SWAMPSCOTT — The Select Board will vote on Monday, April 24, to decide whether to increase boat mooring fees from $3.50 per foot to $5.50 per foot for residents and from $6 per foot to $8 per foot for non-residents.
Last week, Harbormaster Bill Waters sent the board a memorandum requesting the town raise its mooring fees, or annual costs to anchor boats on the town’s shore, to match neighboring town’s rates.
The proposed rate increase would also include the creation of four transient moorings at which guests could leave their boats anchored overnight for $50, or for four hours for $35.
Waters said the town has not raised its mooring fees since he took over as harbormaster in 2016. He spoke in favor of the proposed increase at a Select Board meeting last Wednesday, arguing that Swampscott’s rates, even with the increase, would remain significantly lower than mooring fees in Salem, Marblehead, and Gloucester.
“Marblehead is $9 to $10 a foot, Salem charges $7 a foot with a flat fee of $20 to $25 per vessel. Gloucester’s $4 to $6 per foot,” Waters said. “In Swampscott, the average sized boat’s about 21 feet, so under the proposal, it will be $115 for the average boat, which is still probably less than other communities.”
The proposal, Waters said in an interview Friday, would likely bring an extra $9,000 to the town’s general fund.
Select Board member Mary Ellen Fletcher, who said she would vote “yes” on the proposal, asked why the town’s mooring rates couldn’t be raised to match those of neighboring municipalities. Waters responded that the harbor lacked the amenities for which boat owners pay top-dollar in other towns.
“We don’t have gas docks and wading stations and electricity and floats, so I don’t feel that we offer that same service. But under what I’m proposing at $5.50 a foot, we haven’t had an increase since I’ve been the Harbormaster for seven years,” Waters said.
Select Board member Peter Spellios said he would not vote on the proposed rate increases until he saw more data suggesting they were reasonable in comparison to that of regional towns.
Spellios said that he called neighboring communities, and found a discrepancy between the way Waters described their mooring fees and what they actually charge.
“I’m a no vote on this. I’m not going to support this,” Spellios said. “We only have one piece of paper in front of us tonight to help us establish this. I made two calls to communities to ask them [what they charged] and this is not even close.”
The Select Board voted to table the proposal until Monday, to allow for more time to research neighboring rates. The board will vote on mooring rate increases at their next meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Swampscott High School.
