Aldermen irked by early closing of fish station

The fish cleaning station at the Port Washington marina will be closed beginning on Thursday, Sept. 16, and construction of a new facility will begin shortly after that, Port aldermen learned Tuesday.

But the fact that the fish cleaning station will close so early didn’t sit well with some officials, who argue that fishermen continue to ply the waters into fall.

“I vehemently disagree with closing it that early,” Ald. Paul Neumyer said. “I don’t care what he (Harbormaster Dennis Cherny) says. We close it too early and we end up with a mess” on the boardwalk because fishermen will leave the remains on the walkway.

Ald. Dan Benning said the city should promote fishing and not discourage it.

“The fishing is good and people want to keep fishing, so I’m concerned (about closing the facility),” he said.

There is a second fish cleaning station off South Wisconsin Street, but officials said many people won’t travel from the marina to that area.

Ald. Mike Gasper, a member of the Harbor Commission, told the council that there is at least one good reason the fish cleaning station traditionally is taken out of service so early.

When the salmon run, he said, many fishermen catch the large fish and remove their egg sac.

“They dump the entire fish into the fish cleaning station grinders,” he said. “They can’t handle that.”

By closing the station down, he said, the integrity of the machinery is protected from damage.

Once the fish cleaning station closes, officials said, work will begin to relocate it from its current spot on the far north end of the marina to an area on the east side of the north slip.

That work is being done by Ansay Development, which is relocating the facility and the nearby Kiwanis shelter as part of its Newport Shores project.

Ansay originally had been expected to move the fish cleaning station this summer, but officials agreed to extend the deadline for the work until April 22, 2022, so it could be used throughout this fishing season.

Ansay will be refurbishing the existing grinder for use in the new station, a project that’s expected to take four to six weeks.

The new facility will be a wooden structure with a blue roof to coordinate with the marina buildings. The table will be relocated and refurbished with new equipment, providing the same number of spaces as there are now.

However, the structure will be a bit larger than the current fish cleaning station to allow more room for people to move around the table.