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Questions continue to bob to surface in city marina issue

The fact that not a lot of people participate in local governmental matters, particularly at public meetings and forums, is an unfortunate one, but a fairly common occurrence these days.

However, when one issue on the agenda draws several people to speak up and express their concerns before our publicly elected officials and municipal leaders, it should cause officials to raise their eyebrows, and to carefully consider the direction they decide to take on that issue.

The local boating community, rightfully so, has involved itself in a discussion occurring at Marquette City Hall over the future of the Presque Isle Marina and once again spoke out against the direction the city is going.

The Marquette City Commission in late October approved a plan recommended by its Harbor Advisory Committee and supported by city staff that reduced the Presque Isle Marina to a single pier, dropping the number of boat slips from 56 to 32 while cutting services currently offered to boaters.

Boaters at that meeting last fall expressed their distaste for the plan, which also features seasonal rates increasing at both the Presque Isle and Cinder Pond marinas by 15 percent in 2018 and 5 percent annual hikes thereafter through the build-out of Cinder Pond, currently scheduled for 2024.

Consideration of an additional pier system at the Presque Isle facility would be triggered when there is a $350,000 replacement fund balance and 50 boats on the waiting list between both marinas.

The city is following the lead of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Waterways Division, which, among other things, has advised municipalities to plan for and build to less than demand. The state agency also wants local marina operations to rely less on grant dollars in the future, something city officials also hope the marina plan will accommodate.

For now, though, it seems the city is planning to seek grant funding to help with completing the downsized rebuild of the Presque Isle Marina in 2018, estimated at $1.1 million.

Last week, the city commission approved submitting the plan to the DNR’s Grants Management Division as an amendment to the city’s Five-Year Recreation Master Plan. The city would then be eligible to seek a DNR Waterways Infrastructure grant to cover about half the project expense, with the remainder coming from a bond that would be repaid through slip fees.

The city’s logic at this point in the process seems fine: Seek grant money to help with a project.

They tell us they also want to reduce the amount of general fund dollars subsidizing marina operations, which seems reasonable.

But on the other hand, this new marina plan will cut the number of people currently able to enjoy the Presque Isle Marina, and a central question remains largely unanswered: Where will the displaced boaters go?

It’s certain some will be turned away, and possibly sent off to use the mooring field in Lower Harbor. But even if there is enough room to accommodate all of those folks, is that a good way to deal with your customers — especially when some of them are long-time ones who have held slips for more than 40 years?

The city is taking away many of the conveniences they’ve become accustomed to — say, for one, actually walking on a dock or pier system to their vessels.

Now, boaters will be subjected to taking a dingy out to their boats, and the people lucky enough to remain a slipholder at Presque Isle will have to pay significantly higher fees for a much smaller facility with fewer amenities.

Yet another question has arisen more recently relative to the financials of the two marinas. Some of the boaters seem to have obtained city documents that indicate the marinas — or Presque Isle Marina, at least — has largely paid for itself over the years.

Meanwhile, city staff say the general fund has contributed more than a million dollars to maintain the marinas.

As was pointed out by at least one public commenter at Monday’s meeting, it’s relatively easy to make the same set of numbers tell two different stories.

While the Presque Isle Marina will likely move ahead as planned with its grant funding in accordance with ascribed deadlines, The Mining Journal is looking into this issue in the hopes of clarifying for interested members of the community just what story the numbers actually tell.

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