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Hingham Harbor Development Committee
Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes February 08, 2011

Committee Members Present:
Robert Mosher, Chris Daly, Alan Perrault, David Fenton
Ken Corson - Harbormaster

Committee Members Not Present:
Justin Wollacott, Mike Brazis, Bryan Sweeney

Guests:
Mark Patterson – Scituate Harbormaster
Bill Reardon – Committee Preservation Committee Chairman

• Meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm by A. Perrault, Chairman.   
• The committee reviewed the minutes, as drafted, for the January 18, 2011 meeting. D. Fenton made a motion to approve the minutes. R. Mosher seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the minutes were unanimously approved.
• Enterprise Fund Discussion
• Mark Patterson, the Harbormaster from Scituate, at the invitation of the Committee, attended the meeting so that the Committee could learn about Scituate’s experience with their harbor enterprise fund.
• Scituate’s enterprise fund was established in 1995.
• All fees collected by the Harbormaster’s Department go into their Waterways Enterprise Fund.
• All fees collected cover all costs of running the Harbormaster’s Department.
• Three full time employees
• Fourteen part time employees in the summer.
• Three patrol boats and two work boats.
• Scituate has two municipal marinas
• A 165 slip marina
• A 60 slip marina
• Formerly Young’s Boatyard. The Town bought it for $4.2 million. The Harbormaster manages the slips and a third party leases the property and runs the boat yard [boat repairs and maintenance]. The Town took out loans to fund the purchase.
• Total harbor related revenue is $1 million/year and total expenditures are $850,000.
• Dredging is funded by the enterprise fund as is repairs and improvements to the Town Pier and launch ramp.
• Some CPC funds have been used to improve some harbor properties.
• Scituate has 650 moorings in their waters and nine private marinas.
• There are seventy dinghy slips at the two town marinas. Annual fee is $250.
• The Scituate Maritime Center was constructed mostly through donations.
• Boat excise taxes collected go half to the enterprise fund and half to the town’s general fund.
• Scituate hasn’t raised mooring fees in six years ($5/foot).
• Scituate charges a $125 flat fee (waterways user fee) for slip holders.
• The Scituate Harborwalk was partially funded by $220,000 from CPC Funds.
• It was suggested that the HHDC committee members schedule a tour of the Scitiuate Harborwalk in the future.
• The Committee then discussed next steps for the establishment of an enterprise fund for Hingham waters. The timing of a warrant article and the socialization of ther concept was discussed.
• Discussion of harbor related projects and potential funding from The Community Preservation Commission
• The Committee provided B. Reardon a copy of our 2011 Goals and Objectives document.
• B. Reardon went through the history of the past harbor related projects funded by the CPC.
• $150,000 was left over from the Whitney Wharf / pedestrian bridge project as the breidge was never built.
• $60,000 was appropriated and spent for the development of the Harbor Master plan in 2007.
• $50,000 was assigned for engineering costs for the pedestrian bridge. $7200 was spent but when it was determined that the cost of ther bridge would be much higher than any possible amount that could be funded for the project no further fiunds were spent.
• In the past year the CPC voted to take the assigned funds leftover from these projects and put it back in their “general fund”. Therefore there are no funds left over from any of these projects that could be used for future harbor related project.
• There is $6750 left over from the Iron Horse statue repair and also from the Mobil Station project there is $31,168 remaining in surplus. Unfortunately these funds are not assigned specifically to harbor-related projects.
• B. Reardon advised that matching funds from the Commonwealth has dropped significantly in the past two years (from 100% to 27%).
• We reviewed the requirements for projects that could be funded by the CPC as provided by B. Reardon.
• In 2012 B. Reardon commented that there will be significant funds available for CPC projects. In the pipeline for Town Meeting approval this year there is less than $300,000 in funds up for approval.
• The committee discussed the history of the pedestrian bridge project.
• The need for a future meeting with the Trustees of the Bathing   Beach was again discussed.
• The Committee reviewed our last meeting with the Board of Selectmen to discuss our 2011 goals and objectives.
• Discussion of comments and suggestions from the Selectmen, including the town marina concept and a pre-stressed concrete bridge for the walkway between 3 Otis Street and Whitney Wharf. We discussed scheduling a future meeting with Ben Wilcox of the HDIC.
• Items to be added to agenda of the February 15, 2011 meeting.
• Route 3A Rotary update
• Harbormaster’s report
• Car top boating access to the Back River.
• Full Condition Survey of the Inner Harbor.
• Inner Harbor walkway and the Bathing Beach bathhouse.
• Public Access Board – boat ramp discussion.
• Town Engineer – Roger Fernandez – need to schedule for a future meeting to discuss the Rotary project.
• C. Daly made a motion to adjourn the meeting. D. Fenton seconded the motion. A vote was taken and it was unanimously voted to conclude the meeting.
  
  Meeting adjourned at 9:10 pm.