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MacMillan Pier

    SAFETY GRANT

    New Ladders Will Soon Arrive at MacMillan Pier

    A resident was rescued at the dinghy dock after falling in the water last month

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — A recent safety grant from the state’s Seaport Economic Council will pay for the installation of six new ladders rising from the water of Provincetown Harbor onto MacMillan Pier, according to Pier Manager Jamie Demetriou.

    A jumble of boats at Provincetown’s dinghy dock on MacMillan Pier. A ladder will soon be installed there so that anyone who falls in the water will have a safe path back onto the floating dock above them. (Photo by Aden Choate)

    There are currently ladders on the fixed parts of the pier where larger vessels tie up but not on the pier’s two floating extensions, which hold the town’s fleet of lobster boats and its dinghy dock.

    “They will be going up as soon as our engineering firm picks the ladders out, picks them up, and installs them,” said Demetriou. She expects that will be in early 2025.

    At least one of the ladders will go on the dinghy dock, which was the site of a rescue on Aug. 19 when 81-year-old Provincetown resident James E. King fell into the water while tying up his dinghy and could not hoist himself back onto the dock above him.

    Fortunately, three young people were nearby, about to go pier jumping before their classes at the West End Racing Children’s Community Sailing program. Andrew Shope, 13, and JJ Blake, 10, rushed to the dinghy dock and held onto King by his arms while Kevin Woznac, 12, went to get help from the harbormaster’s office at the far end of the pier.

    Assistant Harbormaster Jesse Boyd and pier traffic enforcement agent John DeMatteis then pulled King up onto the floating dock to safety. King was unharmed except for some minor scrapes.

    After the Independent reported that incident, Provincetown resident Rick Treanor wrote a letter to the editor calling for a ladder to be installed on the dock so that “everyone in the water — those who intended to be there and those who didn’t — can get out safely and easily.”

    As it turns out, the town had applied for the Seaport Economic Council grant late last year and was awarded $800,000 by the state in January, according to Demetriou; $80,000 is earmarked for the purchase and installation of six ladders.

    The rest of the grant money will support a range of other safety improvements at the pier, including lighting, security cameras, and new hoists for commercial fishermen, Demetriou said.

    “We are also putting in a new water main in a few months and a new courtesy float in April,” she added, although those are funded separately from the Seaport Economic Council grant.

    Oddly Uncommon

    Provincetown Harbormaster Will Sullivan, who was hired to fill that position in July after holding the same job in Wellfleet, told the Independent that it is actually rare for someone to fall into the water.

    “It’s oddly really uncommon,” Sullivan said. Without railings around the pier, “You’d think it would happen way more.”

    Sullivan estimated that accidental tumbles into the water in Wellfleet happened about once a year, or even once every other year. Demetriou said that the last time a person fell off MacMillan pier in Provincetown was three years ago. “They were fine,” she said.

    There are life rings attached to ropes around the pier, Sullivan said. There are many ways to help people who fall in, he said, but throwing them something that will help them float is an important way to buy time and prevent them from tiring while treading water.

    After the Aug. 19 rescue, the harbormaster and pier staff informally reviewed the incident and talked about how a ladder could have helped King and the young men assisting him.

    Boyd and DeMatteis “felt lucky that they had the ability and the strength to pull the man out,” said Sullivan. “But the biggest takeaway was that they had contact with the person and the ability to keep them safe until help arrived.

    “I think the biggest saving grace was those kids,” Sullivan added.

    STICKER SHOCK

    Select Board Balks at Plan for Stellwagen Center

    A building’s imposing size and $6.3-million price tag give town officials pause

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Plans to build a visitor center for the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary on town-owned land at the base of MacMillan Pier hit a significant snag last week when Provincetown Select Board members said the current design is too large and expensive.

    Center for Coastal Studies CEO Rich Delaney (left) and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Supt. Peter DeCola present updated plans for a visitor center on MacMillan Pier to Provincetown’s select board on Aug. 26. (Photo by Paul Benson)

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) secured a $15-million federal allocation for the project last August, but the full construction costs for the three-story 10,850-square-foot building that the agency has proposed will be $21.3 million, according to a 2021 NOAA projection.

    NOAA is looking to the town to provide both the land and additional funds, while the Center for Coastal Studies, the project’s third partner, would run the educational programming at the site.

    Without other funding, the plan would leave Provincetown taxpayers on the hook for $6.3 million in construction costs plus continuing operation and maintenance costs, since the visitor center would actually be owned by the town, not the federal government. That math did not appeal to anyone on the select board.

    “We need a plan that’s financially viable for the town,” said board member Leslie Sandberg. “I’m concerned about a slippery slope — it’s 6 million now, it could be 12 million a year from now. That’s never going to fly.”

    “The building is really, really large,” said board member Erik Borg. “The good news is there might be an opportunity to scale it down” and bring the total cost closer to the $15 million in federal funds that NOAA had already secured, Borg said.

    A rendering of the 10,850-square-foot $21.3-million visitor center as it would look from Lopes Square. The Center for Coastal Studies would staff the center, and the federal government is offering $15 million to help build it, but the remainder of the costs could be borne by Provincetown taxpayers, who would own the building. (Image courtesy Town of Provincetown)

    The plans were presented by Peter DeCola, superintendent of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and Rich Delaney, CEO of the Center for Coastal Studies. The pair had last briefed the select board on March 8, 2021 in a conversation that focused on potential locations for the visitor center but did not include detailed cost estimates.

    “For most of our 48 years, we’ve said the Center for Coastal Studies is the best kept secret in Provincetown,” said Delaney. “A downtown presence would give us the ability to attract more researchers, funding, and the space to grow, so it’s an exciting opportunity for us.”

    The building is designed to accommodate 260,000 visitors per year, most of them in the peak summer season, in accordance with a “visitation analysis” from 2017. The cost estimates were from June 2021, and select board members worried they were already obsolete because of a rapid rise in construction costs since then.

    “One of the challenging things when you talk about this funding gap is you also have the cost of moving parking spaces over to Route 6,” said board chair Dave Abramson. “Can you tell us what the costs would be for that?”

    The visitor center would sit on part of the municipal parking lot at the pier and displace about 60 town-owned parking spaces. A consulting firm presented plans to replace those parking spaces with 60 new ones in the roadbed of Route 6 between Conwell Street and Shank Painter Road in March, but that project would cost about $3.5 million, said Assistant Town Manager Dan Riviello.

    “We’re in a housing crisis,” said Sandberg, “and for us to go to town meeting and ask for $3.5 million just for parking and $6 million for this building, and we’ve just done a sewer expansion, Motta Field, and Cannery Wharf Park. I don’t have confidence that this is a good deal for the town.”

    Reducing the Cost

    Select board member Austin Miller asked if NOAA had considered building the visitor center on National Seashore land at Race Point, but DeCola said that is not something his agency would consider.

    Because the building is in the FEMA “velocity zone” and potentially exposed to the force of breaking waves, the first floor would be elevated to 9.5 feet above ground level at the site. (Image courtesy Town of Provincetown)

    “We’re looking for a gateway to the Sanctuary, and that is not it,” said DeCola. “The reason there’s a Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is because of this town. It’s our sense of place, our origins and beginnings, and that’s why we want it here.”

    Delaney said that the Center for Coastal Studies would staff the visitor center with interpretive specialists but that it had not planned on raising capital for the construction. “We just don’t have the capacity to do capital costs,” Delaney said.

    He said he remained optimistic about finding a funding strategy for the project, however. “There are other sources of funds, the state being one of them, and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation has private sources that could help us raise money,” said Delaney.

    DeCola said that it would be possible to strip certain elements from the visitor center, including a community meeting room and the public restrooms on the ground floor, to reduce the overall cost of the project.

    The town had requested transportation upgrades including electric charging stations and a redesigned bus stop. Removing those elements “could get us much closer to the $15 million,” DeCola said.

    Sandberg said she thought the town was likely to secure electric charging stations through other grants anyway.

    “We’re working on it,” said Riviello.

    Location Questions

    Sandberg and Miller also had reservations about the visitor center’s proposed location along the base of MacMillan Pier, which is in the “velocity zone” on federal flood maps because of its potential exposure to breaking waves.

    The select board asked Supt. DeCola to reconsider a site near the entrance to the Provincetown Marina on Ryder Street. The board rejected it in 2021 partly because members feared it would draw pedestrians into traffic near the town’s principal bus stop. (Image courtesy Town of Provincetown)

    The select board had endorsed that location in March 2021, but neither Sandberg nor Miller were on the board at that time. Miller said the enhanced requirements for building in a velocity zone were the reason the building struck him as out of scale for the area.

    Miller said he favored an alternate spot that the board had passed over in 2021: still on the municipal parking lot but closer to the entrance to the Provincetown Marina and the current bus stop. That area is in the federally defined floodplain but is not in the velocity zone, so a building there would have lower flood-elevation requirements.

    Borg asked if the visitor center could be built on the current site of the town’s public restrooms, but the town’s vacuum sewer lines all converge in that area, making construction there impossible, Town Manager Alex Morse said.

    Board members floated other locations for the visitor center — including the parking lot next to the CVS pharmacy and the chamber of commerce building at Lopes Square — but DeCola said that reopening the question of location could set the project back irreparably.

    “There are things we need to sit down and discuss, but it’s going to be challenging to discuss them without a location,” DeCola said.

    The select board ultimately asked DeCola to bring them smaller proposals at the two town parking lot sites — the one at the base of MacMillan and the one nearer to the marina.

    “It’s the height” that voters don’t like, Sandberg said. “This is a really good opportunity to resize it and see what happens.”

    Scaling the project back is the only sure way to reduce the cost, Abramson said.

    “I think we’re looking to be partners here,” Miller said. “We’re just reflecting the concerns and questions of voters and taxpayers.”

    That message brought some resolution, and DeCola said he would find out how much it would cost to revise the designs downward.

    “I’m glad we’re still partners,” said Delaney. “We’ll work this stuff out.”

    LIFE SAVERS

    3 Young Sailors Come to the Rescue at Town Pier

    They were prepared, thanks to Provincetown’s children’s sailing program

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — JJ Blake, Andrew Shope, and Kevin Woznac were biking down MacMillan Wharf on Aug. 19 to go pier jumping before their daily lessons at West End Racing Children’s Community Sailing when they saw an unusual splash just beyond a docked dinghy at the far end of the pier.

    Andrew Shope, left, and Kevin Woznac at the West End Racing Club the day after they rescued a man who fell off MacMillan Pier. (Photo by Sam Pollak)

    “At first I thought it was a seal,” said Kevin, who is 12. Then two hands shot up out of the water, followed by the bobbing head of a man clearly in distress. The three boys ditched their bikes and ran to the man, who they said was having trouble staying above water.

    Andrew, 13, and JJ, 10, grabbed hold of the man’s arms and heaved him as far out of the water as they could. But the side of the dock was too high, and the man, 81, was having trouble getting his footing. Kevin hopped on his bike and pedaled as fast as he could to the harbormaster’s office, where he asked Assistant Harbormaster Jesse Boyd and pier traffic enforcement agent John DeMatteis for help.

    DeMatteis and Boyd rushed to the spot where JJ and Andrew were still holding the man above water. Boyd grasped the man below his shoulders, and together they pulled him safely to shore. The emergency had lasted only 10 or 15 minutes, the young men said. Aside from some minor scrapes, the man was OK, those involved in the rescue said.

    “He didn’t need an ambulance, no helicopters,” DeMatteis said. “He just got in his truck and left.”

    The man who was rescued did not respond to an inquiry from the Independent.

    “It’s all a bit of a haze,” Andrew said. “We were there for a while trying to hold him up. I didn’t know if we were going to be able to.”

    “I believed in you and JJ,” Kevin said to Andrew. The two were back at the West End Racing clubhouse the next day. They said they knew what to do when they saw the man struggling because of what they have learned at the sailing program, which teaches kids ages 8 to 14 the water safety skills needed to become sailors.

    Their ability to help was “in big measure due to the West End Sailing Club and the skills they learned there,” said Richard Woznac, Kevin’s father. Susan Avellar, director of the children’s sailing program, said that through drills like the skipper’s test, where the students are taught to right a capsized boat and fetch overboard items from the water, they became prepared lifesavers.

    “They are aware of good safety habits in and out of the water,” Avellar said. “That’s why we are here. They learn how to take care of each other.”

    Andrew is also a Boy Scout, so he’s received some additional first-aid training there, he said. Once the man was safe on land, Andrew administered care from a first-aid kit he carries around with him. “I tried to give him one of those silver blankets to warm him up,” said Andrew. “He didn’t need it.

    “I knew not to let him sink, make sure he didn’t exert himself, and keep him calm,” Andrew said of what he learned as a Boy Scout. But a lot of it just came from instinct, Kevin added. “It’s just common sense,” he said.

    DeMatteis recognized the boys’ bravery in acting quickly. “These three individuals acted more like adults than most of the adults I deal with on the pier,” he said. “They acted very responsibly.”

    DeMatteis noted that the man they had helped appeared to be scraped up from his fall and clearly was unable to make it out of the water by himself. He said that the boys may have saved a life that day.

    When the Independent met with Kevin and Andrew in the West End the next day, they appeared unshaken by what had happened.

    “I got six or eight texts saying, ‘You’re my hero’ from my grandmother,” said Kevin.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Whiting, Whales, and Wind

    Here, the wind kept a lot of boats in last week; off the Vineyard, a wind farm goes forward

    By

    Last week I wrote about the possibility of us having a good striped bass bite, uninterrupted, all season long. I might have spoken too soon, as the bass really turned off this week. There were a few from the Race to the Race Point Lifesaving Station, but the bite slowed down significantly. Besides that, weather kept the boats in for a couple of days, and the winds from the northeast have chilled the waters everywhere.

    Whiting fishing is good now in the deep water (160 to 180 feet) off the Bathhouse and Hatches. Baited hooks on the bottom are the ticket there, and sometimes strong currents will necessitate heavy sinkers, but the fish are down there and hungry. Whiting are very tasty pan-fried and even better smoked. Get out shore fisherman Jim Gilbert’s column from last week on brining and smoking your own fish and use it on whole cleaned whiting — you won’t be sorry.

    The whiting are biting. (Photo courtesy NOAA)

    After being everywhere, the bluefish were suddenly thin in the bay this week. But the area between Race Station and Head of the Meadow is an exception. That stretch has been consistently occupied by big bluefish. They are in pretty shallow water and are slamming swimming plugs hard.

    It’s still quiet on the giant tuna front. The late summer/fall blitz in the bay has not materialized as of this writing.
    The whales are still in that area off Race Point Beach and putting on quite the show, with groups of humpbacks open-mouthed and feeding and breaching as well. Fin whales and minkes are still in the Race and they are now close enough to see from the beach.

    And another sight to see: It’s nice to have the campers back on the beach. Times have changed so drastically for them, as the period they’re allowed on the sand has been condensed to just a couple of weeks a summer.

    Out of view, apparently, someone has been doing damage to the skiffs docked on MacMillan Pier. One inflatable boat was slashed with such violence that the person doing the slashing must have cut himself in the process. The boat had bloodstains all over it. Why anyone would want to vandalize these boats is so beyond me. But I think more frequent night walks by the harbormaster’s staff might be needed to put a stop to such crimes.

    The U.S. Dept. of the Interior has officially approved Revolution Wind’s request for a wind farm off Martha’s Vineyard; it will be built about 14 miles southwest of Aquinnah. Objections from the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head led to the project being scaled down to 65 windmills plus two substations instead of the 100 windmills initially planned. The power from the farm will not come back to Massachusetts, by the way, but will instead flow to Rhode Island and Connecticut.

    The turbines will be 873 feet tall, according to a report in the Vineyard Gazette. I’m afraid a view of many windmills off our beaches when we look out to sea is going to become the norm sooner rather than later unless the pushback gets stronger.

    But the views aren’t the only issue. These farms appear to have adverse effects on the marine environment. Revolution Wind says it will create a fund to compensate for losses suffered by the recreational and commercial fisheries in Rhode Island and Massachusetts as well as fisheries from other states directly related to the construction of the wind farm. I have not seen the specific details of this promise, but I look forward to seeing the plan.

    Meanwhile, dead whale number 68 for this spring and summer washed up on Long Island last week. People are worried that the noise from construction of the wind farms is confusing the whales. Scientists at NOAA and the Marine Mammal Commission who have been looking at rising whale deaths since 2016 say the noise from these farms is not as bad as noise from offshore oil. They’re pointing to warming waters leading whales into areas of higher boat traffic. Stay tuned.

    FISHERIES

    Judge Rules Against Gloucester Clammer ‘Monte’ Rome

    Questions about enforcement of hydraulic dredging rules remain

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — A Barnstable Superior Court judge last month ordered the North Shore owner of a 70-foot sea clam boat to pay $7,500 in docking fees and obtain a permit from the local conservation commission before he can dredge for clams again in Provincetown.

    Howard “Monte” Rome of Gloucester, owner of the F/V Tom Slaughter and the wholesale seafood company Intershell, must pay the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. for docking at Provincetown’s MacMillan Pier in 2014 and 2015 when he was using hydraulic dredging gear to harvest sea clams from a two-square-mile area inside a 40-foot “contour zone” off Herring Cove Beach.

    Rather than pay his docking fees, Rome sued the town in 2015 after being served with a cease-and-desist order prohibiting him and three other fishing boat owners from conducting hydraulic dredging.

    This type of clamming involves aiming 50 to 100 pounds of water pressure at the ocean floor to loosen the clams, a practice the conservation commission considers harmful to the sea floor environment. A 2007 town regulation requires hydraulic clammers to obtain permits from the town.

    The three other clammers’ cases were resolved with similar outcomes. If they want to use this method of clamming, they must seek conservation commission permits, said Town Manager Alex Morse.

    But the settlements leave unanswered questions.

    It is unclear which government entity has jurisdiction over this kind of clamming in this particular place. The state Div. of Marine Fisheries (DMF) governs clamming, and towns regulate dredging activities that close to shore, said Dan McKiernan, director of the DMF.

    “The judge felt both laws had standing, and I am not going to argue with the judge,” McKiernan said.

    The court case offers no clear enforcement strategy, nor does it ban all hydraulic clammers.

    Jamie Staniscia, chair of the Pier Corp., asked Greg Corbo, the KP Law attorney who represented the town in the case, to suggest enforcement methods. Corbo offered two possibilities. First, the town could identify the fishermen and then ban them from using MacMillan Pier. Or, in a two-step process, the harbormaster could allow those known to be doing hydraulic clamming to offload their clams once and tell them that if they do it again, they will have to prove they were outside the 40-foot contour or they would be banned from the pier.

    Rome, who lived in Provincetown for 20 years before moving to Gloucester, said he will be applying for a conservation commission permit in January. But he said, the central issue of jurisdiction remains unresolved. “If all cities are allowed to take over state waters, I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Rome said.

    Tim Famulare, Provincetown’s environmental planner and conservation agent, said he could not talk about the Rome case until the judge signs the settlement agreement.

    Morse told the select board on Dec. 13 that there are only 12 hydraulic dredging permits in the entire state and none in Provincetown, so he did not expect an onslaught of other boats coming to Herring Cove.

    “Our hope is to work with the DMF to ban it altogether,” Morse said.

    But it is not clear that such an approach would go anywhere. DMF Director McKiernan said he disagrees with the town’s assessment that using water pressure is actually dredging.

    “We don’t think the Wetlands Protection Act meant for towns to regulate this,” McKiernan said.

    PIER REVIEW

    Who Should Pay to Repair an Aging Pier?

    A longstanding argument about dockage rates is about to resume

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Twenty years after an $18-million reconstruction, MacMillan Pier — the town’s economic and cultural heart — needs work. All agree on that. What is disputed is who should pay for it.

    “We have competing goals,” said Jamie Staniscia, chair of the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. “Fishermen want low rates. The select board wants to cater to its constituents. And the Pier Corp. wants to carry out their mandate, as outlined by the state.”

    Increased fees for tenants of MacMillan Pier are scheduled to go into effect in April. (Photo Michaela Chesin)

    The Pier Corp. has operated MacMillan Pier for the past two decades under an agreement that enabled the town to receive a $14.3-million state grant for the last renovation. It was created by the Commonwealth “for the purpose of bringing sound and market-based management practices to MacMillan Pier operations,” according to the enabling act of 2000 that established the Pier Corp.

    But lobsterman Dana Pazolt sees the 21-year-old public corporation “trying to beat up tenants to drive the fishermen out. They want to put a bunch of pleasure craft there.”

    The pier’s fiscal 2022 draft budget, unanimously endorsed by the Pier Corp. board on Dec. 2, includes controversial rate increases that will go into effect this coming April. Dockage rates will go up by about 50 percent. While the Pier Corp. board originally voted to raise rates in February 2021 (to go into effect in April 2021), the resulting public outcry led to postponing the increases for a year, as fishermen regained their footing amid the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The budget’s projected revenue for the coming year is $997,799 with the planned rate increases. That budget is 32 percent higher than the revised fiscal 2019 budget. The fiscal 2023 budget is projected to jump by another 11 percent.

    “This is a good budget,” said Pier Corp. board member and treasurer David Colton during the Dec. 2 meeting. “The budget wouldn’t have been possible without rate adjustments.” The budget will be presented to the select board.

    The life of the pier is 40 to 50 years, said Pier Manager Doug Boulanger. Needed repairs include a cracked water line, rusting electrical switches and gears, and other structural repairs, like replacing pilings and broken ladders, said Boulanger.

    At the last annual town meeting, voters approved $270,000 in electrical upgrades and infrastructure maintenance like the failed pilings. The plan is to cover essential repairs with town meeting appropriations over several years, according to Boulanger.

    Past and present Pier Corp. members say dockage rate increases are needed because there have been none since 2005, and taxpayers are continually subsidizing pier users who aren’t Provincetown residents. Only four of the 54 MacMillan slips are currently occupied by Provincetown residents, Staniscia said.

    “The select board caves to political pressure from nonvoting nonresident tenants,” said Staniscia. “That is unfair to Provincetown taxpayers.”

    But the tenants — commercial fishermen, whale watch boat owners, and ferry companies — say that the current plan is not feasible and ignores a core mission of the pier: to support and sustain the commercial fishing industry.

    “Rate hikes will push more fishermen out of an already struggling industry and will also stop newcomers,” said third-generation lobsterman David Young, who now lives in Eastham. His family moved as the cost of living in Provincetown rose. “For any young person coming up,” he said, “it’s going to be a hard challenge. My son will not begin next year because he can’t afford it.”

    A reasonable rate increase should be implemented, said fisherman and Pier Corp. member Beau Gribbin. “But 10 percent annually for five years,” he suggested, “instead of the drastic increase we’re seeing now.”

    Rather than asking for fee increases, the Pier Corp. should pursue grant money, Pazolt said. “There are too many people calling the shots now and distracting the pier manager,” he said. “There is grant money out there. You just have to ask.”

    Tenants say the Pier Corp. board has done a poor job managing pier maintenance, causing an increasing reliance on town funds.

    Pier Corp. members attribute the pier’s failure to run independently to longstanding politics: proposed rate increases have always been met with objections about bad timing. “How can we sustain the pier if we can’t increase the rates?” Staniscia asked.

    Young sees no need for the Pier Corp. to exist. “I’d rather deal with the selectmen myself,” he said. “Have it go back to the way it was, because we’re too far removed from the decision-makers. You go to the Pier Corp. with your grievance, and they must go to the selectmen. There are way too many players. I like one captain on the boat.”

    Before there was a Pier Corp., the pier was run by the town. Maintenance was ignored for decades, and at length you could feel the structure move when a truck drove onto it, said former Town Manager Keith Bergman.

    “We needed a business plan,” Bergman said. “The necessary funds weren’t being put aside for the pier, so it needed to be operated as a business. That’s where the Pier Corp. came along.”

    In 2025, the lease between the Pier Corp. and the town will expire. “If people want a different option,” Staniscia said, “it’s up to the town to have an honest conversation with taxpayers about what their options are.”

    WHARFINGERS

    The Lagasses’ Marina Deal Required a Harbor Walk by 2019

    Pier Corp. board members question using public money to help get it built

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — When Chuck and Ann Lagasse bought Fisherman’s Wharf in 2016, the Chapter 91 license they secured from the state required them to construct a harbor walk on the pier to ensure that the public would have access to the waterfront.

    Five years later, there is still no harbor walk.

    Chuck Lagasse said the delay was the result of design changes, permitting problems, and supply chain issues related to the pandemic. He said he hopes to start construction next year on a 10-foot-wide boardwalk that will go from Ryder Street up the west side of his wharf to its end. Lagasse also said he plans to turn the current building at the wharf’s end into public restrooms and a restaurant and event center.

    The entrance to Fisherman’s Wharf. (Photo Jamie Demetriou)

    These improvements, he said, will cost more than $20 million, on top of the $6 million cost of the walkway.

    On the select board’s agenda for its Oct. 25 meeting was its approval of an application for a $1 million state Seaport Economic Development Grant to help Lagasse pay for the walk. The price tag includes new pilings that must be driven beneath the pier and a widening of the pier itself, according to the grant application.

    The application appeared in the board’s “consent agenda,” which is where officials usually deal with routine housekeeping matters that warrant little or no discussion. But when Jamie Staniscia, chair of the Provincetown Public Pier Corp., which manages MacMillan Pier, saw the application there, he objected on two grounds.

    First, he said, the town should not be applying for state money to be used by a private business owner. The Fisherman’s Wharf harbor walk, he said, will siphon pedestrians away from town-owned MacMillan Pier and send people to Lagasse’s restaurant. Meanwhile, Staniscia argued, all the businesses and nonprofits that support the “blue economy” mentioned as justification for the grant are actually on MacMillan Pier, including whale watch boats, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy outpost, and sailing charters.

    Second, Staniscia questioned why this item appeared in the consent agenda, since it seemed to be worthy of public debate.

    Select board members agreed to pull the item from the agenda for discussion at a later date.

    “Why would we be partnering with a for-profit pier for $1 million for a Seaport Grant?” asked board member Leslie Sandberg.

    The Seaport Grants are given out twice a year, she added, so withdrawing the grant application from the agenda would not eliminate the town’s chance of receiving the funds.

    “My concern is the Seaport Economic Grant money is precious and the town needs to look at how it can be spent wisely,” added Ginny Binder, a former member of the Pier Corp. board. “I would urge you to dig further to see if this is the best use of $1 million.”

    After the meeting, Lagasse told the Independent that Staniscia and others are missing years of history. The Lagasses bought the pier from Robert Cabral and Raymond Cabral in 2016 for $3.5 million. Developers of private marinas first in Newburyport and then in Boston, the Lagasses began to upgrade the facilities to attract yachts to their Provincetown Marina. There are now 100 slips that accommodate vessels up to 300 feet long, according to the marina’s website.

    Town officials defended their decision to go after state money to help pay for the harbor walk.

    “Success of the Provincetown Marina has huge potential for the town in general,” said Assistant Town Manager David Gardner. Its failure, he added, would be catastrophic.

    But the Lagasses still have work to do. The state license requires them to build the walkway. They contend that what has kept them from getting that done is related to the fact that the town insists the Lagasses continue to offer commercial parking — about 200 spaces — on the wharf.

    Making room for both parking and the walkway, Lagasse said, is the reason the wharf has to be widened. And that expansion triggered an environmental review because it would affect a bed of eel grass. That, in turn, necessitated design revisions. As a result, Lagasse said, he has received an extension on the 2019 walkway deadline.

    Rex McKinsey, the town’s marine and emergency management coordinator, confirmed that. No one from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers returned a call seeking comment before deadline.

    Staniscia said the harbor walk design is the result of cookie-cutter Chapter 91 requirements. Why not lobby the state for something that would really benefit the town, he asked, such as a boardwalk along the waterfront rather than down a pier? It would cost $3 million instead of $6 million — and Lagasse could pay for it.

    Chapter 91 requirements can be negotiated, Staniscia said.

    ON THE WATERFRONT

    Personal Watercraft Could Jet Into Provincetown Harbor

    Pier Corp. board expected to consider Jet Ski rentals on July 14

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — A proposal to bring a personal watercraft (PWC), or Jet Ski, rental business to MacMillan Pier will be considered by the Public Pier Corp. board at its next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, July 14.

    Marcello Subashi, who owns and operates Provincetown Parasail, proposes to lease Noah Santos’s float space 1E on MacMillan Pier to rent personal watercraft to the public. Subashi intends to have a chaperone take the customers out for 45-minute rides. They would proceed slowly until they are beyond Long Point, where they would then be able to go full throttle, according to a presentation provided to the Pier Corp. by Marianna Kennedy, Santos’s fiancée. The watercraft riders would have to comply with the no-wake speed zones and would be directed to avoid the shipping lanes until they get beyond Long Point, Kennedy said.

    Don German, the Provincetown harbormaster, said he gets phone calls every time people see the motorized PWCs zipping through the harbor. They are legal in Provincetown. But because there has not been a business providing them in town for several years, they are not often seen, and many people believe they are illegal.

    The proposed route and speeds for personal watercraft users in Provincetown Harbor. (Photo courtesy Marianna Kennedy)

    Due to the controversy that follows in their wake, Pier Corp. Board Chair Jamie Staniscia asked the select board to hear the proposal.

    “I have received a lot of comments and concerns about this,” Staniscia said. “I do think there is a public process that could benefit. I want the public input and the select board to weigh in.”

    But decisions on dockage and related uses are within the jurisdiction of the Pier Corp. and outside the select board’s authority, said Town Manager Alex Morse.

    And so, the Pier Corp. board plans to take up the question on July 14, Staniscia said on July 4. The meeting time and place had not been posted on the town website by the Independent’s deadline this week.

    Marine excursions that take the public out on the water are a permitted use of float space, said Pier Corp. trustee Scott Fraser.

    But members of the Pier Corp. board want an opinion from legal counsel because of complicating factors, such as the fact that the harbor regulations posted on the town website have not been updated for years and do not reflect a 2016 change related to PWCs. According to the current regulations, PWCs can be launched from public boat ramps and the pier. But until this most recent application from Subashi, the regulations on the website stated they could be launched only from Good Templar Landing, otherwise known as Flyer’s Boatyard.

    Float space 1E at MacMillan Pier could be the spot to rent personal watercraft if the Public Pier Corp. approves. (Photo Jamie Demetriou)

    Staniscia said the public may not be properly informed, given that the town had failed to update the regulations on the website. The Pier Corp. board expects to get word from its legal counsel before the next meeting.

    Meanwhile it is nearly mid-July, and Subashi’s proposal has been before the Pier Corp. for months, Santos said.

    “The town regulations were approved five years ago, and just because people are not aware of the law doesn’t mean that it’s not a law,” Santos said.

    Kennedy said Flyer’s Boat Rentals gets about 20 calls a week from people asking if they rent PWCs.

    “There is a demand for it,” Kennedy said. “It would be good for the town.”

    This Week In Provincetown

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. Go to provincetown-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch.

    Thursday, March 18

    • Board of Health, 4 p.m.
    • Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.

    Monday, March 22

    • Select Board, 6 p.m.

    Tuesday, March 23

    • Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
    • Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.

     Wednesday, March 24

    • Local Comprehensive Planning Committee, 1 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Covid-19 Update

    As of March 15, Provincetown had five active Covid-19 cases, and 95 total cases including one death related to Covid-19, according to the town.

    Pier Corp. Popularity

    A total of eight people have applied for two spots on the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. board. The select board will interview the last five on Monday, March 22, and they could make appointments that night.

    The management of MacMillan Pier, handled by the Pier Corp., is a hot topic after two recent developments. The current Pier Corp. dramatically raised dock fees and two members, Ginny Binder and Carlos Verde, were forced to resign because of term limits.

    New applicants include Beau Gribbin, a long-time commercial fishing captain and boat owner, who operates out of Provincetown. He lives in North Truro, but Pier Corp. members don’t have to be Provincetown residents. Gribbin is a member of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, according to his application.

    Max Cliggott-Perlt of Provincetown has been a member of the Local Comprehensive Planning Committee since its inception, he wrote on his application.

    Robert Davis of Provincetown is a long-time investor, mostly in hotels and resorts. He wrote that he sees an economic opportunity to expand recreational sailing in the harbor, which is “underutilized in terms of moorings and slips.”

    Clinton Kershaw of Truro says in his application he is well-versed in budget and financial management but will have a learning curve to get up to speed on municipal financing.

    David Colton of Provincetown is a general municipal management consultant with the Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management and a former town administrator in Easton and Milton, as well as former commissioner and director of public works in Quincy and Milton.

    The select board interviewed four other candidates on March 8: Eastham lobsterman David Young, Mass. Maritime Academy student Caitlin Townsend of Truro, and Barbara Dyett, who lives in New Jersey and Provincetown. The fourth, Laura Ludwig, who serves on the harbor committee, withdrew her application. She said it conflicted with her work for the Center for Coastal Studies, a marine biology nonprofit. —K.C. Myers

    Petitioned Article Workshops

    Provincetown residents who want to submit a petitioned article for town meeting on May 1 can set up an appointment with town staff to review and formalize their legal language. Thirty-minute appointments are available on March 24 between 3 and 5 p.m. Call the town clerk’s office at 508-487-7013 to reserve a time.

    Petitions require the signatures of 10 registered Provincetown voters and must be submitted by 4 p.m. on April 1. —Paul Benson

    ON THE WATERFRONT

    2 Pier Corp. Members Made to Step Down

    Shake-up may lead to big-picture management change

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — In the wake of unpopular fee hikes by the board of the Provincetown Public Pier Corp., which manages MacMillan Pier, two members of that board have been forced to resign after a fisherman’s attorney called them out for exceeding term limits.

    Ginny Binder, the chair, and member Carlos Verde both resigned in the last few weeks after William Henchy, the attorney for fisherman David Flattery, complained that they had stayed on the board for more than two consecutive terms. The term limit is set forth in the legislation that created the Pier Corp., a little understood group of volunteers tasked with managing the town’s most important waterfront facility.

    The shake-up comes less than a month after users of MacMillan Pier expressed outrage over a doubling of their fees for docking at the pier. In reaction, officials are calling for ways to discuss how the pier can be managed more effectively in general.

    Verde and Binder have been on the Pier Corp. board for 10 years. Both were starting their third five-year terms.

    A third Pier Corp. board member, LeRoy “Scott” Fraser, will come to the end of his second consecutive term in July.

    Six people have applied to replace the departing board members, including David Young, an Eastham lobsterman; Laura Ludwig, a member of the harbor committee; Caitlin Townsend, a Truro resident and a senior at the Mass. Maritime Academy; and Barbara Dyett, who lives part-time in New Jersey and maintains a rented home here. The select board interviewed them on March 8. Two more applicants are also awaiting interviews. Only Ludwig is a Provincetown voter. But the Pier Corp. board can include nonresidents.

    This personnel change comes at a contentious time. On Feb. 15, the board adopted several rule changes and fee hikes. Every select board meeting since then has been dominated by people complaining about the fees. One select board member, Lise King, has said the economic hit from the Covid-19 pandemic makes it the wrong time to raise costs for fishermen.

    Robert Anthony, another select board member, said the town needs to look at what has happened to MacMillan Pier over the last 20 years and how it can be managed better.

    MacMillan Pier, Provincetown (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    Bill Dougal was chair of the finance committee 20 years ago when the Mass. Port Authority told Provincetown officials there was millions of dollars in state and federal grant money available to rehabilitate commercial fishing piers. But in order to take advantage of $13.8 million in grants, the state required the town to create the Public Pier Corp., a separate governing body.

    The state wanted a management board “because they had no confidence the town could run the pier any longer,” Dougal said.

    The pier was substantially renovated with the grants. Dougal said the state put together comparable market-rate fees to maintain the reconstructed pier. But these fees “were beyond what the users could ever support,” Dougal said. For years, the Pier Corp., the users, and the select board engaged in finger pointing in all directions, Dougal said. And so, even after the infusion of the $13.8 million, the pier has deteriorated. For example, the mechanism to heat water has failed. In order to keep from freezing, water must be left running, not dripping, Fraser said, with fresh water pouring into the harbor.

    “It has always been underfunded and it’s been unfair to the Pier Corp. and the users as well,” Dougal said. “It’s time to step back and look at how we got here and what’s needed for re-investment for the future.”

    Verde said the Pier Corp. has always been left to do the select board’s “dirty work,” that is, making unpopular decisions to keep the pier maintained and solvent.

    In reality, the fees are below market for a pier that offers ice, cranes for off-loading, parking, and electrical service, Verde said.

    Fraser said the increased fees for large fishing vessels on the fixed finger piers are less than Gloucester’s fees. They are the same as New Bedford’s current rate, but New Bedford doesn’t reserve dock spaces, so users never know where they can dock, and often must tie up to other vessels. Each slip in Provincetown is reserved. The marina in Sandwich charges less than Provincetown’s new rates, but there is a two-year wait list for large vessels, Fraser said.

    Beau Gribbin, a fisherman, told the select board even the large fee increases aren’t enough to correct the problems at the pier.

    “You guys are about to embark on a difficult task to fill the holes, and I hope you devise a plan for better management,” Gribbin said.

    Editor’s note: Because of a reporting error, an earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that Barbara Dyett of New Jersey, a candidate for the Pier Corp. board, owns a second home here. She is a year-round renter.

     

    This Week In Truro

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. Go to truro-ma.gov, click on the meeting you want to watch, and open its agenda for instructions on how to watch or take part online.

    Thursday, March 11

    • Climate Action Committee, 10:30 a.m.
    • Finance Committee, 4 p.m.
    • Housing Authority, 4 p.m.
    • School Committee, 5:15 p.m.

    Tuesday, March 16

    • Board of Health, 4 p.m.

    Wednesday, March 17

    • Planning Board, 2:30 p.m.

    Thursday, March 18

    • Climate Action Committee, 10:30 a.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Covid-19 Update

    As of March 3, Truro had six active cases of Covid-19, according to the town. The state reported there have been 39 total cases as of March 4, and no deaths related to Covid-19.

    Select Board Calls for Pier Fee Moratorium

    Select board member Jan Worthington authored a letter to the Provincetown Public Pier Corp. and the Provincetown Select Board calling for a one-to-two-year moratorium on fee increases at MacMillan Pier.

    Worthington wrote that 24 commercial fishermen and six “eco-tourism” or charter boat owners who live in Truro fish out of Provincetown.

    “So, this is really an issue for Truro,” she said. “These are our neighbors and we need to support them.”

    The letter, signed by all the members of the select board, is a reaction to the fee increases recently announced by the Pier Corp., which over two years will just about double the dock fees on MacMillan Pier.

    Fees for large fishing boats will go from $44 to $85 per foot by 2023, and the fee for smaller vessels will go from $61 to $120 per foot by that year.

    The Truro Select Board is also asking the Provincetown Pier Corp. to include Truro residents in the definition of Provincetown-based vessels. Under the pier’s new rules, everyone who uses the pier is grandfathered to have a slip, but when a space opens up, Provincetown residents would have priority for renting it. The argument for the local preference, according to Pier Corp. member Scott Fraser, is that Provincetown taxpayers already pay millions to repair and improve the pier, so they should have some advantage.

    Worthington’s letter asks that Truro residents be represented on the Pier Corp. board. In fact, they already are allowed to be on the board, as are other nonresidents. The current application pool for two open spots on the Pier Corp. includes one Truro resident, one Eastham resident, and both a resident and a second-home owner from Provincetown.

    The Provincetown Select Board will choose new Pier Corp. members in the coming weeks.

    The Truro Select Board unanimously approved Worthington’s letter on March 9.

    “The fishing community cannot live with this,” said Worthington of the increased fees. “This is not the time to put this kind of burden on them.” —K.C. Myers

    ON THE WATERFRONT

    Pier Corp. Approves Controversial Fee Hikes

    Fees will rise about 50 percent this year

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The Public Pier Corp. has decided to raise the dockage rates at MacMillan Pier by 50 percent for commercial vessels over the next two years.

    At the second public hearing on new harbor regulations on Feb. 15, the members of the Pier Corp. board responded to a raft of negative comments from fishermen and the owners of charter boats and whale watch vessels, and then approved the new fees. New rates go into effect this year and rise annually through 2023.

    “We acknowledge these are difficult times for a lot of people,” said Scott Fraser, a member of the board. “But the natural processes of decay happen whether there is a pandemic or not.”

    Fraser said rust and rot do not stop, and that further deferred maintenance will cause a public safety hazard.

    “It’s not that we’re raising prices because we want to; it’s because there are really big projects coming,” he added.

    The revised harbor regulations increase the dockage fees for large commercial fishing vessels (50 feet long or larger) from $44.47 per foot to $65 per foot this year and to $85 per foot by 2023.

    For smaller commercial fishing boats, the rate goes from $61.73 per foot to $95 this year and to $120 by 2023.

    For the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch boats, the new dock fee goes from $10,350 to $15,000. The Pier Corp. members delayed a vote on passenger fee increases applying to ferries and whale watch vessels pending an opinion from town counsel. The board proposes to increase the passenger surcharge from $75 to $95 per seat and the per-person embarkation fee of 75 cents to $2.

    Dockage fees at MacMillan Pier will rise almost 100 percent over the next two years under new regulations adopted this week by the Pier Corp. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    The board’s decision to consult town counsel came after the Dolphin Fleet owner’s attorney told them on Feb. 4 that these passenger fees amount to a tonnage tax, which can be levied only by the federal government, not by the town, according to Seth Holbrook of the Boston law firm Holbrook & Murphy.

    The Pier Corp. members appeared not to be too worried about this legal challenge, however. In 2015, when the passenger fees were imposed for the first time, Provincetown’s lawyer said the tonnage tax argument was irrelevant. The argument was used successfully to strike down unreasonably high fees charged by a port authority to a passenger vessel, according to Pier Corp. board member Jamie Staniscia.

    The Provincetown fees are in no way similar to the port authority case, said Staniscia, who then asked his fellow board members to approve the passenger fees along with everything else. But the others voted to wait. For that reason, Staniscia was the lone dissenter in approving the new harbor regulations.

    Fishermen and other pier users circulated a petition asking the Pier Corp. to freeze the new rates because of financial hardship from the pandemic, said Regina Binder, chair of the Pier Corp. board.

    Staniscia said the petition included many signatures of people who are not Provincetown citizens.

    Fraser addressed complaints about a change in the harbor regulations that gives slip space preference to Provincetown residents. Current users should not worry, he said, because there is a grandfather clause allowing all those who have slips to remain. This new rule applies only to vacant spaces, he said. Only about six of 50 slips are currently occupied by Provincetown residents, Fraser said.

    Provincetown taxpayers have paid $2.3 million for pier improvements, Fraser said, so they are entitled to some preferential treatment.

    ON THE WATERFRONT

    Fees to Nearly Double in Pier Corp. Proposal

    Commercial boat owners feel ‘gut punched’

    By

    pier1
    Provincetown’s MacMillan Pier in Tuesday’s late-afternoon wind and snow. (Photo Jamie Demetriou)

    PROVINCETOWN — The Public Pier Corp., which operates MacMillan Pier, is proposing fee hikes for this year of around 50 percent to commercial fishermen and recreational businesses like whale watch companies. The pier dockage fees would nearly double by 2023.

    In revised harbor regulations unveiled on Feb. 4, the Pier Corp.’s proposed fee structure for large commercial fishing vessels (50 feet long or larger) includes an increase from $44.47 per foot to $65 per foot this year. The fee would go to $85 per foot by 2023.

    For smaller commercial vessels, the fees would go from $61.73 a foot to $95 this year and to $120 by 2023.

    “I don’t understand the increase, and I don’t know how any new business can afford this,” said David Young, a lobsterman. “It’s putting a death grip on everything. I don’t think we’re going down a good path.”

    pier2
    In the Pier Corp.’s proposed fee schedule, some large commercial boats would pay as much as $91,000 per year. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    Revising the harbor regulations has been in the works for the past three years, according to Scott Fraser, a Pier Corp. board member. The management structure has been totally redone, with the long-time harbormaster-pier manager’s job divided into three separate positions. Physical upgrades to the pier have included the addition of a wave attenuator and repairs to the floating docks, he said. Now comes the last part, the new fee structure, which is subject to a public hearing that continues on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 3 p.m.

    “I’d like to focus on the rates and the realities we face together,” Fraser said.

    The reality, he said, is that MacMillan Pier is getting older and the cost of maintaining it is increasing. Repairs to the electrical system and other facets of the wharf will cost $300,000 to $400,000 a year for the next few years, Fraser said.

    Only two sources of income exist, he said, tenants and taxpayers.

    “So, obviously, someone has to pay an increase,” Fraser said. “Who will pay going forward, the tenants or the taxpayers?”

    Tenants have not faced “a real price increase” since 2005, he said. Cost-of-living increases were imposed, he added, raising the user fees by about 10 percent in the last 10 years.

    But in that same time span of 10 years, Provincetown property taxes have gone up 18 percent, he said.

    Town meeting voters have chipped in $2.3 million for renovations and improvements to the pier, Fraser reported.

    Steve Milliken, who owns the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch company that occupies three floats on MacMillan Pier, brought his lawyer to the Feb. 4 Pier Corp. board meeting.

    By 2023, Milliken said, with higher embarkation fees, passenger surcharges, and dockage fees, he will be paying $91,500 for each of his three floats.

    His embarkation per-passenger fee will go from 75 cents to $2 a passenger; a float fee will rise from $10,350 to $15,000; and a large-vessel passenger surcharge will increase from $75 a person to $95 a person by 2023. The surcharge is an annual fee based on the capacity of the boat; for a 300-passenger boat, the fee goes from $22,000 to $28,000 a season.

    “I don’t know about you, but $91,000 for each float is not reasonable,” Milliken said.

    His attorney, Seth Holbrook of the Boston law firm Holbrook & Murphy, said the passenger embarkation fees and per-person surcharge are violations of the U.S. Constitution.

    “My research shows … the municipality cannot charge a tonnage tax,” said Holbrook. “Other courts have ruled it’s a duty on tonnage. Even though it’s passengers, it’s tonnage.”

    Tonnage taxes fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, not the town, he added.

    The Pier Corp. board members did not respond to Holbrook or to other public comments.

    “This just seems like a gut punch after a hell of a year,” said Kathleen Burns, who owns the Bay Lady, a schooner that takes passengers on cruisers around the harbor.

    Vaughn Cabral, who owns a fishing charter, the Cee-Jay, said he had to operate at half capacity to comply with Covid-19 safety guidelines and could fill only 21 of his 42 seats.

    “And I was only full 17 times out of 137 trips last year,” Cabral said.

    Other proposed new fees include charges for parking, even for people who already pay for dock space. Pier Manager Doug Boulanger said the parking fees will be discussed on Feb. 11. This won’t just affect boat owners. The new regulations propose to charge taxis $200 for the privilege of waiting for ferry passengers. Pedicab drivers would be charged $75 a season.

    ECONOMY

    Ranches and Covid Add to Tuna Market Troubles

    If you see it on the menu, ask where it comes from

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — On a calm, sunny day, the word was out among fishermen: big schools of Atlantic bluefin tuna were active and feeding just a few miles off the backside beach. But on a late July day perfect for fishing, many of the commercial boats that go after tuna remained tied up at the pier.

    ON THE WATERFRONT

    Attorney for Fishermen Goes After Pier Corp.

    Meeting on June 11 could be a showdown

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — An attorney for two fishermen whose dockage fees were raised this year is charging the Public Pier Corp. with Open Meeting Law violations and with changing the rules in the middle of a pandemic.

    In a virtual meeting set for Thursday, June 11 at 1 p.m., Bill Henchy, who is representing Jeff Souza and David Flattery, will argue that his clients and other commercial fishermen were unfairly reclassified as “limited commercial” by the Pier Corp., thereby doubling their dockage fees. Last week, the Pier Corp. denied the reclassification appeals of two other fishermen, John Browne and Leo Rose.

    All four men are among seven who have been reclassified this year by the Pier Corp., which is making an effort to “professionalize” the business of running a town-owned pier after years of “lax management,” according to Leslie Sandberg, who was recently hired for $100 an hour to be a public relations strategist for the Pier Corp.

    Henchy is claiming that deliberations about new policies and classification criteria were made during meetings that cannot be reviewed by the public, because there have been no published minutes of Pier Corp. meetings for nine months.

    “Neither the board nor its subcommittee have approved any minutes since September 2019,” Henchy stated in his formal complaint to state Attorney General Maura Healey. “The subcommittee met, deliberated, and rendered decisions without providing notice of its meetings, without keeping minutes, and without providing minutes.”

    Pier Corp. members are preparing a response to Henchy’s complaints. Sandberg said Henchy is wrong on both counts. There have been no changes to the definition of commercial fishing in the harbor regulations, she said.

    “The harbor regulations specify that on the application for renewal of a dockage slip, a person must provide ‘sufficient information’ to help the [Pier Corp.] determine commercial fisherman status ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ and that they spend ‘a major portion of their annual working time fishing/working said license,’ ” Sandberg said.

    What did change in 2020, she added, was actual enforcement of the rules.

    “Due to the lax management of MacMillan Pier by the former harbormaster [Rex McKinsey] for close to 15 years, many tenants did not properly follow harbor regulations because they were not made aware of the proper criteria for their application,” she said.

    To help all tenants follow the harbor regulations, a new “checklist listing the information needed was sent out with the 2020 dockage applications,” she said. “We are trying to professionalize the process.”

    But Henchy said this effectively has changed the rules. In Pier Manager Doug Boulanger’s March 28 email sent to dock tenants with the 2020 applications, his language makes clear that something new will be expected of the slip holders.

    “We have new documentation requirements that this memo will describe what is necessary to supply with your renewal application,” Boulanger wrote in the email.

    Sandberg said Henchy is incorrect about the minutes, too. They were actually posted on the town’s website through Jan. 14, she said. The others had not been approved or posted because of delays related to Covid-19. But the Pier Corp. took care of that on June 8 by approving all the minutes from February going forward, and they will be posted by town staff as soon as possible, she said.

    She added that all Pier Corp. meetings have been recorded and are available for viewing on PTV, like most other town meetings.

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