In his Harbormaster’s report to the Marion Marine Resources Commission during the latter’s August 16 public meeting, Isaac Perry said that the town’s Capital Improvement Planning Committee plans to participate in a walk-through of the Island Wharf marine headquarters on Friday, August 20, at 2:00 pm.
“The CIPC wants to stay on top of that as much as possible,” said Perry, explaining that the event will be very much like the open house that the MRC hosted earlier this summer in a show-and-tell of what is envisioned for the new Marine Center.
That vision will reach a significant juncture on Thursday, September 9, when the Seaport Economic Council meets from 9:00 am to 11:00 am at Massachusetts Maritime Academy to announce its awards for grant funding of received project applications in a competitive grant process.
Marion hopes that one of the grants will be awarded to the town for a $303,000 feasibility study that would fund construction and design documents for the proposed Marine Center. Perry said that the Seaport Economic Council has already visited Island Wharf.
In other matters, the MRC has submitted its long-awaited recommendation of updated rules and regulations for aquaculture to the Select Board. Late tweaks addressed existing grant holders grandfathered into the new opportunity to hold a license on 3 acres as opposed to the traditional limit of a half-acre. There had been a stipulation that those areas be contiguous, but it was determined that such a requirement of existing grant holders is not realistic, so they will not be limited to contiguous areas should their license expand to new areas.
Perry told the MRC that it has been a very busy summer around Island Wharf, as over 200 participants are engaged this week in a junior regatta off Silvershell Beach. The largest field ever was in the mid-300s, according to Perry, who is happy to see approximately 200 participants.
“We all feel that’s a good number to ease back into these events,” he said. “This is really the first year I can remember where we sent people to the overflow parking area up by Sippican School. … Some of it is to be expected. … With everything that went on last year, people are coming out en masse this year.”
Citing significant technological leaps in both computer hardware and software, Perry said that IMC, a management platform software produced by Hewlett Packard, enables the Harbormaster Department’s staff to record events and enter information via tablets in real time. The process takes two to three minutes.
The result, since the software began being used on July 1, has been more than a major step beyond an Excel spreadsheet – it has been a revelation.
“It’s been an eye-opener … when we make a conscious effort to document what the department really does,” said Perry, calling IMC a useful tool for documenting incidents and routine day-to-day duties.
The end game is a department overview to be put together in a detailed document describing operations over the course of the year. “I’m pretty excited to get working on that,” said Perry of the winter project. “Police reform, as it evolves over the next two, three years, that’ll be part of it as well.”
In his Shellfish Officer’s update, Deputy Harbormaster Adam Murphy reported that Perry went to Salem State University and brought back softshell clams that were deployed over Meadow Island.
The MRC’s next scheduled meeting is Monday, September 20, at 7:00 pm. The Music Hall has been reserved by the MRC for the remainder of 2021 with the plan to meet there pending the town’s COVID-related protocols.
Marion Marine Resources Commission
By Mick Colageo