Council might act on revised leases

Published 1:42 am Monday, July 25, 2016

Washington’s City Council is expected to review revised waterfront docking leases during its meeting Monday.

At a meeting earlier this year, the council expressed concerns about the proposed leases. Council members made it clear they prefer two- to three-year leases instead of the five-year leases proposed by city staff. The leases involve the Little Washington Sailing School, North Carolina Estuarium, Seatow IBX and the RV/Stanley Riggs, a research vessel.

The proposed, updated leases include new information for each watercraft to be covered by the leases and an extension period of one year for each lease.

Under the updated agreements, the sailing school would continue to pay an annual $1 fee to use the entire Dock J. The proposed agreement allows the sailing school to attach two 20-foot-by-40-foot floating docks to Dock F by using mooring lines and pilings. The sailing school uses 14-foot long, center console Avon sailboats.

The $182 monthly rent for the North Carolina Estuarium to use city docking space for its River Roving vessel would be waived under the latest lease proposal concerning the Estuarium. The vessel may not be refueled at the waterfront docks without the prior consent of the city and approval of the city fire marshal. If such refueling is allowed, the boat owner must submit a spill prevention and containment plan to the city prior to the refueling and receive approval from the city.

As for Seatow IBX, one of the proposed leases assigns slip No. 1 at Dock F to the Sea Tow IBX vessel. For providing services to the city docks, Seatow IBX is exempt from paying $182 monthly rent to the city. If Seatow IBX does not provide the specified services, the city may relocate its vessel to another boat slip.

Under the proposed agreement, Seatow IBX would remove debris from the waterfront docks within a reasonable time after receiving such a request from the city or after becoming aware of the need for such removal, and provide reasonable assistance (upon request by the city) to vessels with which the city has existing docking agreements.

One of the updated leases waives the $238 monthly rental fee for the RV/Stanley Riggs, a research vessel owned by East Carolina University and sometimes docked on the city’s waterfront.

The refueling clause that applies to the Estuarium’s River Roving vessel applies to the RV/Stanley Riggs and the Seatow IBX vessel.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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