BEAUFORT – A united town board on Thursday agreed to extend its lease with the longtime operator of the Beaufort docks for another year and prepare to release all records pertaining to its previous search for a new concessioner.
The records are to be released electronically to the public once scanned and uploaded. The board also unanimously agreed to formally terminate all pending requests for proposals and reject all proposals received for future dock operations.
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The actions came after the board reconvened its meeting from the Monday session in which it had voted 3-2 to halt efforts to secure “the company of interest” in line to take over management of the Beaufort Docks. The actions were also a bit of housekeeping needed to clarify and solidify the vote taken during the previous session.
Mayor Sharon Harker, during Thursday’s meeting, appointed Commissioners Sarah Spiegler and Paula Gillikin to chair and vice-chair, respectively, a new Beaufort Waterfront Operations and Finance Committee to pick up the work done by a previous panel.
“This committee will review the recommendations from the Harbor and Waterways Advisory Committee, assess the feasibility and practicality of these recommendations and update the vision and objectives to align with our financial goals and expectations for the docks,” Harker said at the well-attended daytime meeting.
The new committee has no time to spare. The mayor set a Dec. 31 deadline for its report.
Attendees again, as during the meeting Monday, broke into applause numerous times in response to the board’s 180-degree turnaround. But previous tensions and opposing viewpoints among commissioners still simmered, as evidenced in a few exchanges.
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Commissioner Dr. John LoPiccolo noted how the action Monday had created costs for the town. He asked how the board could ensure confidence in the process going forward.
“We spent a lot of money on attorneys,” LoPiccolo said. “We spent a lot of money on engineers. There is quite a bit of loss to this process that the taxpayers, they did have to pay for that. And I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. I just want to make sure that we don’t get into that same situation again.”
Valid points, said Gillikin, who had offered the motion Monday to terminate the letter of intent to “the company of interest” – until this week, the board’s chosen name for Safe Harbor Marinas, which had taken on Voldemort-like status among town officials despite being well known among residents.
“I think some of those monies that we spent with our discussions with Safe Harbor, I think there’s things that came out in those discussions that we can use in the new discussions. Not all is lost there,” Gillikin said.
She said it was important to look at the town’s objectives in the new search, because the goal in the original request for proposals, whether stated or unstated, was “to maximize super- and mega-yachts and look at the greatest profit, which is a great way to look at things, if that’s the objective.
“But I’m not sure that that is our current objective,” Gillikin said, adding that preserving the town’s character, views and the type of vessels most suitable to Beaufort were clearly tantamount to residents.
Commissioner Bucky Oliver, who like LoPiccolo, had opposed the action taken Monday to “reset” the process, said he was on board with the new direction.
“I’m very comfortable where we are, but I think that we need to, as a board, if you would, I think we need to recognize the importance now to support this effort and to solely look in the windshield and not look in the mirror,” Oliver said. “And I would ask our board to think about that on a personal basis, and I’d ask our community to look at it on that basis. I’d ask people in the audience to look at it on that basis, because that’s where we are.”
