Posted on June 8, 2017
By Sam Richards, East Bay Times
A tentative dredging plan has been approved for the city marina, work that city leaders hope will enable a private ferry service to start by the end of the year and perhaps help ensure the facility’s long-term future.
The dredging, needed so that boats have enough clearance to negotiate low-tide conditions, must happen before the planned ferry service taking high-tech workers to the Peninsula can begin. And perhaps more important, improving access for more boats could be the key to whether the marina survives.
“It’s rarely made a profit, and it’s been a drain on the city’s general fund,” said Mayor Rob Schroder, who voted May 17 to spend at least $845,000 (and perhaps more) on the dredging work. “At some point, we’re going to have to ask whether we’re going to continue to have a marina.”
The exact scope of the work hasn’t been determined, but the most important dredging would remove silt from the “fairway” between the boat launch ramp and the marina entrance from the Carquinez Strait and the guest dock, near the harbormaster building. A more expensive option — about $1 million — would also include dredging some of the berths on either side of that fairway.
Martinez City Engineer Tim Tucker told the council the dredging is “crucial” to getting the PropSF ferry service operating into Martinez. The Alameda-based operator said it wants to start private service from the Martinez guest dock to the Peninsula as soon as possible; city officials have said they hope that service will pave the way for public ferry operations out of Martinez, too.
James Iler, of Almar Management, which operates the marina for the city, said it is a regional attraction, drawing users from all over central Contra Costa County, as well as from the North Bay and the Sacramento area. Dredging will allow larger boats to call at the marina’s docks and berths, thus expanding its potential tenant and guest user base. That, he said, will increase revenues, which, in turn, will make more improvements possible.
Without the dredging, Iler said, use of the marina will likely continue its long, slow decline. “We’ve had people leave and say, ‘When it gets dredged, call us and we’ll come back,’ ” he said.
Bill Mouat, of Lafayette, spent a recent Thursday morning fishing in the Delta from his boat, launching at the Martinez Marina. “This is a good central location to get to the (San Francisco or San Pablo) bay, or to get to the Delta,” he said after coming back to shore. But the condition of the facility, he said, is no match for its location.
“It’s in the lower middle of the pack as far as marinas in this area go,” he said, offering specific praise for Pittsburg’s facility. Martinez, he added, “has to be dredged if you’re going to keep business coming in.”
There’s work beyond that needed at the 1960s-era marina, too, most notably to the breakwater wall, its gaps and holes making the marina silt problem worse. The Martinez City Council is expected to receive a report in July with recommendations for breakwater wall repairs, likely to cost more than the dredging.
Schroder has touted a slow-building renaissance in downtown Martinez, with newly earthquake-retrofitted buildings attracting new commercial tenants. He and other city leaders also have high hopes for commercial development on land just south of the marina. As for the marina itself, he hopes it doesn’t keep dragging the city into the muck.
“We may have some tough decisions to make,” Schroder said.
Source: East Bay Times
