Wharf project won’t affect boat storage

NAHANT – Boat owners who store their boats on the Town Wharf during the off-season, should not be affected by the Town Wharf project.Some area boat owners have expressed concern the project would leave them without winter storage for their vessel, but Town Administrator Mark Cullinan said the repairs would not have much of an effect on the wharf as a storage facility. Much of the wharf needs to be rebuilt due to degradation of the underlying support system.Cullinan said work crews would only be using the upper area of the wharf parking lot for staging.The wharf is scheduled to be rebuilt sometime before the start of the 2009 boating season.Cullinan said an assessment of the town pier, which utilized scuba divers for underwater inspection, showed the entire structure needs rebuilding. He said he expects to put the town wharf rehabilitation project out to bid in August and he hopes to get work underway in early spring.”We want to complete it before the next boating season starts,” he said. “Once the project is started I think the work itself will go pretty quickly.”Cullinan said the most time-consuming part of the project would be the acquisition of the steel for the project. He said it would probably take a month to get the steel for the beams that would support the decking and building, which houses the sailing program and Harbormaster’s Office.Cullinan said the project is expected to cost $600,000 and it would be paid for using Community Preservation Act funds.