Responding to citizen suggestions and complaints, Mayor Heath Davis replaced the budget workshop scheduled for Tuesday night, August 30, with a marina workshop. The subject matter switch from budget to marina was made with no public notice beyond routine posting of the City Commission agenda on the City Hall bulletin board. Nonetheless, City Hall filled Tuesday night with marina users (charter services, commercial fishermen) urged by Mayor Davis to participate in the workshop, along with citizens whose complaints and suggestions no doubt had prompted the workshop. As a starting point, City staffer Josh Wilson reviewed notes of an April 2, 2009, meeting during which participants had broken into four working groups to come up with the following priorities for improving Cedar Key marina facilities. Only one priority had been urged by four out of four of the 2009 working groups: a new mooring area. Three out of four 2009 groups had asked for a new pump-out facility, a new culvert through Dock Street, some sort of break water or jetty (to aid boats` launching and loading), dredging (to allow more vessels), and one-way traffic on Dock Street. (The city has funding for the new pump-out facility, Mr. Wilson pointed out, and Dock Street has been made one way.) Two of the four groups had asked for a fueling facility (stationary or mobile), more ramps for boat launching, a continuous boardwalk around the inside marina, and an inside marina bathroom. One group out of four had suggested a marina sign (for photo opps), a Chamber of Commerce kiosk, more parking, better signage, and more music in the park. (The city has funding for a new launch ramp that will double present capacity.) Two overriding concerns were noted: (1) a clean marina, and (2) compliance with FDA standards for the clamming industry. "What`s happened to these suggestions?" erupted Roger (Mac) McKinney. Mr. McKinney noted that it would have taken a month in any other marina for his white boat to get as dirty as it became in only two days in the Cedar Key marina. "The marina`s a cesspool. " Commissioner Sue Colson pointed out that the water in the marina is not dirty. "We have unusual microscopic filmy silt, which feeds our clams. It does smell. But it`s clean." The city had realized items from the 2009 list, Commissioner Colson explained, based on what funding could be raised. Doug Maple, who operates Tidewater Tours out of Cedar Key, observed that the comments he hears from marina users are not the comments of those who have fallen in love with Cedar Key. Instead, the typical Cedar Key Marina user begins with, "Why doesn`t the City of Cedar Key...?" Speaking from professional experience as a charter captain as well as from personal experiences traveling the Florida coast and waterways in his own cabin cruiser, Captain Doug judges the Cedar Key Marina inadequate but noted its potential. "The marina is an embarrassment. It needs to be dredged. It needs lights, electricity, water." Floating docks. A fulltime marina employee. These proposals, including suggestions ranging from establishing a fish-cleaning table at the marina to creating mooring spaces in a mooring field off shore, were echoed by Low-Key Hideaway owner Pat Bonish and Sunset Isle owner Bruce Wilson, reflecting needs expressed by their guests. The city obtained grant monies with which to dredge the marina in 1991. No grants were obtained for the next dredging, over ten years later, much of the effectiveness of which was undone by hurricane damage. That dredging cost the city in excess of $600,000, $200,000 of that for transport alone (of the dredged material, the "spoil"). By buying or leasing land nearby to which the spoil could be transported inexpensively, the city could substantially reduce the potential cost of dredging. About an hour and a half into the marina workshop discussion, Mayor Davis announced he wanted to end the meeting by 8 p.m.. He asked participants to focus on positive suggestions. As Mayor Davis began to compile a to-do list for city staff and commissioners, Commissioner Scott Dennison asked if the city has ever had a marine architect prepare a formal plan for marina improvements (it has not) and went on to suggest that the city approach the Marine Engineering Division of the University of Florida`s School of Engineering for help. A couple of minutes before 8 p.m., Butch, the CKPD cat, pushed through the door into the City Hall meeting room, stretched, and meowed. As Butch made his rounds of the back row, Mayor Davis completed his staff and commissioners` to-do list, setting the November CRA meeting as the deadline for their reports. | 