Marina Musings
The following letter was sent to city council by former council member Brian Duffy. This letter shows how much the city misses his clear, reasoned thinking.
Dear Mayor and Councilmembers,
I really appreciate your efforts looking into improving the marina. No doubt there is always room for improvement, parking and landscaping being most notable. I am somewhat heartened to see in the Moultrie News that caution was expressed about catering too strongly to a wide market. I suggest to you that you have only one market to consider, IOP voters who approved the marina acquisition as an amenity for residents via referendum. That we have a successful restaurant (who I hope is paying their rent on time) and a successful general store is a good thing, however, it is not why the marina was acquired in the first place. I hope you will keep this in mind as you move through the process.
As a resident who lives 500 yards from the marina and is overly exposed to the “wide market” to which the marina already caters, I am impressed that we have a design engineer who can talk about a “very intimate relationship with the water” and then propose a dry stack! I guess you can say waterboarding is also a “very intimate relationship with the water”. If the BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP of a forklift moving boats around on beautiful island days is not torture, I don’t know what is! Because I am already overly exposed to the impacts (noise, traffic, and parking) of the marina businesses, I am sure you can tell that I am adamantly opposed to a dry stack at the marina. I cannot see how it benefits the residents and how it fits in with this part of the comprehensive plan vision statement: Measures that will enhance the existing character of the island as a quality place to live, and protect the environment both on and around the island, must be taken to guide development and preserve the quality of life for generations to come.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to future resident input sessions.
Best regards,
Brian Duffy
iopobserver 