Fuel is only available at Harwich Port Boat Yard at Wychmere Harbor and Allen Harbor Marine Service

HARWICH - (10/12/06) For more than 35 years, the town has been providing fuel facilities to for boaters at Saquatucket Harbor. But those days are numbered. Selectmen voted Tuesday night to end the practice, to have fuel tanks and accompanying infrastructure removed and to notify fuel purveyor John Our his lease will be terminated at the end of the year.

Acting Town Administrator Stephen Lombard said the issue came up several months ago in a meeting with Town Accountant David Ryan and other town financial officers. He said the question of the cost of replacing the aging tanks was weighed against the return of revenue. After that session, a recommendation to cease the operation was made to the waterways committee. The $110,000 expenditure is a lot of money for tanks with a life expectancy of a dozen years, Harbormaster Thomas Leach said Tuesday night. Tthe revenue stream from the operation has plummeted, he added. In 2002, the town generated $32,226 from leasing the facilities. Last year, revenue fell to $19,251, and so far this year it has produced $6,113. “People aren’t operating motor boats as often based on the high cost of fuel,” Leach said. “It’s like burning $100 bills to go to Nantucket.”

So far this year the town has generated more revenue from the tank truck sale of fuel to commercial vessels than from boats obtaining fuel at the town dock, Leach said. The town gets 25.25 cents per gallon from sales at the fuel dock and only five cents per gallon from tank truck sales. Yet the tank truck revenues are about $6,500 to date this year, he said. The town presently has a lease with Our to operate the fuel dock. Our also operates Harwich Port Boat Yard at Wychmere Harbor, where a new fuel farm was installed a year ago. Both HPBY and Allen Harbor Marine Service have complained in the past about the competition from the town, Leach said. Leach said Our is ambivalent about renewal of the lease at the town facility, and the waterways committee recommended the lease with Our not be renewed for 2007. The committee recommended the $110,000 approved by town meeting this year be used to remove tanks, pump, dispensers, reels, hoses, nozzles and any other associated parts, putting an end to in-ground fuel service at Saquatucket Harbor.

Lombard told selectmen he plans to seek funds from an in-ground fuel tank grant program to remove the tanks and not use the from money voted in town meeting. Waterways Committee Chairman Murray Johnson said the committee is discussing how the money can be used in a waterways related manner. But Lombard said it would take a vote of town meeting to redirect the funds to another project.

Leach said the plan is to relocate the Nantucket ferry to the fuel dock along the east bulkhead. He said the harbor septic pump-out operation would remain at that location. Johnson said the committee is looking at how to best utilize the space, and said the seal watch boat might also be moved there. Leach said this would keep passengers off the floating docks. He said it is amazing they have not had any problems with passengers moving around on the docks in the dark during the past 10 years. He also said relocating the ferry to this area would allow an additional commercial slip to be leased, bringing in about the same amount of money as the fueling operation. Selectman Ed McManus recommended the waterways committee investigate the potential for a hoist and a dry berth system there that might be appealing to some boaters.

In the absence of the town fueling facility certain vessels would be fueled by tank trucks and others by accessing the fuel services at Harwich Port Boat Yard in Wychmere Harbor. People have changed their fueling habits, especially given the rising cost of fuel, Leach said. The harbormaster said he sees vessels going over to Stage Harbor, where they can buy fuel from a tank truck at a cheaper rate. He pointed out he has yet to sell one tuna offloading permit this year, and the season is coming to an end. The harbormaster recommended allowing tuna boats to use tank truck fueling as a means of enticing those vessels to rent slips and purchase offloading permits.

There is also a risk with the town owning the fueling facilities in Saquatucket Harbor, Leach said. There was a time when the town carried catastrophic insurance to cover environmental impacts, but no longer. He said the town is responsible from the dispensing pad back to the shack, including pumps, fuel lines and the tanks sitting next to the bulkhead. “We’re not carrying the catastrophic insurance we should be carrying, and if there is a leak and contamination there, the town would have to pay for the cleanup,” the harbormaster said. “Trucks providing fuel have to have the proper coverage.”
(10/12/06 Chronicle)

TUNA NEWS
Tuna Offloading Permits are available to purchase now. You can download this application or a reservation form using the internet at Forms and Applications

Click here for: Complete Copy of the Proposal

Did you know? The largest bluefin tuna ever taken weighed 1496 lbs. was taken at Aulds Cove, Nova Scotia in 1979.