Calmer waters ahead for Brookings port

Visitors to the Port of Brookings Harbor this week dipped their poles and feet in the cool water. The Pilot/Arwyn Rice

“The bad news is over,” said Port of Brookings Harbor  Port Manager Ted Fitzgerald.

“We’ve had a pretty good year considering the state of the economy,” Fitzgerald said.

The port has turned the corner from panic to a concern and a concentrated effort to fix the port’s problems in the last year.

With the port close to paying off several of its smaller debts, Fitzgerald believes the port is on the verge of success.

“The recreational marina is full, with full credit to the people who gave us a fishing season,” said Fitzgerald.

“We’ve run out of room to store boat trailers out there,” said management and financial consultant Jon Barton, who advises Fitzgerald on port matters.

Revenues have been better than expected, the cold storage facility has made a profit in most recent months, and the boatyard is showing marked improvement.

“In September the boatyard was almost inoperable,” Fitzgerald said. “Now people are coming here with boats to work on them.”

The port’s travel lift, which allows the port to transfer boats directly from the water to stands in the boatyard, had a major overhaul and is fully operational, a major hurdle in operating the boatyard.

The yard is still nowhere near capacity, but it’s an improvement, he said.

“The yard has a capacity for 80 boats but currently has only 35,” said Barton.

Some of the stands won’t work for smaller boats, but there is space for most boat sizes.

Once the travel lift is certified, the port plans to enter into a contract with the U.S. Coast Guard to use the lift for Coast Guard boats, said Fitzgerald.

However, the travel lift cannot currently be used for wooden boats.

“It crushes them,” said Fitzgerald.

The port is working on getting an I-beam spacer that would protect wooden boats.

The biggest boost for the port is a return of a salmon fishing season.

The Slam’n Salmon Ocean Derby was cancelled last year due to a closure of the salmon fishing season. This year a limited season will allow for Chinook salmon during the festival.

The port is also starting to make progress on basic port maintenance, such as replacing fingers (platforms that extend between boats for easier boat access) on the docks.

“Our rate of replacement is ahead of deterioration,” Fitzgerald said.

The condition of Beachfront RV Park and the difficulties with maintaining a good occupancy rate is still a concern, said Fitzgerald.

The port has made some improvements at the beachfront park, one of only two such locations in Oregon where people can camp so close to the surf.

Recently the port installed a new wireless internet connection for campers and continues to plan for more improvements.

Some merchants at the port boardwalk see a different side of the port. They see a port where there is little to attract customers to the port’s retail shops.

The Azalea Festival car show and the Slam’n Salmon Ocean Derby on Labor Day weekend are always great, said Andrea Aubin, daughter of the owner of Tidewind Charters, a fishing and whale -watching charter service based at the port.

Otherwise, there isn’t anything to bring customers to the port, Aubin said.

“The Kite Festival happens at the other end of the port,” she said. “They don’t come here.”

The boardwalk and nearby  retail center were busy Wednesday, with groups strolling along the boardwalk and stopping in at various shops.

But that afternoon was not representative of the port’s usual level of business, Aubin said.

“We need more events like the car show,” she said.

Other port events include  the Fourth of July fireworks, the Festival of the Arts in August and a weekly farmers’ market and marketplace during summer months.

Most port events are sponsored by outside agencies or port businesses. Even so, port activities are on the increase.

 OceanFest was introduced last year during the Azalea Festival. The event featured crab and shrimp cocktail sales on the boardwalk, a boat show and boat races featuring both real and model sail boats.

This weekend’s “Mutt Strut,” a benefit for the South Coast Humane Society, is sponsored by Salty Dog Coffee Bar and will be held at the boardwalk at noon on Sunday.

The Vietnam Veterans of America are expanding their  Fourth of July celebration. New events include a Native American drum circle, dance, flute and storytelling on July 3 and a car show on July 4.

The port commissioners addressed the issue of events at the port at the June 16 Port of Brookings Harbor Commission meeting.

More events would be great, commissioners agreed, but there aren’t enough people to plan and manage the events.

Port Commissioner Jim Relaford put in countless hours for the inaugural OceanFest celebration in May.

“We’d like to have something here every weekend, Fitzgerald said.

There are also continuing infrastructure improvements.

The port has plans to extend the boardwalk south to the back fence of BC Fisheries, and port commissioners are considering a proposal to install a Chetco Tribe memorial at the end of the boardwalk

The memorial, proposed by descendants of the Chetco Tribe, funded through a Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians grant, would feature a bronze statue of Lucy Dick, a prominent Harbor area Chetco woman who lived in the Brookings area until her death in the 1940s.

The bronze would be designed by Glenna Goodacre, the artist behind the Sacajawea dollar. The memorial would also have a water feature and a simulated traditional plank house wall with information panels teaching about the history of the Chetco Indians.

A merry-go-round of port managers finally stopped when former Tidewater legal counsel Fitzgerald stepped into the role as interim port manager last September.

Fitzgerald began as an interim director, but has plans to stick around at least long enough to get the port into a position where it can make its debt payments.

“It’s turned into my baby,” he said.

The plan, he said, is to wrap up refinance negotiations with Chetco Federal Credit Union before helping the commission find his permanent replacement.

Fitzgerald’s leadership has been noted.

“He’s down here asking questions, seeing what we’re doing, said Port Operations Supervisor Chris Cantwell.

Fitzgerald is aware of everything that goes on in the port, figures out what to do and sets the crew to do it, Cantwell said.

“Ted’s done quite a bit for this port,” he said.

There are also smaller issues that come up repeatedly such as dogs running around off-leash and petty crime at the docks.

One issue close to resolution is that of the flying of model planes at the Kite Field.

Fitzgerald has been in talks with an Academy of Model Aeronautics representative in Arizona and is close to working out the problem of liability and a defined set of rules for such flights.

Once the agreement is complete the port will allow planes to resume flying at the Kite Field.