Harbor Management Commission

Harbor Management Commission Meeting Tuesday, October 22, 2013 5:00 PM City Manager’s Office MEMBERS PRESENT Alderman H. Tucker Braddock Chairman John Paul Mereen Lauren Miner Alan H. Bergren-City Manager MEMBERS ABSENT Gerald Martin Vice-Chair Richard Benoit Alderman Charles Jaskiewicz OTHERS PRESENT Jill Brennan-Recording Secretary Michael Richardson Jason Vincent-NCDC 1. Call to order-Chair Mereen called the meeting to order 2. Determination of Quorum-It was determined a quorum was present. 3. Minutes of September 24, 2013 meeting. Motion to accept T. Braddock, 2nd L. Miner, motion carried unanimously with A. Bergren abstaining due to his absence at the last meeting. 4. Citizen Comment Michael Richardson, an avid fisherman, complained about getting kicked out of a spot he has been fishing in near the Americus on the Wharf restaurant. The sign that granted public access has been removed. Chairman Mereen will look into this as the area was dedicated as open space when the area was originally built. Alan Bergren will send a letter to the Joyal Management company informing them of this public access point and asking them to inform the restaurant management and re-install the sign. M. Valentine will also check into this and correspond with the City Manager to get this resolved. 5. Correspondence a. September Budget Report Chair Mereen asked G. Steadman to send an invoice to the HMC before next month. J. Brennan to send reminder email. Motion to accept, A. Bergren, 2nd L. Miner, report accepted unanimously. 6. Harbor Master Report-nothing new to report from last month. A couple of boaters from the marina have complained about having rocks thrown at their boat and a small theft from a boat. The restaurant will be closed after Saturday. Harbor Management Commission 10-22-13 Page -2- 7. Old Business a. River trails map grant status-G. Steadman gave a report and distributed a working draft map. He should have a nice design to present next month. JP Mereen asked that the Mohegan-Pequot bridge be named correctly and to show the shipwreck north of the end of the railroad bridge. Jason Vincent will email a few more points of interest to G. Steadman for inclusion. G. Steadman asked everyone to email him anything that should be included that he can send over to the artist. L. Miner would like a pdf to email to the Historical Society-G. Steadman will have that to her in a week to 10 days. He also distributed maps that will go into the revised Harbor Management Plan. b. Installation of a harbor cam-JP Mereen will call Captain Daley. Installation is scheduled for December. NPU is on board with it hooking. J. Brennan send JP and email to follow up on this. c. Fundraiser Planning-still scheduled for April. d. Rock the Docks-Chamber liaison-after the elections a liaison will be found. e. Petition to State re: demarcation line status-City Manager’s office will call Commissioner Esty’s office for an update. f. Boat launch relocation funding-G. Steadman discussed the potential funding available through the DOT for the dredging of the east and west branch of the Yantic and engineering, design and permitting for boat launch relocation. He suggested requesting funding from the DOT for the dredging project since the preliminary work has been done. The DOT suggested that all other involved committees/groups in the City be included in the process. JP Mereen wants to designate a disposal location. He suggests that we apply for money to identify containments that may be in the dredged material. G. Steadman suggested that a recommendation for disposal also be included in the application for funding. There are several options for disposal that need to be investigated. J. Vincent suggested doing a scour analysis to tell us how much material is actually moved with the tides. The estimate for all of this testing several years ago was about $28,000. How much material is actually used in the testing process? It is a core sample. The DOT has funded a similar project feasibility study for Old Lyme. JP Mereen spoke with Mike Driscoll earlier this evening and a meeting with one of the property owners of the potential boat launch location could be scheduled soon. T. Braddock has misgivings about pursuing the Shipping Street location for the boat launch relocation. He would like to pursue the Shetucket Scrap yard as a location for the relocation to keep the launch within the central downtown area. J. Vincent has spoken to officials in the DEEP and pointed out that Norwich has no State asset for a City of 40,000 people and he said that a meeting can be arranged to explore development of one. Harbor Management Commission 10-22-13 Page -3- g. September Fishing Derby-remove from agenda. Report was given last month. h. Downtown Policing-The Norwich police department has not gotten any new information 8. New Business None 9. Other G. Steadman went down to Brown Park before the meeting and the fish panel was covered with bird droppings. The CM office will send an email to Public Works. Michael Richardson volunteered to clean the sign off tomorrow. Michel Richardson asked the Commission to clarify the right of access way going between the condos and going across the railroad tracks. He walks along the shoreline, but the police have kicked him out when he gets in front of the station even though he is still on the water side of the tracks. A.Bergren to check with police on this. 10. Adjournment-Motion to adjourn T. Braddock, 2nd A. Bergren, meeting adjourned at 5:46PM.