quick. I just wanted to say thank you very much for your kind words. Very much appreciated. And also to the six jet skis that I mentioned before, All of the boats at Sea View House have to be out by October 15th. And that's a hard stop. And so I think with the jet ski issue, it will calm down a little bit as far as that goes, because the new owners have already cut water off to all the boaters there. But I do want to bring something of attention. It was yesterday that we had the high winds and they're working on the building there. And a lot of the stuff and debris was going on people's boats. So I'm actually going to bring that up because we meet the new owners on Thursday night. They come to do a presentation. I'll mention that, but from a Harbor commission perspective, I don't know if there's something you can do or whatnot, but, um, We're praying that we don't have BLT issues with this building when the styrofoam was going into Long Island Sound and all that kind of stuff. So I'm going to put them kind of gently on notice, you know, let them know they got to have the building draped and go from there. But I do know the jet skis have to be out of the water.

Okay.

And that's it.

Thank you. Anybody else? Hearing none, I appreciate you all for your patience getting on board tonight and for this good conversation. Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 20th, 2026 at 6.30 in the PM. We will be back by way of teams because Maria will be back and she will continue to host. We thank Leslie for stepping in tonight in Maria's absence. And again, appreciate all of your attention tonight. Do I hear a motion?

Damien, just one quick thing. Did you say we get badges?

We don't need those badges.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you all. Good night.

Thank you. Thank you.