News

State: Greenport mooring field doesn’t meet regulations

Greenport Village Board members learned Monday night that they’re failing to maintain state required services for customers who use their mooring field.

Under regulations from the state Office of General Services, the village must provide land-based services to its mooring customers, including parking for their vehicles; a dingy dock to run them back and forth to their boats; restrooms and shower facilities; trash receptacles; and pumpout facilities.

The village does have a pumpout boat, but the only land-based pumpout facility is at Brewer’s Yacht Yard, where Mike Acebo says he is tired of providing those services to people who aren’t his customers.

“In reality, you don’t have a mooring field,” he told board members Monday night.

For 26 years, village customers — who this year brought in about $60,000 in revenues to the village — have been using Brewer’s services, according to Mr. Acebo.

Brewer’s has charged them a minimal amount for dingy service and use of its bathrooms and shower facilities, Mr. Acebo said. But these transient customers are clogging his parking lot and dumping trash on his grounds.  What’s more, Brewer’s regular customers are beginning to complain about the transients, he said. They’re also concerned about the condition of the village moorings that sometimes result in boats breaking free from moorings that aren’t in good repair.

“I hope you appreciate what Brewer’s has done since 1984,” Mr. Acebo said. “This is the last year; I’m worn out,” he said. But he offered to operate the mooring fields for the village and urged the board to talk with him about the terms.

Mayor David Nyce said repairs needed on the moorings are likely to considerably reduce future profits. There was no decision yet on how the board would resolve the situation.

This is the second time this fall that moorings have been a hot topic for Greenport. The village pulled out moorings belonging to two residents they said had no rights to them, even though both had permits from the Army Corps of Engineers. They also removed moorings belonging to marine contractor John Costello, saying he hadn’t been granted rights to use the mooring fields.
The mayor said the state had ceded control of the mooring field to the village and a village permit was necessary, regardless of permits that had been issued earlier by the Army Corps of Engineers.

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