Putting Watermen Out Of Business

Source: dailypress.com

August 1, 2008

I’m captain of the fishing vessel Sea Rambler, treasurer of the Coastal Virginia Watermen’s Association and a Merchant Marine officer. Currently I am flat broke! This year alone I have seen the end of the Chesapeake Bay watermen.

There are no jobs to be found other than part-time or minimum-wage. To keep fishing, I have to pay $4.50 to $5 a gallon for fuel. That adds up to $700 a week in the boat, $150 in my truck and $30 for oil. I cannot afford to leave the dock!

Year after year, month after month, I and others like me come to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to defend our livelihoods, only to be pushed around and slowly by law put out of business.

With no outside help, we’ve endured. Now I just don’t see that happening anymore. It used to be one or two watermen here and there, but now there are 10- to 20-some watermen leaving the bay.

Loss of the crab-dredge fishery was a hard blow, with five months of no work; also with rumors of the VMRC taking away my crab pot and peeler licenses, and now restricting charter boat licenses, this is adding more insult to injury. Our careers are facing annihilation.

So I beg the VMRC to stop this madness. The condition of the bay is not our fault. Start looking elsewhere before pointing the finger at us.

Lee R. Smith
Hampton

NN needs better piers

The following editorial, offered by Michael Greene, is a frustrated plea for better piers in Newport News. Michael’s opinion is shared by many citizens who are puzzled by the dearth of piers that could offer access to the waterfront for the average citizen. Disillusionment appears to be growing among those who believe that entrée to this most precious resource is reserved for the wealthiest citizens of Newport News while tax increases don’t discriminate in the same way.
… Site Administrator
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July 15, 2008

Source: dailypress.com

Newport News is 22 miles long and four miles wide. It is mostly coastline yet, as taxpaying citizens, we don’t even have a decent pier to fish from. The Hilton pier uses school property for parking and is too short. The Riverview overlook has no fishing and is too short. The Denbigh pier is a city eyesore and falling apart, and closes at 10 p.m. (why?).

The James River pier is overcrowded, mostly from users across the bridge or from North Carolina; also a fee is charged. Several other piers are either too small or short, in disarray, or torn down, like the Deep Creek pier. Everything at the Menchville marina is an eyesore or unsafe for use.

Look around this dump of a city, with unused strip malls and more new, unrented ones and roads that are never finished or are un-drivable. It’s time for some foresight and some action, instead of giving a 3 percent raise to City Manager Randy “Hildecan’t”!

Michael Greene
Newport News

Keep The Watermen

Source: dailypress.com
June 25, 2008

I was gratified to read that Newport News City Council members unanimously supported the rebuilding of the historical Deep Creek pier, two preferring a pedestrian pier while four envision a mooring pier (“Deep Creek pier decision delayed,” June 11).

I am particularly encouraged by the votes of council members Bert Bateman, Madeline McMillan, Sharon Scott and Bill Haskins. My hope is that this project will not get tied up in red tape, that Mayor Joe Frank will make every effort to implement what the City Council has told him it wants, and that the watermen will soon be back in Deep Creek where they’ve been for decades and where they belong.

A solution must be found regarding the issue of insurance for the watermen. We have an example here of a council that has listened to its citizens, voted to meet their needs and publicly demonstrated their intent to do the right thing.

I’m looking forward to the day when we will once again see a pier at the end of Deep Creek Road, but it will be a travesty if the watermen are prevented from using that pier due to prohibitive insurance fees. I thank the entire City Council for this vote. Now let’s make it a reality.

Bonnie Melzer Atkins

Newport News

NN doesn’t need to rebuild pier

Source: dailypress.com

June 16, 2008

Why would the city of Newport News even be looking at putting the Deep Creek pier in again after months of previous debate that concluded it doesn’t have the money, land or support to do the project? (“Deep Creek pier decision delayed,” June 11) The pier was great when it was new and in good shape. Then, the watermen abused it to ruins.

Who paid for the removal of the sunken boat or the engine that was pulled out? Who paid for the damage when the watermen’s uninsured boats broke away in a storm and smashed into the private boats next door? Who’s paying for the new bulkhead across the creek? Who pays for the recovery of the sunken fishing boat that now sits right in the middle of the channel? Did it sink on its own or did it get help? If you let the watermen back in, does this mean the foul language, fighting and intimidation will return?

The James River Marina owners have greatly improved the area from what it once was. This means more tax revenue to the city. Now the city is once again trying to take personal property through eminent domain “for the good of the citizens.” Well, all the waterman who were there before will be more than happy to have a place to leave their dilapidated boats for free once again.

A walking pier? Come on. For the price, the public road goes down to the river, walk through the parking lot another 200 feet, and it will be the same thing.

Jeff Caplan
Newport News

Woodbury’s Focus

The Daily Press published the following letter yesterday after removing their own words, which were quoted from an article on “their stand” on the Deep Creek Pier (Priorities In Newport News, published 11-20-07). They’ve been included in the following version of what was the original letter.
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Offering her considerable talents to represent the central district of Newport News, Pat Woodbury is an excellent candidate for City Council.

She comes to the table with critical experience regarding education, after serving on the Newport News School Board, and on the Virginia School Board of Education. Born in Virginia and a peninsula resident for 49 years, she is no Johnny Come Lately.

She has voiced concerns regarding local gang activity among our youth, and believes it should be a priority. She has also pledged to work with state and federal officials regarding illegal immigration.

She demonstrated a keen empathy with the weary Newport News taxpayer recently, stating at a public forum, “We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. We need to let the people keep more of their hard-earned money.”

She is in favor of rebuilding the recently demolished, historical Deep Creek pier, a project which the Daily Press stated (Priorities In Newport News, 11-20-07 ) “…would be a capital expense, spread over so many years it would have an imperceptible effect on tax rates in any given year…” This is the sort of small project our City Council should be supporting. It will bring a great deal of enjoyment to the public at minimal cost to the taxpayer, while offering access to the water for the average citizen – something that has been disappearing rapidly in recent years. Less is more during these difficult economic times.

Bonnie Atkins

Newport News

N N Watermen, unite

Source: dailypress.com
Written by Carol Hogge

March 30, 2008

All watermen from Newport News need to come to the next meeting of the City Council. Especially needed are the watermen who have docked at the Deep Creek pier and are now docked at the Menchville wharf. The Deep Creek pier that has been the home port for many watermen for decades is in jeopardy of being torn down completely and never being replaced as a mooring facility.

Watermen’s views and concerns are needed to help the city decide and provide the best and safest place for the mooring of boats and being able to unload and sell the catch without having to travel elsewhere. It is very important to attend and let the City Council know our experiences and feelings about the Deep Creek pier. Not only the watermen are losing this great treasure but the public who have fished or crabbed or just strolled down the pier to view the sunset or talk to the watermen.

It really does matter what the watermen have to say. Don’t let this opportunity to speak out get away from you to tell the City Council what you think.

Carol Hogge

Newport News

Rebuild the pier

Photo contributed by pier supporter. Thank you.

Most recent editorial follows.

Source: dailypress.com

March 6, 2008

I requested a deed to the property from the top of the hill at the end of Deep Creek out to the mean low waterline. The Newport News city attorney’s office responded in writing that it does not have a deed to that property.

Deep Creek Pier was built the first time more than 70 years ago on the land of Bonniebelle Melzer. It was rebuilt in the late 1950s, after her death, on the land of her husband, John Melzer.

It doesn’t matter who built the pier. The land is what’s at stake here.If there was no agreement then the city owes the Melzer family “just compensation” for the road and for their property. They have asked that instead of giving them money for the road, the city rebuild the Deep Creek Pier as their mother would have wanted it. It does not have to be as long as it was. It just has to serve the public and the working watermen.

Charlotte Saylor

“Save the Deep Creek Pier,” Newport News

Let’s try to save Deep Creek Pier

February 2, 2008

The Deep Creek pier is scheduled to be demolished on Tuesday, February 15, 2008. According to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism director, Michael Poplawski, demolition will start that day, and depending on how long it takes to pull up the pilings, it will take several days.

I encourage watermen and the public to attend the next meeting of the Newport News City Council –– on Tuesday February 5, 2008 –– to let their voices be heard to keep the Deep Creek pier. In our continued fight to save the pier, the city has told us that as a compromise it is going to give us a walking pier that watermen can’t dock at and where nobody can fish or crab from.

If people want to save the pier, they should attend this meeting. Without support, it will be gone forever and the end of Deep Creek Road will become private and no longer public.

Anyone who has ever gone there to enjoy the sunset, or to talk to the watermen, or crab or fish, or had a boat docked there, should attend.

This is a historical landmark that has been there for 70 years and should be treasured, not destroyed and lost forever. This is the only waterman and public pier in Newport News that is still free.

Carol Hogge
Newport News

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.