Letters to the Editor

A few money-saving ideas
Times are tough. The state of California and the city of Long Beach are broke. The taxpayers are really angry at the money that’s been wasted by both the state and the city. I’m around the marina and have been since 1967, and I have a few ideas that don’t cost money and might save lots.
When the garbage pickups take place, the doors are opened, the bin pulled out dumped and returned to the hole. But the garbage employees NEVER close the doors and latch them closed so they swing in the wind and reveal the mess inside. This is unsightly boorishness and it’s been going on for years.
The other day the concrete pathways were power washed. One man using the pressure hose and another was just sitting in the truck. I followed this inefficient operation for a while and it’s a shameless, useless waste of manpower. Much the same wasted manpower applies to cutting the grass.
The public employee unions have a stranglehold on Long Beach and management is unable to get hold of the problem. If these inefficiencies were corrected more manpower could be diverted to repairing the docks, which are really becoming a disaster.
I’m on Gangway 6 in ABM and the deterioration over the last few months is just immense. I gather from the notice with the billing to remove heavy items that new docks will not be happening any time soon. Weight reduction probably is necessary (while punitive), as we may be living with our current docks for quite a while.
The nail-popping problem is out of control. I do think, considering the drastic situation, that boat owners should take more responsibility for maintenance/repair around their slip. One final thought: Many dock faucets and hoses are leaking. I’d bet leaks are wasting thousands of gallons daily throughout the marina, based on my inspection in Basin 1. Boat owners should be made to correct these leaks right now.
Barney Ridder
Gangway 6
ABM

A Case of Wasteful Spending?
I am a permittee in Alamitos Bay Marina. I am astonished that the Marine Bureau manager would, at this time of budget crisis, waste marina money replacing display cases on the back walls of the ABM restrooms. There are so many children and youth activities being cut all over our city that this display case expen¬diture seems, in my opinion, just another example of wasteful expenditure of marina funds.
My suggestion is to rent out all available slips in both marinas. Some slips have been kept vacant for up to seven years! There are at least 160 vacant slips on Gangways 23, 24, and 25!
Thomas M. Stewart
Gangway 28
ABM

Fill the Empty Slips
I am a little confused about something I read in the Summer edition of the Gangway Gazette.
Bullet No. 3 on page 7 talks about the Marine Bu¬reau doing its utmost to fill slips and the fact that there are 300 to 400 slips now vacant, which is causing the slip fees to be 10% more than if the marina was full. My understanding was that the slip fees were to be based upon expenses divided by square footage of all the marina slips, not just the ones rented.
I never agreed with the BOA’s decision to (support basing) the fees on costs because I thought it gave the Marine Bureau the ability to spend, spend, spend and simply dump the wasted cost onto boaters. So, if the policy is to divide the cost by occupied slips, what happens when the marina becomes 50% occupied, as happened during the last economic downturn?
When I moved my Grand Banks into the Shoreline Marina in 1993, the marina was about 50% full. This could happen again.
It’s stupid to have all these slips vacant when there are so many obstacles to overcome before the actual rebuild starts.
The Marine Bureau moved too quickly, before all the facts were known. They should have officially postponed the rebuild a few years due to the environ-mental complications of which it is not in control.
ABM would not be sitting with 300 to 400 empty slips if they would simply admit their mistake and reset the timetable.
Thom Rowell
Gangway E
Shoreline Marina