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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHSAB - Oct. 18 2011Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board Minutes of Meeting held Oct. 18, 2011 Approved: Conference Room, 2 Fairgrounds Road Call to Order at 4:34 p.m. Members Present: Dr. Peter Boyce, Peter B. Brace, Michael Glowacki, Wendy McCrae and Bill Blount Members Absent: Doug Smith, Bob Rank Marine Dept: Dave Fronzuto and Tara Riley BOS: Whitey Willauer Others: Matt Herr Approval of Agenda: Unanimously approved. Approval of Minutes: Unanimously approved. Chairman’s Report: Dr. Boyce reported that he spoke with Allen Reinhard who said the Land Bank is working on permitting the Petrel Landing dinghy dock and commercial pier. Mr. Fronzuto said this wasn’t true because the Land Bank has to go to the Conservation Commission. Dr. Boyce said he got the feeling that the Land Bank would want to manage this dinghy dock and pier. Mr. Fronzuto suggested recommending to the Land Bank that they make the dinghy dock selection process a part of the town pier lottery system. Mr. Fronzuto noted that HSAB’s recommendation to the Board of Selectmen carries a lot of weight and that it should move forward to get this project started. Mr. Brace stated that Dr. Boyce should speak with Land Bank Executive Director Eric Savetsky. Dr. Boyce said he clearly got the feeling that the Land Bank did not want any other entity messing with its property. Mr. Fronzuto said that every year, it’s a challenge to get the Land Bank to let commercial scallopers use Petrel Landing to offload their scallops. He added this landing would save fishermen a great deal of time and effort because they wouldn’t have to haul all their gear, catch, ice and fuel down the 870-foot town pier to their boats. He said they might also be able to buy fuel at this location. Mr. Brace suggested that it might make some sense to get this issue on the next Land Bank Commission agenda. Mr. Fronzuto agreed and this project is great opportunity to create more public access to the waterfront in general and for commercial fishermen. It would add an 80-100-foot dinghy dock and dilute the congestion at the town’s only existing dinghy dock on the north side of the town pier. Mr. Willauer suggested that HSAB get on the Land Bank Commission’s next agenda to discuss this issue. Mr. Brace said that the Land Bank needs to hear all of this directly from HSAB. Mr. Fronzuto said that there is not other location in the harbors to build a “suitable” offloading site for commercial fishermen. Ms McCrae made a motion that the board attempt to get on the Land Bank’s next agenda to get this project rolling. Mr. Braced seconded. The vote was unanimously in favor of Ms. McCrae’s motion. Mr. Glowacki offered that the HSAB stress the urgency of this project to the selectmen instead of the Land Bank Commission. Mr. Willauer said he could get it on the selectmen’s agenda and Mr. Fronzuto said this sounded like a good idea. Ms. McCrae made a motion to request that the BOS put the Petrel Landing dinghy dock/commercial pier proposal on their next agenda. Mr. Glowacki seconded Ms. McCrae’s motion and the board voted unanimously in favor of this motion. Dr. Boyce said he would meet with Mr. Savetsky to let him know that HSAB would be going to the BOS on this issue. Mr. Fronzuto said he could probably get funding for the project from the Seaport Advisory Council and that the Marine & Coastal Resources Department could manage it. Mr. Willauer said he would get this issue on the BOS agenda for Oct. 26. Nantucket Biodiversity Conference Dr. Boyce announced this conference that happens on Nov. 5, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Coffin School at 4 Winter St. and said there would be two papers on the harbor presented at the conference. Dr. Boyce reported on the Living on the Edge conference held on early October, saying that it’s focus was on how manage multiple uses on waterfronts in harbors. Mr. Fronzuto said this conference’s theme underscored the fact that the town has done everything it could to serve its recreational boaters and almost nothing to help the island’s commercial fishermen, pointing to New Bedford and Gloucester, Mass. where both those ports put the emphasis on commercial fishing. He added that the main limiting factor on Nantucket is available waterfront land and stressed the importance of Petrel Landing. Dr. Boyce added that a speaker from Rhode Island told participants that his state has water zoning to manage the various uses on waterfronts and that inland of the water zones, the land zoning cannot supercede the water zoning. Dr. Boyce noted that Planning Director Andrew Vorce didn’t attend the conference. Mr. Fronzuto said the members of his department were comped by ReMain Nantucket for their registration fees and that it would’ve been good to have Mr. Vorce at this conference. Dr. Boyce agreed. Dr. Boyce announced that Mr. Rank would be having bypass surgery in Boston and that Roger Stolte was organizing a benefit for Mr. Rank and his wife at Kitty Murtagh’s on Oct. 28. Mr. Brace asked if HSAB could help Mr. Rank financially. Marine Department Report: 5:05 p.m. Family scallop season report: Mr. Fronzuto reported that recreational scallopers harvested more then 750 bushels of scallops since Oct. 1. Mr. Fronzuto reported that the usage fees that HSAB recommended to the selectmen, which that board subsequently approved, were recently reviewed by Town Council and found to be completely valid and justifiable. The fees become effective Jan. 1, 2012. Mr. Fronzuto added that a couple of the boatyards were surprised that the town initiated these fees and so he asked Town Council whether he was required to notify them and the answer was no because the selectmen have the authority to set fees by holding public hearings, which are publicly noticed in the newspaper for two weeks and down at the town building. He said they got good support from both yacht clubs and, good support from the boatyards once they understood that the generated revenue goes back into waterways infrastructure. Plans in the works: On that note, Mr. Fronzuto said he would soon be bringing a proposal to HSAB for discussion and support for a small dock in Polpis Harbor at the town landing with a ramp and seasonal float. It would be on the right side of this landing. Dr. Boyce asked if commercial scallopers would be allowed to use this dock. Mr. Fronzuto said he’s got five boats operating out of Polpis Harbor during the scallop season. The dimensions would be a 60-foot ramp from the beach to the dock, which would be 60 feet long and have a 20-foot float off the end of it, Mr. Fronzuto said. Ms. McCrae said this is a great idea. Mr. Herr asked Mr. Fronzuto if the float would remain in during the winter. Mr. Fronzuto said he would try to leave it in, but might have to pull it out because of the ice. He added that he wants to put the dock in next winter because it’ll take him a year to get permits for the project and that he would use money gleaned from mooring fees to pay for it. Dr. Boyce asked Mr. Fronzuto about his plans for repairing the eastern finger piers at the Brant Point boathouse. Mr. Fronzuto replied that the Marine Department’s Community Preservation Committee grant application was not considered by that committee because town ownership of the building was up in the air when the proposal was being considered. But he added that the bill of sale for the building would be in the correct format in time for next year’s CPC grant review process. The Coast Guard lease of the land was extended to 2033 recently. Mr. Fronzuto stated that he’s attempting to make two regulation changes. The first deals with the recreational permit for people 60 and over. Fronzuto wants to insert the word “resident” into the language so the law doesn’t get abused by non-residents. Mr. Brace asked Mr. Fronzuto how many of these permits he’s handed out and Mr. Fronzuto said he thought around 200. The second regulation Mr. Fronzuto wants to revise is the bylaw governing the taking of shellfish within closed areas of the harbors. Currently, there is no penalty for doing this. He wants to add a sentence in the bylaw that prohibits shellfishing in areas closed to shellfishing. This change would require a town meeting article and the previous one, a public hearing at a selectmen’s meeting. He added that in the future, he and Tara Riley are going to figure a way to better regulate pond fishing. Ms. Riley reported that she is working on shutting down the boathouse and getting the scallops under her care ready for the winter and is working on organizing supplies for the new algae system in 2012. Mr. Fronzuto announced that the Land Council raised another $5,000 for Ms. Riley’s efforts. They got it from a boathouse intern’s father. He added that Ms. Riley got another donation, $100 from the Nantucket Garden Club. Old Business: Moorings in productive eelgrass beds Mr. Fronzuto reported that the Cape & Islands Harbor Masters Association applied to Coastal Zone Management for a grant to look into alternative moorings. He added that every harbor in this region is dealing with the same mooring issues that Nantucket, so this grant would help get them information on alternative mooring systems New Business: 5:39pm Meeting room Dr. Boyce reported that Roads and Right of Way Committee chairman Allen Reinhard wanted to know if HSAB would minding meeting out in the garage at 2 Fairgrounds on alternating Tuesdays when that committee’s meetings conflict with HSAB’s, which be every other second Tuesday of the month. Shellfish Management Plan Matt Herr announced that the SMP committee would be meeting on Oct. 19. He added that sometime after Thanksgiving they’ll have a draft copy of the plan ready for public consumption at meeting they’ve yet to schedule at which they’ll take public comments. After that, they’ll revise the plan and then produce the final draft. He continued that the selectmen would have to adopt this plan at a public hearing at one of their meetings. Mr. Fronzuto recommended that the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries be a co-adopter or at least put its stamp of a approval on the plan to give it sharper teeth. Mr. Brace reported that an online newspaper in Utah ran article earlier in the month that a Las Vegas, Nev. restaurant was offering Nantucket bay scallops on their menu. Mr. Fronzuto said he would call the DMF, which will investigate who is selling these scallops. Adjournment: 5:49pm Unanimously approved Next Meetings: Nov. 1 and 15, 2011 Respectfully submitted, Peter B. Brace, Secretary