The Trenton Times published the following article on May 30, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Docks at Trenton public boat launch on Duck Island will be installed by next week, officials say

By Jenna Pizzi/The Times of Trenton 
on May 30, 2013 at 7:15 AM, updated May 30, 2013 at 7:17 AM

TRENTON — The docks at the public boat launch on Duck Island, which have brought in thousands of dollars of revenue for the city in past years, were never installed last summer and it was uncertain until yesterday whether they would be installed this season, a city contractor said.

In the past the dock provided a place for boat owners to tie down their craft and head out on trips over the summer, bringing in as much as $15,000 a year in permit fees to help cover part of the cost of maintaining the launch, according to city records.

But last year the recreation department, which has been hollowed out by layoffs and without a director, never told contractor Buoy 98 Marine to install the docks, company owner Rick Steele said yesterday. Steele has continued to store the docks at his Lamberton Road property and to receive tens of thousands of dollars in city payments for various services, but as of earlier this week had still not heard whether the city would install the docks this year.

Steele said he has tried to be fair with the city and the taxpayers, only charging the necessary amounts, because he believes the docks can be an asset to residents and other boaters if they are properly monitored and maintained.

“They are here for all the citizens of Trenton and the surrounding townships to be used and should be treated as such,” Steele said.

After an inquiry from The Times, Mayor Tony Mack’s office said in an e-mail that the docks will be installed by Buoy 98 Marine by the end of next week and the city will pay Steele $5,000 to monitor the docks for the season. The e-mail also blamed Steele for the delay.

“There was a delay, on the part of the vendor, due to rain,” the e-mail said.

In the unsigned e-mail, Mack’s office declined to comment on why the docks were not installed last year or if the city sold any boat ramp permits in 2012.

Permit fees brought in $15,330 in fees in 2011, according to a city memo that civic activist Jim Carlucci received through a records request and provided to The Times. Reported revenues were $3,925 in 2010 and $5,000 in 2009, though not all receipts were accounted for in those years, the memo said.

The proceeds from permit sales were cited in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed in 2011 by former recreation department employee Maria Richardson. Among other accusations against Mack and the city, Richardson alleged that thousands of dollars in fees for the city’s boat ramp were never recorded and unsold boat permits went missing.

The allegations were investigated by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and no charges regarding the permits were filed. Richardson’s suit is still pending.

Steele said his company, which operates a private marina down the road from the spot along the Delaware River where the docks usually float, received a one-year city contract in November 2010 to repair the docks and reinstall them the following spring. They had been damaged during previous storms and left in the water by the recreation department, he said.

He was paid $29,500 for the repairs and $3,000 for the April installation, and later received payments to monitor the docks regularly over the summer, he said. When Tropical Storm Irene blew through in August 2011, he was paid $5,000 under the terms of his contract to remove the docks, which had been damaged again, and he later charged the city $10,000 to store them over the winter and to reinstall them in the summer of 2012.

“I did what I was supposed to do,” Steele said.

In March 2012 he asked the city for $12,000 to cover the coming boating season: $2,000 for repairs and upgrades to the docks to prevent vandalism, $5,000 for daily monitoring and maintenance, and a $5,000 advance payment in case of another storm requiring emergency removal and installation.

The city sent him a purchase order in June, but did not provide any funding until late July, when the summer was half over. The recreation department never contacted him to arrange installation, which requires use of a city crane, he said.

In December he asked the city to revise the purchase order to reflect that he did not do any monitoring or repairs for the docks because they were never installed, he said. In March he received a $6,500 payment, the balance of the cost of winter storage and this year’s installation, he said.

Then, he said, he once again waited to receive instructions to install the docks and an advance payment to monitor them twice a week over the course of the summer.

South Ward Councilman George Muschal said he had been previously told by the administration that the docks were supposed to be installed before Memorial Day this year, and said he did not know why the installation had been delayed.

In the e-mail, Mack’s office said that, even though the dock has not yet been installed, the recreation department has already sold 19 permits for the season — seven to city residents and 12 to other New Jersey residents — for a total of $775 in revenue.
“If it is a moneymaker, it will pay for itself,” Muschal said.

Contact Jenna Pizzi at jpizzi@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5717.