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Commissioners discuss expanding city boundaries in ICW

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News.

BRADENTON BEACH – Commissioners reached no conclusions on Feb. 15 while discussing expanding the city’s boundaries in the Intracoastal Waterway to increase jurisdiction over the city’s mooring field.

The discussion arose from Bradenton Beach Marina’s offer to partner with the city to act as harbormaster, provide pump-out service and coordinate payment for the mooring field.

City attorney Ricinda Perry presented the idea of a partnership with the marina at a Feb. 1 city commission meeting.

Mayor John Chappie said at the Feb. 15 meeting that one of the concerns would be vessels moving south to avoid regulations in the mooring field.

He lauded local law enforcement for removing abandoned and derelict vessels from the waters off Bradenton Beach.

“We’ve been leaders in the area in the ability to get rid of abandoned and derelict boats and I wanted to say thank you to the marine patrol,” Chappie said.

“Part one is figuring out what we want to do with the mooring field area,” Perry said. “We’ve had discussions in the past about having stronger regulations as it relates to the floating dock. If you’re going to have the mooring field, will those vessels drift into other parts of the city where regulations can’t be put into place or enforcement can’t be made available as easily since they’re not within the municipal boundaries.”

Commission Jan Vosburgh expressed concerns about the propensity of boats to move southward if there is a mooring field.

“We have to think about the residents, not just what’s going to happen on Bridge Street where we have the pier. It’s not fair to the residents who are living further south,” she said. “I’m against a mooring field.”

Commissioner Marilyn Maro phoned into the meeting and asked if the Bradenton Beach mooring field would be like the one in Sarasota.

“It won’t be near as large as Sarasota,” Chappie said.

The expansion would bring the city-designated water area to 14th Street South, just south of the Coquina mooring, 500 feet out to the Intracoastal Waterway, Chappie said.

Cole noted that the expansion would allow tougher restrictions in that area.

“The annexation part will cover all those waters so our marine patrol would be legally allowed to enter those waters,” Chappie said.

Bradenton Beach Police Chief John Cosby addressed Vosburgh’s concerns.

“The majority of boats you’re referring to come from Sarasota when Sarasota enacted their mooring area, they moved this way,” Cosby said. “To say that those boats move from our field is not true. There’s one there now and we’re taking care of that one.”

Cosby said boundary expansion should happen before the discussion of a mooring field.

“The mooring makes no sense to me. I don’t think the water’s deep enough to get the kind of boats you need in there to make any money,” Cosby said. “And all that seagrass that was put in there, we’ve done channeling so no boats can go there. To make it profitable, I don’t think it’s possible, I don’t know.”

A work session will be scheduled to continue the discussion.

Marina seeks partnership with city on mooring field

Marina seeks partnership with city on mooring field

Written by Leslie Lake on . Posted in Bradenton Beach, Community News, Featured.

BRADENTON BEACH – In what was described as a potential public/private partnership to protect the city’s dinghy docks and control derelict vessels, City Attorney Ricinda Perry presented an offer to city commissioners from a local marina.

“I was approached today by the marina, the former Bazzy marina, who said, ‘Why don’t you throw mooring balls out there?’ ” Perry said at the Feb. 1 city commission meeting.

A harbormaster and a pump-out comes at an extreme cost, which is why the city had dropped the idea in the past, Perry said.

“So today the marina said, ‘Would you be interested in us helping you with the mooring balls? And what we can do is basically act as your harbormaster, provide the pump-out service and deal with the people that are paying?’ “ Perry said, adding, “And something else to think about is the amount you charge people, which they would enforce for us. Which would make it so a particular clientele would be able to afford that mooring ball.”

Perry said the city doesn’t have the resources or staff, but with the help of the marina, the mooring field could be a revenue source for the city and the marina, and would potentially clean up the area.

She told commissioners if they were not opposed to the idea, she would put the item on a work meeting agenda.

Commissioner Ralph Cole said, “There’s a lot of pros and cons to this. When we talked about it before, we talked about the cost and how the city was going to maintain it. That would have been really difficult for the city to maintain it.”

Cole said he would like to know the details and the cost involved.

Derelict boats have been an issue in the harbor, and a priority for Bradenton Beach police.

“The police have done a very good job,” Cole said. “We had 47 derelict boats out there at one time, and it takes time to clean all this stuff up.”

“To remove a derelict vessel is extremely expensive,” Perry said. “We can regulate those people who are living on them. Do we want people there who have slammed into our floating dock so many times? I love the private partnership that targets those who are living out there.”

A discussion of the mooring field offer as well as the potential expansion of the city’s boundary jurisdiction on the water, which is currently at 500 feet from shore, will be considered by the city commission in the future, according to Mayor John Chappie.