8/10/2005

More Junk

Well, I have to eat some 'crow' this morning. It seems as if there really are some responsible boaters out there. There are a group of young guys who come over here quite often on their jet skis and park them on the earlier mentioned beach. I gusee they were a little upset with the way things looked, so they took it upon themselves to get hold of a bunch of trash bags and tools and proceeded to rake up the beach and pick bags of junk out of the base of the breakwater. Then they hauled all the bags to the dock and went to get the Harbormaster to back his truck onto the dock whereupon they loaded it all on board and drove it to the dumpster. I was flabbergasted and very impressed with what they had done. As they passed me by, I thanked them most vociferously on behalf of all the people who live here. Guess I should have waited a day or two before I unloaded on the boaters. It is never good to paint everyone with the same brush. Thanks again guys! TIFN

8/01/2005

Uncaring and Uncouth Boaters

Did anyone notice that this weekend just past brought as many or more people to the Island than on the 4th of July? The traffic downtown as the boats came in and unloaded, was the worst that I can remember. We still DO NOT need traffic lights, as the local boys in blue did a real good job of keeping things moving and within five to ten minutes , traffic was all eased up again. Not so for the people "thronging" up and down the sidewalks but mostly in the street!
Looking at all the people in the streets, you might also have noticed all the small boats lined up along the east breakwater. I'm not sure what it is that lures those sized boats to the Island. Maybe it is the free use of the sand and anchorages they encounter over there. Apparently all during the weekend, they buy their beer, booze and food at Ballards and tote it back to their boats to consume. A better bet is that they bring it all with them. But what really gripes my ass is that they don't have the common decency to take it all home with them when they leave! Nope, it is much easier to stuff it in a garbage bag and leave it all in a pile at the north end of the east dock. I went down there this morning after having the pile of trash pointed out to me and I was really pissed that that they couldn't walk another 200 feet and put it in a dumpster. These people in their boats that go for upwards of $50-60 thousand care so little about this place that they feel no compunction about leaving their disgusting crap on the dock and all over the beach to! They even bring their dogs and let them use the dock and beaches as their own personal outhouses. If it was just them and their ilk using the area, I'd say let it happen, they have to walk in it! But there are a lot of other people who frequent the area. So after a lot of discussion amongst a bunch of us there at the dock, we came to the conclusion that there were no town employees who job discription included picking up this stuff. The herring gulls had done an admirable job of spreading it all over hells half acre, so one Captain of Interstates ferries, three or four guys who work for the local Parasail company and myself proceeded to clean up the mess, and it WAS a mess. It is also NOT in the job description of the Harbormaster or the people who rent the few charter spots to be janitors, although throughout the summer, they do this job and keep the docks in relatively sightly condition. Assuredly there is no money in the Harbors Dept for such a person as all the money gets hijacked into the town general fund and spent where ever the TM feels it should go! SO,,, maybe it is time for the town to get off it's collective ass and do something about that area. If a former proposal I had made had been acted on years ago about docks out there and rent charged, it probably would have been all paid off by now. There used to be docks out there back in the 30's and 40's. It is way past time that some sort of order be established out there in the wild wild east. TIFN