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Shipyard Quarters Marina Hearing Set Dec. 12

The Boston Conservation Commission is expecting owner Martin Oliner to provide certified plans for remediation of piers 6 and 8 in Charlestown.

 

The Boston Conservation Commission will hold a public enforcement hearing on the conditions of the Shipyard Quarters Marina in the Charlestown Navy Yard on Wednesday, Dec. 12 at City Hall.

The hearing was originally scheduled for Nov. 9 but was pushed back to Nov. 28 and then to Dec. 12 because of Hurricane Sandy. Martin Oliner, the owner of Shipyard Quarters Marina, is the mayor of the village of Lawrence on New York’s Long Island—an area hit hard by the storm, according to Danielle Valle Fitzgerald, neighborhood coordinator for the Boston Mayor’s Office.

The hearing will look at the current conditions and plans for remediation of the marina, which operates off Pier 8, as well as Pier 6, which is also owned by Oliner and houses Tavern on the Water and the charter boat company Come Sail Away Now. This week, Tavern on the Water's parent company, Legendary Restaurant Group, announced plans to close the waterfront restaurant for unspecified reasons.

Shipyard Quarters Marina was deemed “unsafe” and “in disrepair” as far back as June 2010, according to a Nov. 8 letter from Mayor Thomas Menino to a Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection commissioner. But no remedial action was ordered at the time.

“This marina is clearly out of compliance with its license, which states that it is to ‘maintain the structural integrity of all elements of the marina including: floats, piling, pile guides, railings, water distribution, electrical distribution and other marina facilities,’” Menino stated in the letter.

The mayor is demanding “immediate enforcement” of an order the DEP issued in July 2012 for the owner to make repairs, although the owner requested additional time to make those repairs—a request Menino called “unacceptable.”

In the DEP order, officials noted several of the issues, including missing support piles, torqued or twisted finger floats, corroded metal pilings and missing caps designed to inhibit corrosion, corroded electrical junction boxes, rotting and failing structural cross members under the Pier 8 parking area, wooden debris throughout the marina and other issues.

“On June 11, 2012 and July 3, 2012, MassDEP personnel determined the condition of [the owner’s] marina were a public nuisance and that some of [the owner’s] structures were dilapidated and unsafe so that such structures, if not repaired or replaced, are, or are liable to become a menace to navigation,” officials wrote in the DEP order, dated July 5.

Lois Siegelman, a local resident and president of the Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard, said she noticed the deplorable condition of the marina last summer while she and her husband were traveling the Harbor Walk. The odor of rotting shellfish on the pier was overwhelming.

Siegelman began contacting city officials, including Fitzgerald, Charlestown’s representative in the Mayor’s Office.

“It’s unsightly, it’s unsafe and it’s unsanitary,” Siegelman said of the marina. “What we’re trying to do is get them to bring it up to a safe standard. It used to be a beautiful marina.”

A representative of the owner, Asher Herzberg, attended the Boston Conservation Commission’s third hearing on the matter on Oct. 17 and acknowledged that it was the responsibility of the Shipyard Quarters Marina to maintain the Harborwalk and the pilings on the pier, but few improvements were made after that, Fitzgerald said.

The Oct. 17 meeting was attended by Boston Redevelopment Authority director Peter Meade, City Councilor Salvatore LaMattina and Fitzgerald, as well as 30 residents of the Charlestown Navy Yard.

“This is the first time that a BRA director has testified at a Conservation Commission hearing,” Fitzgerald told Patch. “Director Meade gave forceful testimony on the dreadful condition of the Harborwalk and the Marina. He also mentioned that the BRA has spent $40,000 the past two winters removing snow from Mr. Oliner’s property to prevent a safety hazard.”

LaMattina and Fitzgerald both “expressed outrage over the fact that Mr. Oliner is not taking these concerns seriously” and told his representative that, as an elected official, Oliner “should be ashamed of the abhorrent condition that his property is in,” according to Fitzgerald.

The Nov. 28 enforcement hearing was set following that meeting, with the stipulation that Oliner’s representative come to the hearing with “stamped plans and a detailed construction schedule,” Fitzgerald said. If he fails to do so, the Conservation Commission can begin instituting fines of $25,000 daily until conditions improve.

In his Nov. 8 letter to DEP Commissioner Kenneth L. Kimmell, Menino requested that if Oliner failed to make repairs immediately the department revoke his license to operate at the Shipyard Quarters Marina.

“If your department contends that it does not have the authority to take such action, I ask that you work with other state agencies to end the ongoing threat,” Menino wrote in the letter. “In particular, I insist that you engage the Office of the Attorney General to seek a Temporary Restraining Order to close this deplorable facility until the public safety threat is eliminated.”

The Dec. 12 Conservation Commission meeting is open to the public and is tentatively scheduled for 6 p.m. in City Hall Room 801.

Related Topics: Boston Conservation Commission, Friends of the Charlestown Navy Yard, Marina, Mass DEP, Mayor Tom Menino, Pier 6, Pier 8, and Shipyard Quarters Marina

Betty Lindsey

8:17 am on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

It is nice to finally see something being done, But if this is shut down, is there any relief for the live aboards? I know for myself I have no where else to go,as many of the others here are also in the same situation. If we have to leave is anyone going to refund us the money we just paid to stay there for the winter? I do realize the gravity of the situation and the need to fix a huge problem, but is there anyone out there for us that we can turn to?

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Doug Sabbag

9:48 am on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Betty.... Don't leave until your lease period is over. They might "close" the Marina, however, they would also have to individually evict each "liveaboard" renter.

And that eviction process would have to take into account the fact that you paid through April 15th, or whatever term you paid for.

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Doug Sabbag

9:50 am on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

You can stand on the basis that your rental falls under the rental laws for apartment dwellers in Boston.

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Betty Lindsey

9:51 am on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

I understand the eviction part. However, if Mr. Menino as he states wants this place shut done to to peril to life and limb, that means we have to get out.....then?????? All other marinas are completely full. What avenue do we have?

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Doug Sabbag

4:06 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Your eviction case would have to resolve these issues.
For instance, since you paid for the time you would not be "using" if you were evicted before April 15th, you would have to be paid back.
Then there is the law about evictions in the winter! Nobody can be evicted between November and April, ESPECIALLY if they have paid.
What Menino was not considering in his letter, is the fact that the liveaboards are within the housing laws of Boston.

So, this IS a mess to resolve.

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Doug Sabbag

4:10 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

FYI, in the year 2001, I was the President of the Shipyard Quarters Marina Tenants Association. We accomplished being viewed as "tenants" existing under the housing laws of Boston.
That was very tricky, because there were also Marine Laws which could be applied.
With your lease you have the key to the Tenant / Housing Laws. :-)

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Doug Sabbag

4:12 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

I am still a liveaboard, however, I am in Boston Yacht Haven now, on my S/V Triumph.

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Betty Lindsey

8:41 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Thank you for your help I reallyappreciat everything I am on the F/V Lady B

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Charlestown

6:47 am on Monday, December 3, 2012

I really feel for the people that live there and am no way trying to diminish their problems. Although I don't know many well, during the summer months everyone is very friendly.

Has anyone received a summer-2013 contract? If I recall correctly, for the last four or five years they normally send out the summer contracts and demand the first payment before the end of November. I asked about summer contracts no less then a half dozen times and each time the employees told me they would be sent "soon." I eventually stopped asking.

I imagine they are having serious financial troubles. Beyond just fixing the place up and complying with the city, a bankruptcy could be worse.

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Betty Lindsey

7:38 am on Monday, December 3, 2012

Yes the contract are out. They didn't appear ill almost the 1st of November. liveaboards $125 w/ $600 maintenance fee. The boys never know when they are coming out they are told one thing and soemthing else happens. I remember when they came out in August so you didn't have to pay it all at once I really can't blame the boys for that one. It is sad that so many good people have left. I remember seeing the big yachts on the brakwater now you can't even think of walking out there. So Sad

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