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| Dana Point Recycling Center |
By LEN BOSE
I counted how long I have been writing my Harbor Column – 13 years – and I had to use three hands to count which gets much more confusing to me. I started counting the years because I was looking back on how many times I have written: “There is a new sheriff in town.”
While attending this month’s Harbor Commission meeting and reviewing the previous month’s minutes, I noticed that Lt. Mark Alsobrook had informed the commission that he was being replaced by Lt. Chris Corn. I was kind of bummed because Alsobrook left without even saying goodbye. I reached out by email to Alsobrook thanking him for his two and a half years of service to the harbor, and unfortunately never heard back from him. Over the last eight years, the harbor has been extremely fortunate to have had five harbormasters that have been very approachable and easy to talk to. Of the five, Alsobrook went the extra mile and attended most of the Harbor Commission meetings himself.
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| Lt. Corn |
I will be reaching out to our new harbormaster Lt. Chris Corn over the next week for an interview. On my first attempt to contact Lt. Corn, I was placed on internal hold and never followed back up. My gut tells me it’s not going to be as easy for Corn with the change of mooring management and harbor services being transferred to the city. For example, is there one of two Harbormasters that we have now? The county’s website has him listed as the harbormaster, and as we approach the first anniversary of Harbor Services, the newlyweds are still unclear on who is tasked with what within our harbor.
That statement is a bit of an exaggeration although from my observations there are a few things that still need to be ironed out. For example, at the last Harbor Commission meeting, there was a resident complaining about the noise level at night. Seems that this resident has been kept up at night with people partying out on their boats located on moorings in front of their house. The resident has called Harbor Services but they close down at 17:00; the resident then calls the Sheriff’s Harbor Department that informs them they are no longer tasked with managing the moorings. At this point, my mind flashes back to the old TV show the “Newlywed Game" and I snicker at the thought of having the two harbormasters on a panel and asking them questions to write down answers on the back of a card. Anyway, back to the noise question and how to resolve it when you have some people parting too loud on the harbor in the early hours of the morning. I’m not sure if this is in effect yet, but city staff is looking into the idea of using the city lifeguards to respond to late night complaints. With the lifeguards on call 24/7 with access to boats and the ability to ticket, this was the simple answer. Have to wonder about the response time for the lifeguards, but hey...baby steps, right?
Speaking of baby steps, it was 2008 when then Sheriff’s Harbormaster Deana Bergquist felt the need to strictly enforce the harbor speed limit of 5 knots. As you might recall, there was a bit of a community uproar, and policy on the harbor was quickly changed back to allow certain harbor users to exceed the speed limit. Now, because of the hard work of harbor commissioners Blank and Drayton, the concept of a permitting process for the harbor users to formalize the speed limit exception will now go before city council...and with its blessing...be forwarded to the Department of Boating and Waterways. Confidence is high that this process will be accepted by the two agencies.
More good news was discovered at the Harbor Commission meeting when John Kappeler, a city senior engineer tasked with harbor water quality, grabbed my attention when he started talking about Marine Recycling Centers being placed around the harbor. I first noticed Marine Recycling Centers in Dana Point and Cabrillo Beach in 2011 and threw out the idea then of having them here in Newport Beach. The city came close one other time to having these centers but was stalled by the different agencies involved. It looks really positive at this time, that these centers will be open very soon.
I thought I’d give you all a little heads up – seems like the sea lions are returning, as I heard the loud barking from a couple of boats and docks this week. For all of you waterfront homeowners and boat owners – check on your sea lion deterrence. Have to wonder if the lifeguards will respond to sea lions barking in the middle of the night...
Sea ya
Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for StuNewsNewport.
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