Edited by author 12-10-2006 10:13 PM
Selectman's meeting to raise fees
Letter to Selectmen ,,
As an attendee at last night's town meeting I was very
disappointed at your decision to increase the annual
slip fees for residents and non-residents ($5 and $10
respectively per foot, per year).
I believe several compelling arguments were put forth
from a number of competent local individuals against
such increases. I did not hear one such argument from
anyone on the floor agreeing with the proposal.
I did not hear a good answer to Mr. Crowell's question
at the beginning of the discussion looking for an
answer as to why the fees were being increased at all.
There are significant and excess funds at the current
fee levels to dredge the harbor, which was the reason
given by the Harbormaster for the increase, and this
reason only accounted for $2 per foot of the increase.
According to the Town of Dennis annual report for 2005
approximately $187,000 was returned to the town
general fund after all revenues associated with
waterways activities were compared against expenses
incurred. This represents 36% of revenues.
To put this into a microeconomic context, consider
this. Of my approximate annual slip fee of $1400, 36%
represents over $500. What this means is that when I
go to the town hall to pay my bill in the spring, I
give $900 to the town to pay my share of the costs of
the harbor and $500 to the town for an unknown reason.
I consider this to be an excess user fee and
unwarranted. I already pay $1,700 per year in real
estate taxes.
This is particularly troubling and unfair because it
would appear from looking again at the annual report
and specifically the section on golf operations, that
golf actually operated at a deficit last year.
So we have the slip fees producing excess fee income
to the town and there is a proposal to increase the
resident fee by 8.48%. We have the golf operation
operating at a deficit and if my memory serves me
correctly you approved that the resident golf fee
remain at $565 per year. What is particularly
frustrating to me is my excess fee contribution is
only $65 shy of the annual resident golf fee.
Something is not right here.
I do not have accurate numbers but I believe the slip
fees have increased each year for the past five years,
which is the same number of years I have had my slip.
I believe the annual increases have averaged anywhere
from 6 to 9 percent. This is against a backdrop of
retail inflation increasing between 2 to 3 percent
annually, and average wage growth around 3%.
As appropriately and adequately pointed out by Mr.
Bergeron, boaters have faced higher fuel costs, higher
insurance costs, some equipment failure due to the new
fuel additives, etc. in recent years. When you add in
the slip fee increases, it makes matters even worse.
I was sure this scenario would bring out the best in
all of you and that you would defer or postpone the
slip increases until next year. I thought you would
draw a conclusion from all the arguments made that it
would make logical sense to give us a rest for one
year (out of five). I was sadly mistaken.
I am a member of the Board of Directors of the Sesuit
Boat Owners Association. Our president spoke last
night and he too made very compelling arguments. As
he pointed out we have about 200 active memberships
(which are actually household memberships so we
represent about 400 individuals) and the slip fee
increase is a hot topic.
Being new to the association (my wife is also
Secretary and Treasurer) I am trying to propose new
ideas at our meetings for ways we can give back to the
community and the town. This past April, as an
example, we held our first annual Sesuit Harbor clean
up in conjunction with Earth Day.
On that Saturday several members of the association
joined together and went through all areas of the west
side, the east side, the Northside Marina, and as far
as we could go into the streets and parking lots of
both areas. The net result was that after 6 hours of
hard work, we carted in my truck 41 35-gallon bags of
trash to the Dennis landfill. If you are interested I
can send you digital images from our efforts.
Just this year we purchased a new picnic bench from
our funds for the west side, and perked up an area on
the east side with some new landscaping.
We would like to continue our efforts in these areas
and intend to do so in the future.
I'm hoping that you look at this situation again and
consider a more equitable approach to the slip fee
situation.
Thank you for your time.
Alan Collette
107 Ladyslipper Drive
Dennis, MA 02638
508 385-9571
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