A struggle to stay afloat

The following article, published in today’s Daily Press, is the first in a series that will seek to examine the degraded condition of the Chesapeake Bay, and how that change is affecting the traditions and lifestyles that have depended on it for generations. Patrick Lynch is the writer of this insightful day-in-the-life look at the struggles involved in being a waterman in today’s world. You’ll find that photographer, Adrin Snider, does a singular job of capturing the natural beauty of one of the oldest professions known to man – waterman.
…Site Administrator
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James Riggins plies the waters of the York River aboard the Linda J. Watermen rise early to run their traps in quest of the blue crab. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)
The deteriorating state of the bay pushes watermen like Jimmy Riggins to the edge of economic ruin.

Story by Patrick Lynch
Photos by Adrin Snider July 13, 2008
Source: dailypress.com

Jimmy Riggins walks from home to work by the light of a silver moon. It’s not so much early in the morning as it is the middle of the night.

It’s about 50 paces from the back door of his house till his rubber boots hit his pier, pieces of plywood nailed over a narrow set of pilings. The first boat that he walks past was built by his grandfather, who lives just down the lane. His father’s is tied up nearby.

Riggins steps on his boat just after 4 a.m. He immediately gets to the work of the day: shoveling out dead menhaden from a well to rebait his crab pots.

“This is always a wonderful way to start the morning,” he says with a slow, easy laugh. He shrugs off the 3 a.m. wake-up call soon followed by a stiff shot of dead-fish aroma. “A man can get used to just about anything, I suspect,” he says.

But “I woke up every morning with a knot in my stomach,” he says. After a year, he decided to go back to crabbing and clamming.

“Basically, I wasn’t on my boat. I like being around home. This is what I do. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at in my life. It’s all I ever wanted to do. All I’m doing is something my family’s been doing for 100 years.”

The bright lights of Western Refining‘s oil refinery sparkle in the morning darkness. Riggins nods toward it. He has a friend who left the water to work on the pier there. “He loves it,” he says.

“For now, I’m here. I don’t know how much longer, but I’m here.”

Once the morning finally arrives, the orange globe of the sun peeks over the edge of the Chesapeake. A hundred yards ahead, Riggins spots his father’s boat.

“Some of my best memories are on that boat,” he says

. “Me and my sister, culling crabs when we could barely see over the sides.”

Income down 30 percent

It’s different on the water now. The crabs aren’t nearly as plentiful, nor is the income. Even in 10 years — since Riggins has been on his own — his income from crabbing has dropped 30 percent, he says. That’s before factoring in diesel prices that have nearly quadrupled. The cost of zinc, used to keep crab pots from rusting, has more than doubled in a year.

And this year, to protect the ever-more-fragile crab population in the Chesapeake, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission is closing the season a month early and taking other measures to reduce the female crab catch 34 percent.

“Now they’re taking another 30 percent,” he says of the cut. “I ain’t no math scholar, but pretty soon, you’re going to run out of 30 percents.”

Riggins is complying with one of those measures today, though he doesn’t like it and doesn’t think that it’ll do any good: He’s cutting o pen the wires on his pots and twisting in two additional “cull rings” — escape hatches for smaller crabs.

“It hurts so bad,” he says of cutting the pots up. “There’s something about destroying a crab pot.”

On his way to his last row of pots for the day, Riggins sees a boat tearing across the York toward him. He slows, and the boat pulls aside. At the wheel is Bubba Hogg, a Guinea waterman who stopped crabbing two years ago to take a job captaining boats at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He and Riggins exchange hello s, and Hogg talks about why he left the waterman’s life behind.

“Too much trouble. No future,” Hogg says. “There’s plenty of crabs, but everything’s more expensive. Ain’t that right, Jimmy?”

“That’s right.”

Riggins asks, “How’s your job?”

“I love it.”

Riggins nods. “Let me know when you’re hiring.”

They laugh, say goodbye and wave, an d get back to work.

‘No market tomorrow!’

With the day’s catch at his feet, Riggins steers toward York River Seafood in Guinea to sell his crabs. He comes in with 121/2 bushels, at about $20 a bushel. As he’s untying to head home, the dockworker who unloaded his crabs returns.

“There’s no market tomorrow!” he yells.

“What?” Riggins asks, either not hearing him or not believing what he heard.

“No market tomorrow!” the worker yells. He explains that there’s been a surplus of crabs on the market and that a day off is needed . Rig gins leaves discouraged. He’s missed one day this week due to boat trouble. His income potential for the week now has been shot down by a third before he’s pulled another crab from the water.

A man can get used to just about anything.

On the way home, Riggins sees his father tending to his last pots of the day.

“There’s a part of me that’s never going to be happy unless I’m standing behind him on that boat,” Riggins says as he motors by.

Riggins ties up and is walking down the pier toward his house when his dad pulls up to unload some peeler crabs in a float at the end of the dock.

“Whoa! Look at all them peelers!” he says, impressed by the size of the catch.

Then he yells to his dad: “There’s no market tomorrow!”

His dad cups a hand to his ear, and Riggins repeats himself.

“There’s no market tomorrow!”

The end of a way of life?

Right now, Riggins is trying to get used to the new world of crabbing in the Chesapeake Bay.

His great-grandfather, who built the house that Riggins lives in on Dandy Point at the mouth of the York River, never wanted for crabs. Neither did his grandfather, who built several of the deadrises still plying the shallows around Dandy.

His father taught him the trade and, at 65, is still on the water every day, facing the same problems of rising costs, stricter regulations — and fewer crabs.

But Riggins, at 36 one of the younger watermen still working the water full time, has a decision to make: Can this traditional lifestyle keep him afloat in this day and age? Or have we let the Chesapeake get so unhealthy, leaving so few crabs in the bay — and have costs and regulations become such obstacles — that he simply can’t afford to be a waterman anymore?

‘This is what I do’

The blue crabs in the Chesapeake have dropped 70 percent in numbers since 1990. The number of licensed Virginia watermen hasn’t declined by exactly that much since then, but it’s close. Many of them were men older than Riggins, who either passed on or decided that they’d outgrown the work. But Riggins saw many of his peers quit, too.

Riggins fires up the diesel on the Diana D, his 56-year-old 42-foot-long wooden deadrise, and slips away from the pier toward his first line of pots for the day. The crabs have been catching OK, Riggins says while guiding the boat by searchlight across the black water. But they haven’t been selling that well the pas t few w eeks.

The seafood buyers aren’t finding many customers, probably because the customers’ extra money is going to gas and milk and produce prices, instead of fresh crabs. Without customers, but with a decent number of crabs being caught, the buyers aren’t paying the crabbers much. And imported crab meat has been competing with the local catch for years now.

Riggins shakes his head and paraphrases the law of supply and demand. “If I got a boatload, it’s worthless,” he says. “If I need something, it’s priceless.”

The Diana D skims down Riggins’ first row of pots in a shallow area called the “bay shore.” It’s at the fringe of the Poquoson Flats, once ho m e to huge underwater grass beds that sheltered baby crabs. The grasses are gone today, victim to polluted Chesapeake waters.

Riggins has a mechanical device that could pull the wire traps up through the water, but he prefers to haul them by hand. He w or ks by himself. He reaches for each pot line with a shepherd’s crook, hauls up the pot, dumps the old bait, shakes out the crabs, rebaits the pot and sets it on the ledge of the boat. He steers to the next buoy, tosses the pot in next to it and reaches for the crook to start again.

A single small light bulb holds back the darkness and throws a dim light on the back of the boat. Riggins’ feet shuffle over a pat ch of t h e floorboards where the marine paint has been worn down to the wood. A steady rhythm emerges.

“This is what I do,” he says after a few pots, “every day.” Two hundred pots a day. Six days a week. Eight months of the year.

After filling up three large plastic tubs, he switches his attention to culling the crabs by gender and size. Occasionally, the crabs sti ll bite. Even through thick rubber gloves. Riggins hardly pauses.

“Like I said,” Riggins says, smiling, “a m an can get used to just about anything.”

Back in the cabin, he guides the b oat past the Goodwin Islands. One hand is on the wheel, one on the searchlight. The sun has yet to hint a t its impending arrival.

‘For now, I’m here’

Riggins left the water about five y ears a go, when he was too frustrated with the industry’s declining fortune. He fixed outboard motors for seven or eight months, but that wasn’t enough money, either. So he got a job on a line, making kitchen cabinets. It paid pretty well.

Photos

Jimmy Riggins has been working the water with his father since the age of 9. The 36 year old fourth generation waterman faces an uncertain future with crabbing restrictions, operating costs and smaller crab population. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)
Jimmy Riggins rises early to check 2 00 crab traps he runs in and around the York River. The 36-year-old is a fourth-generation waterman and faces an uncertain future with crabbing restrictions and operating costs. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)
The sun breaks the horizon as Jimmy Riggins runs another one of the 200 crab traps he baits to catch blue crab adjacent to the York River. Watermen begin their day an hour before sunrise. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press/ June 26, 2008)

A trap with four cull rings is tossed back into the York River after its catch of blue crabs was unloaded and rebaited by Jimmy Riggins. Crabbers had to add two additional cull rings by July 1st to meet new state regulations. ( Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26 , 2008)
Moving to his next string of traps, Jimmy Riggins loves his job working alone for hours in a series of repetitive chores running crab traps. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 200 8) Culling crabs, sorting them by sex, size and egg bearing females, Jimmy Riggins takes the ups and downs of crabbing in stride hoping to survive the recent downturn in the industry he has been involved with since a child. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)

A blue crab rests in a bushel basket yet to be filled by Jimmy Riggins. The much sought after blue crab is in a state of decline according to researchers. More regulation has attempted to limit the catch of watermen by shorter seasons and additional cull rings in traps. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)

Jimmy Riggins installs an additional set of two cull rings in his traps, escape routes for crabs to small for harvest. The rings however can let small adult crabs escape to propogate which Riggins contends leads to smaller adult crabs. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)
A set of four cull rings are installed in traps run by Jimmy Riggins giving escape routes for crabs too small for harvest. In addition to juvenile crabs, the rings can let small adult crabs escape to propogate which Riggins contends leads to smaller adult crabs in the species. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008) A blue crab claw hangs out a of a full bushel basket after being harvested by Jimmy Riggins. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)
Jimmy Riggins offloads his take of crab for the day at York River Seafood with the help of Nathaniel Berry. Twelve and a half bushels of crabs were harvested by Riggins on what he described as a slower day of crabbing. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 26, 2008)

Jimmy Riggins holds a small. adult crab which will never get any bigger than it is now, a problem Riggins contends in the result of cull rings which let smaller crabs, juvenile and adult escape traps. (Adrin Snider, Daily Press / June 2 6, 2008) Nathaniel Berry (left writes Jimmy Riggins the pay ticket for his catch of crab after off-loading his take at York River Seafood. N athaniel Berry later told Riggins that the market was closed the next day due to a lack of buyers for blue crabs leaving him out of wo rk for the next day.(Adrin Snider, Dayly Press/ June 26, 2008)

Deep Creek pier decision delayed

The city was leaning toward a mooring plan, but Mayor Joe Frank asked for more information.

By Sabine Hirschauer
June 11, 2008
Source: dailypress.com

NEWPORT NEWS – — So close. But not close enough.

Four Newport News City Council members said Tuesday they would support another mooring pier at the end of Deep Creek Road. Two council members, Vice Mayor Charles Allen and Councilman Joe Whitaker, backed a pedestrian pier with benches and rails.

But it was Mayor Joe S. Frank who sent city staff back to the drawing board on the pier issue.

“I don’t think I have enough information to decide one way or the other,” Frank said.

Since the city demolished the aging Deep Creek pier last year, a firestorm has ignited over whether or not to rebuild the 1940s-era local landmark.

A full-fledged, new 400-foot mooring pier including a costly parking lot, lights, water, restrooms and security cameras could cost between $600,000 to $900,000. By comparison, a 300-foot pedestrian pier with some amenities, where only children could fish, could cost around $300,000. But it was unclear if a parking lot with a price tag between $146,000 to $185,000 was needed for the shorter pedestrian dock. Restrooms would cost between $190,000 to $250,000.

The city attorney will research if by state law, Newport News can use eminent domain to acquire land for parking, something which might not be legal if the pier was used commercially by the watermen. The city will also check into whether or not the pedestrian pier would require parking at all.

Council members also discussed charging pier users for parking and mooring, and requiring watermen to insure their boats once the city rebuilds the pier.

Good news and bad news and a whole lot in between, C.W. Powell, a local waterman, said describing Tuesday’s work session debate about the pier.

And Carol Hogge, the wife of a Deep Creek waterman, said for the city requiring insurance and possibly charging for mooring wasn’t fair.

“They are running the watermen out,” she said.

How much will rebuilding Deep Creek pier cost?

City officials will hear various options today for replacing the iconic pier.

By Sabine Hirschauer
June 10, 2008
source: dailypress.com

NEWPORT NEWS – The Deep Creek pier might be gone, but the controversy surrounding its demolition last fall and the debate about rebuilding it is alive and well.

City officials will brief Newport News City Council members during a work session this afternoon on the different options for rebuilding the iconic pier, which sat at the end of Deep Creek Road for more than six decades.

Newport News began dismantling the pier in September because of safety and liability concerns. But the demolition, which cost $30,000, soon caused a rift between many Deep Creek residents and local watermen who wanted to keep the pier and City Council members, who said it was too costly to maintain.

“They need to replace it,” said 65-year-old waterman Jimmy Crewe, who’s been harvesting oysters at Deep Creek for nearly the last five decades. Crewe moors his commercial fishing boat at the Menchville Marina across from where the Deep Creek pier once stood.

During today’s work session, city officials are expected to present new estimates on how much it would cost to replace the pier.

One option includes replacing it with a similar 400-feet-long and 8-feet-wide full service mooring structure.

To build the new pier — pilings and wooden decking — would cost an estimated $146,000. But there would still be a parking problem because Newport News doesn’t own land for a parking lot at the Deep Creek pier.

“That’s just putting the mooring pier back on the end of Deep Creek Road,” said Michael Poplawski, director of the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. “It’s the same if we would build the north Newport News recreation center without a parking lot. People would say ‘Wait a minute, how should I get there?’ It should be done right.”

According to city estimates, the cost of buying land for parking, restrooms, lights and other amenities could drive the price up to nearly $750,000.

“Given that such property is on the waterfront, it will be very expensive,” City Manager Randy Hildebrand wrote to the council last week.

Another option would be to build a 300-feet-long, 8-feet-wide pedestrian pier with handrails and benches, for about $133,000, but that would not include the cost of a parking lot and other amenities.

When the city began to raze the Deep Creek pier last year, most watermen moved across the water to the Menchville side of Deep Creek. On Friday, the city started to replace 735 feet of wooden bulkhead at the Menchville Marina. Additional work at the marina includes regrading the low area along the parking lot next to the bulkhead, which often floods.

Repair work at the marina is expected to be finished by Sept. 18 and will not include additional mooring piers or pilings — or repairing the piers and pilings currently in place between the docks used by Christopher Newport College and the existing boat ramp.

“There was no reason to tear down Deep Creek pier in the first place,” said Crewe, tying up his Bay Queen next to another commercial fishing boat. “We need all the space we can get.”

City Council, School Board candidates address spending

Some criticized the salaries of the city’s top management at a forum Thursday night.

By Sabine Hirschauer
April 11, 2008

Source: dailypress.com

NEWPORT NEWS – — Taxes, the budget and Deep Creek pier.

City Council candidates Thursday night answered a flood of questions on how to best save money and cut spending during a forum organized by the local tax grass-roots group RETRO. The candidates were quick on their feet with ideas.

Victor Albea, who is running in the south district, said he would not want to cut spending in education and crime prevention.

City Manager Randy Hildebrandt last month released an $814.8 million city spending plan for the next fiscal year, which includes a $318.6 million school budget. And most recently Hildebrandt suggested cutting the school budget by $2.2 million, which could reduce the proposed raises for school employees from 4 percent to 3 percent. Three percent is the size raise Hildebrandt suggested for city employees.

“Eduction is key,” said Albea, who also wants the city to focus on private dollars to bankroll development.

The three School Board candidates attending the forum — Betty Dixon, incumbent School Board Chairman Richard “Rick” Donaldson and incumbent William “Bill” Collins — also spoke out against the school cuts.

“I am disappointed that the city manager cut our budget to essentially a flat budget,” Donaldson said.

Rob Jones, who is vying for the open City Council seat in the central district, said he wants to streamline government and make it more efficient.

“We need to separate our wants from our needs,” he said.

Millard White, also running in the central district, emphasized a prioritization of city spending, making better decisions on what projects really need to get funded and what services residents want to give up.

“We need to cut the fat out of the budget,” he said.

Some candidates mentioned a city contract for $300,000 annually to promote the Marriott Hotel at City Center for the next 20 years.

“We have a spending problem,” said Pat Woodbury, who is also running in the central district, “not a revenue problem. We need to let the people keep more of their hard-earned money.”

Most candidates also criticized the salaries of some of the city’s top management.

“Our city attorney just received an $8,000 raise,” said Sheryl Holmes Abbott, who is running in the south district. “I don’t think his responsibilities increased. This has to end.”

“I am for cutting the budget,” Albea said. “But not at the sacrifice of citizen services.”

To save the schools some money, School Board candidate Dixon suggested an end to mandatory busing and “to return to neighborhood schools.”

Jones, who recommended a special task force to look at real estate assessments, said he supported the controversial King William Reservoir and saw it “as a good source of revenue, which will help us lower taxes.”

At the end of the forum, the candidates were asked if they would support rebuilding the Deep Creek pier, which the city demolished last year. Most supported the idea.

“If we can afford a $50 million reservoir, we surely can afford rebuilding the pier, which has been there for years,” said Dennis W. Rowsey, who is a candidate in the central district.

White said he was in favor of the pier, but the city probably should hold off on rebuilding it right now because of the current fiscal problems at City Hall.

Marie Boyd and Marvin Evans, both central district candidates, did not attend the forum. Boyd sent her neighbor, Michael Shapiro, to represent her. Tina Vick who is running for the south district and incumbent Councilwoman Madeline McMillan, who is running unopposed in the north district, also did not attend.

Newport News’ historian will finalize retirement in February

Earning $120,000 in Hampton and $83,325 in Newport News, John Quarstein says he’s living up to obligations.

By Sabine Hirschauer
January 28, 2008

NEWPORT NEWS’ – — City historian John Quarstein, who was supposed to retire in November after signing up to become Hampton’s historian, said last week that he won’t officially leave Newport News until the end of February.

“My intention was all along to retire,” Quarstein said. “But I was not able to wrap things up.”

Quarstein’s contract with Hampton started in mid-November. Since then and continuing through February, he’ll work two full-time, 40-hour jobs and draw two paychecks.

Hampton last year agreed to pay Quarstein $120,000 a year, which he said includes about $36,000 for an assistant. He earns $83,325 annually in Newport News.

“I was trying to get everything somewhat organized,” said the 54-year-old local historian. “I am not trying to cheat anyone. I am trying to live up to my obligations, which I feel very strongly about. … I wanted to make both transitions very, very positive.”

Among other things, he said he’s still trying to organize the move of the Lee Hall train depot about 100 feet across the tracks in north Newport News to turn it into a transportation museum.

Quarstein began working for Newport News on Aug. 7, 1978.

He serves today as administrator of Museums and Historic Services for the city.

Usually working 14- to 16-hour days and six to seven days a week, Quarstein said attending to the two full-time jobs has been easy.

“I am a workaholic,” he said. “I just don’t sleep a lot.”

Holding two similar 40-hours, full-time jobs — even as a supervisor — is not against city policy, his boss said.

“The only thing he is obligated to do for the city of Newport News is …. he owes the city his 40-plus hours committed to city work,” said Michael Poplawski, director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. “Anything he does above and beyond that has to be off the city’s work schedule.”

It would be against city policy if Quarstein couldn’t work at least 40 hours, or if the quality of his work slipped, which Poplawski said he hasn’t noticed.

After retiring, Quarstein said, he will contract with Newport News to spend 10 to 15 hours a week working for the city.

Newport News also owes Quarstein about 700 hours of vacation, which “they have to pay me for,” Quarstein said.

Based on Quarstein’s annual salary, that’s about $28,000 before taxes.

Quarstein said he will use one to two weeks of vacation in February.

According to city records, Quarstein has retirement credits for about 32 years, primarily because some city employees can exchange excess hours in paid leave for early retirement.

Newport News is preparing to advertise for his job.

City Council to vote on 5-year plan for city projects

According to an article on dailypress.com by Sabine Hirshauer, it seems that the Deep Creek Pier may be included in the City’s five-year plan.
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Source: dailypress.com

By Sabine Hirshauer
12:11 PM EST, Jan. 21, 2008

NEWPORT NEWS – City Council is scheduled Tuesday night to vote on Newport News five-year plan for large city projects.

The plan, which includes projects scheduled from July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2013, will most likely include some money to rebuild the controversial Deep Creek pier.

It is also scheduled to include $10.5 million for a recreation center in north Newport News, $5.3 million for new fire station on Jefferson Avenue, $3.5 million for Economic Development projects, $2.8 million for city jail renovation, $1.15 million for PCB clean up at Seafood Industrial park and $1 million for Southeast Community redevelopment.

Piers and promises

Editorial feedback
Source: dailypress.com
December 17, 2007

Responding to the Nov. 20 editorial about the Deep Creek pier, “Priorities.” Fishermen are a dying breed and need to be supported. By the city not keeping a 70-year-old promise, what does that say about the integrity of our city leaders? They’re able to find money for all these new and big developments, so why not the same for our waterfront? I’ve never been on the Deep Creek pier, but I support the people trying to preserve it. I’ve lived in this city for over 43 years.

Joyce Werner

Editorial Feedback

December 12, 2007

A pair of piers

Maybe if the city of Newport News hadn’t spent $21 million on a brick police station, instead of building it out of something more affordable, then maybe it would have $700,000 to spend on a working pier that the working people in the area need (“Priorities,” Nov. 20). Also, why is the Daily Press pushing so hard for the Menchville side? Does someone connected with the Daily Press have a monetary interest in it themselves?

Ken Lewis

Editor’s response: The Daily Press is advocating that Newport News invest in pier facilities on the Menchville side of the creek, rather than rebuild the Deep Creek pier, because the Menchville site has the advantage in accessibility and accommodating the amenities a pier requires, including restrooms. Buying land for such accommodations would drive up the cost of rebuilding on the Deep Creek side. For the record, no one connected with the Daily Press editorial page has a monetary or personal interest in this dispute, and if anyone did, we would disclose it.

Priorities In Newport News

Following are two articles/letters. The first it where the Daily Press stands on the Deep Creek Pier. The second is a rebuttal from a citizen.

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Source: dailypress.com

November 20, 2007

Where the Daily Press stands

Priorities

Newport News should focus on essentials, not the Deep Creek pier

With all the needs facing Newport News taxpayers, now and in the foreseeable future, there’s one that doesn’t seem to rise high on the priority list: rebuilding the pier at the end of Deep Creek Road. Or at least not high enough to claim scarce dollars when the city is facing much more significant needs, among them homeowners who want any relief they can get from the tax man.

The pier’s history is complicated. Back in the 1930s, Warwick County, now part of Newport News, agreed to build a public pier in exchange for some land that gives access to the waterfront at the end of Deep Creek Road. For decades, that deal worked out well. Watermen got a place they could dock and work on their boats, at no charge. People, primarily those living nearby, got a lovely place to commune with the James River.

But the pier has deteriorated. Now it’s unsafe, and the city has started dismantling it.

That has sparked some outrage — from watermen and those who support them, from some area residents, from members of the family that originally made the deal with Warwick County.

But there is a large group that isn’t being heard from. It’s all the taxpayers who would have to pay for a new pier, a cost that would approach $700,000 to $1 million to do it right (which means with the parking and restrooms a public amenity requires). It’s all the people who realize that doesn’t make sense when there’s another, better-equipped city-owned pier across the creek.

It’s all the citizens who question the cost-benefit ratio of a costly new pier that would primarily benefit a handful of watermen and a limited neighborhood, for relatively few others trek all the way down Deep CreekRoad to enjoy it. It’s all the citizens who question whether they should have to provide free dockage for boat owners.

And the biggest group not being heard from: all the citizens who look at the price tag for a pier done right and would rather put that money into something that’s more pressing or would reach more citizens — like the new fire station and recreation center that are needed. And while a new pier would be a capital expense, spread over so many years it would have an imperceptible effect on tax rates in any given year, the city would be hard pressed to convince taxpayers who are feeling beleaguered that it needs every dollar it’s collecting if it were spending some of them on something so obviously unnecessary.

“Keep the promise” is the cry of some who want the Deep Creek pier rebuilt, referring to the promise the county of Warwick made and the city of Newport News inherited to maintain a pier in exchange for the gift of land (the specifics aren’t entirely clear, in the absence of documentation). But sometimes promises, whether made by people or cities, can’t bind forever.

Things change. The people who gathered in Bonniebelle Melzer’s kitchen seven decades ago probably couldn’t foresee the conditions that prevail today: that only a few watermen now use the pier regularly. That the bustling oyster-harvesting industry is largely gone, along with the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay. That the city has grown and sprawled out, and most of its residents live far from Deep Creek.

Do the citizens of Newport News really want their city bound to a 70-year-old deal that will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars, when there is a more cost-effective alternative: move operations to the Menchville side of the creek, and see what can be done to address boat owners’ concerns that the Menchville side is less protected in storms? It makes more sense to invest in this facility, because it already has the necessities (parking and bathrooms).

As for keeping the spirit of “the promise,” Newport News has done more than many localities to support the seafood industry. It operates the Small Boat Harbor and developed the Seafood Industrial Park there to provide the facilities commercial fishermen and processors need. And it’s improving the Menchville facility.

As for local residents’ desire for a pier where they can enjoy sunsets and time with their kids, there are a couple of possibilities worth discussing. The city could build a scaled-down pedestrian pier. Or the neighbors could get together to see if they could build a neighborhood pier on their own, if they could work out the access and ownership issues. This area is dotted with private piers.

But what doesn’t make sense is for the city to spend a lot of taxpayers’ money on something that is not essential, not a priority, and not going to benefit more than a few of those who will have to furnish those tax dollars.

The Rebuttal

NN Priorities

Source: dailypress.com

November 30, 2007

Your editorial “Priorities,” Nov. 20, was interesting. Unfortunately, you failed to discuss and reveal other priorities of Newport News City Council. Instead, you chose to attack the Deep Creek pier.

Where is your outrage at the $275,000 paid for a few steel beams that attempt (miserably) to glorify the airport? Why do you not mention the spending plans for “cultural” facilities during the next five years –– $2,500,000 for the USS Monitor Center, $900,000 to the Peninsula Fine Arts Center, $200,000 to the American Theatre in Hampton, which are not “priorities” for most Newport News residents who worry how they will pay next month’s rent or mortgage.

How about questioning the $5,570,000 planned for “golf course renovation”? Is this a priority so that unemployed residents can distract themselves? Finally, why not question the “priority” of giving $22,500,000 to wealthy developers, businessmen and lawyers under the guise of “economic development projects” over the next five years? All of the above are paid by our tax dollars.

Rather than explore these “giveaways,” you prefer to attack watermen, a group of hardworking people who have little political or economic power. Your “priorities” need another look.

John J. Procyson

Newport News

Is pier protected by feds?

A 1979 agreement says Newport News must maintain the Deep Creek pier or risk losing federal dredging of the creek.

Source: dailypress.com

“The city is violating the agreement by tearing down the pier,” said John Atkinson, a Deep Creek resident and local title researcher who found the document last week amid old rolls of microfilm in the city’s engineering department. “They (city officials) have to continue maintaining the pier if they want federal money.”

The Deep Creek pier, which dates back to the 1940s or earlier, remains at the center of controversy. The City Council voted unanimously in August to demolish the pier since it was deteriorating and its condition was considered unsafe. The vote upset many residents and local watermen in the tightly knit Deep Creek community, who began fighting the decision.

Atkinson said the city was risking either not having the creek dredged at all or having to spend city dollars to do it.

According to the agreement, the city must “provide, maintain and operate without cost to the United States an adequate public landing with mooring facilities and provisions for the sale of engine fuel, lubricants and potable water. … as well as necessary access roads, parking areas and other needed public-use shore facilities.”

On Monday, city officials acknowledged the existence of the still-active agreement, but said the city is talking with the corps to clarify the 1979 stipulations and eventually have the agreement modified.

“They don’t see this as a problem,” said Michael Poplawski, the city’s parks and recreation director.

Poplawski said the Menchville side of the creek, where the city owns land at the old Menchville Marina, could serve just as well as mooring for the corps’ dredging barges.

The city plans to spend about $300,000 next year to repair the deteriorating Menchville bulkhead where most of the watermen who had docked at the Deep Creek pier have moved. The federal government last used the pier for work in 2003, Atkinson said. So far, the city has removed the deck planks, but is still waiting for bids to take out the pier’s pilings.

The city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism is scheduled to brief the council this afternoon about the cost of building a new pier.

Building another full-fledged working pier with a dock section wide enough to allow fishermen to load and unload their daily catch would cost $200,000 to $230,000, Poplawski said Monday. The cost of design and permits would increase that price tag to between $270,000 and $330,000.

A shorter, 8-foot-wide pedestrian pier would run about $82,000, he said.

Those estimates do not include money for restrooms, signs, lights, security cameras and, most importantly, a parking lot, which was one of the make-or-break points for the Deep Creek pier, Poplawski said.

“If we do it, we should do it right, including land for parking,” Poplawski said.

Atkinson and other Deep Creek residents plan to address the council tonight.

“The federal government is considering the Deep Creek harbor a federal project,” Atkinson said. “How did these guys (city officials) get away with not maintaining the pier?”