Posted on February 8, 2016
By Eric Gneckow, petaluma360
A generation after the first boats pulled in to the Petaluma Marina, the facility off Baywood Drive is financially underwater, facing a construction debt with the state that has grown by more than $2 million since the city’s last interest payment in 1998, according to Petaluma’s year-end financial reports for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015 and information from the state of California. Accumulated unpaid interest on the original $3.6 million loan from the California Department of Boating and Waterways has grown it to $6.18 million, exceeding the $4.8 million value of the marina itself before depreciation.
Coupled with the looming, yet currently unknown, cost of removing years of accumulated sediment that users said is impacting the ability for some boats to use the facility, the loan casts a shadow over the finances of a marina that launched with the vision of a self-sustaining enterprise. Without enough revenue to build a sufficient reserve on its own, the likelihood stands that the marina will need to draw on other sources of city funding for support as those major expenses come to pass.
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