City Hall insists on 10% marina fee hike

Tenants in the Port Washington marina will likely be paying more than they expected for their slips next year.

Harbormaster Dennis Cherny told the Harbor Commission Monday that even though it endorsed a 5% increase in slip rental fees for 2023, the city administration is recommending a 10% increase be included in the 2023 budget instead.

“They have the authority to override the Harbor Commission,” Cherny said, adding that no increase is final until approved by the Common Council.

“I’m not sure now is the right time to raise anything 10%,” commission member Bill Driscoll said. “I’m not a fan of going up 10% but we may not have a choice.”

Commission Chairman Gerald Gruen concurred, saying, “At the last meeting, we thought 5% was correct. It seems to me it probably will be 10%.”

However, the commission unanimously agreed to change the slip fees for charter boats, eliminating the additional $200 those boat owners pay.

Alex Gantner, president of the Charter Captains Association, asked for the reduction, saying that charter boats pay a premium but receive fewer services than other boaters.

“We don’t have a lot of amenities the private slips have,” Gantner said, including fenced docks and security cameras, and they have to walk farther to use the restrooms and parking. “At the very least we need cameras.”

Sharon Scheel, owner of Nicky Boy Charters, said the charter boats have been promised cameras for years and the need is acute.

“I’ve had boats boarded (by strangers) while the captains are on them,” she said. “We’ve had our boats untied. Things have been thrown off our boats, expensive equipment.”

The cameras have been delivered and will be installed, Cherny said.

He said the extra $200 fee was implemented because the marina can’t use their slips for transient boaters because their slots are always occupied.

With 33 active charter boats, he said, that’s $6,600 the marina would lose if the fee is abolished.

“We’re a business,” Cherny said. “We need to make money, too.”

But commission members were sympathetic to the captains’ situation.

“I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” Gruen said. “If the rates are going to be raised 10% over our objections, I think we can do this. The charter fleet is too valuable an asset.”