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News/Events - Meeting Minutes

MEMBERS PRESENT: John Murphy, Chairman; Mark Patterson, Harbormaster; Bill Schmid; Keith Walo; Pete Toppan; David Glancy. ALSO PRESENT: Brad White, Don Hourihan, Howie Kreutzberg, Fran McMillen, Associate Members; Rick Murray, Board of Selectman liaison; Jamie Noonan, Scituate Rec. Dept liaison; Michael Court, CLE Engineering;; Scott Hamernick, Scituate Boat Works; Chris McConaughey, Economic Development Committee; Mike Court, CLE Engineering.

1) Chairman John Murphy called meeting to order at 7:20PM

2) Acceptance of October 5th Minutes. By unanimous vote 5-0 the October 5 minutes were approved as written.

3) Harbormaster’s Report. Mr. Patterson reported that the Harbormaster’s office will run another Boating Safety Class at the Maritime Center on November 15, 17 and 19. This is the 5th class they have conducted resulting in over 100 students certified in boating safety. Also, the surprise “winter-like” storm that hit last week caused a 3-foot surge and knocked around some of the docks not yet hauled out of the Harbor for the season. Thank you to Keith and Paul from Harbor Mooring for helping the Harbormaster’s office. In addition, Mr. Patterson reported that there has been a rash of thefts locally in Town but also more specifically in the boatyards. He has met with Bill Sheehan from the Town IT department about putting in surveillance cameras at the Marine Park and Cole Parkway. Also, the end of the fiscal year numbers are: Revenues $1,123,00, Expenditures $951,000, resulting in a $71,000 profit.

By unanimous agreement the agenda was taken out of order to hear item c) 1) first.

4) Old Business
a) Scituate Marine Park update
1) Scituate Boat Works: Mr. Hamernick reported that they were very close to being finished hauling boats. They have been working closely with the Harbormaster's office since there is so much going on. The pilings for the new building will be going in early next week. Also, they have put up sensor lights on the property, hired a night security guard and asked the police to patrol on a regular basis to discourage any further thefts.
2) Upland Park Project: Mr. Murphy reported that this situation was very frustrating and still not working as smoothly or as quickly as they had hoped. The Conservation Department gave the go-ahead to the contractor in mid September but there has still been very little progress. There was general concern that the project be left in a good state for the off season. Mr. Murphy will be meeting tomorrow with Kevin Cafferty of the Engineering Department of the DPW and they will discuss whether to continue with the current engineer on this project. Mr. Patterson agreed that the situation is very frustrating.
3) SMP Gangway: Mr. Murphy reported that the current plan will make the entire marina handicap accessible. Some docks will need to be replaced with 14' docks so the old ones can be used to connect B and C docks.
4) SMP parking/off season: Mr. Murphy reported that they have been working with Scituate Boatworks to be sure that there are more spaces left near the Maritime Center in the off season to accommodate continued functions in the building.

b) Scituate Maritime Center: There was no new news to report.

c) Other Business
1) CLE presentation given by Mike Court. Mr. Court gave his credentials and spoke a little bit about the company. He gave a list of key considerations for the re-grid project including the water depths, the number of moorings wanted, the ratio of commercial to pleasure boats, the size and location of the fairways and the specifics of the tide, current and wind in Scituate Harbor. He went on to discuss other similar projects and show the re-grid maps that CLE has done including Marion, Martha's Vineyard, Hingham, New Bedford and Dartmouth harbors. Several questions and specifics were discussed including the process and costs. Mr. Walo suggested that the WWC put together a questionnaire for other towns that have had this done and see what they thought was good/bad about the process and the results. He then offered to do this and bring the results to the December meeting. Mr. Court stated that it would cost about $5000 to survey the Harbor and get an idea of what CLE's re-grid service might do for Scituate. Other costs listed in his presentation were: “Typical Day Hydrographic survey cost - $2,950, Mooring tagging (at 400 +/- a day), Complete re-grid cost $4,995-$11,950 and CLE certified Mooring installers @ $800/day”
2) Moorings: The question was brought up by Mr. Patterson about liability on the moorings in the Harbor. The boats on slips and the private marinas are required to have insurance but the boats on moorings aren't. An attorney is looking into this specifically for the commercial fishing fleet and also to determine the town's responsibility.
3) Dredging: Mr. Patterson will go before the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday to see if the WWC recommendation of CLE as the contractor is awarded. If so, the pre-dredge survey will begin on November 16.
4) Economic Development: Mr. McConaughey was present to represent the EDC.
5) Sustainable Scituate: Mr. Patterson and Mr. Schmid spoke about the attempt by Sustainable Scituate to put a recycle station at the Harbormaster’s office. The project would end up costing more than it would save and while it was agreed that the idea is a good one, the implementation didn't suit the location. A representative from Sustainable Scituate will be attending the January WWC meeting.

5) New Business: Rick Murray spoke about the federal redistricting plan that was just released which would combine Scituate with other local towns but not the ones within the “maritime district”. Mr. Murray encouraged anyone interested to write a letter to Jim Cantwell. Also, the December meeting will be in conjunction with Marshfield WWC and Mr. Murphy asked for any concerns in relation to Marshfield to be emailed to him so he can bring them up. Dredging of the opening of the South River was mentioned. Mr. Patterson suggested that Representative Jim Cantwell be invited to the meeting

6) Adjournment By unanimous vote 5-0 the meeting was adjourned at 9:35 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Jean Martin