Created: 11/5/2009 6:17:30 PM 
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla -- Staff members with the City of St. Augustine feel they have come up with a solution for abandoned boats, sewage dumped overboard, and loosely anchored boats slamming into other vessels.
This month city commissioners will consider the Harbor Management Plan which includes something called "mooring fields."
They would be a way to regulate the anchoring of boats in St. Augustine's waterways.
St. Augustine's General Services Director Jim Piggott said, "a mooring field is a series of buoys that will act as an anchor, if you will, for a boat."
He compared a mooring field to a hotel.
A boater would go to the city marina to check in and would then get assigned to a mooring location. The boaters would also pay a fee and give their registration and contact information to the city.
The fee has not yet been determined.
Piggott explained a pump boat would collect waste from moored boats. Currently, some boaters choose to dump raw sewage overboard.
Use of the city marina's restrooms, showers, laundry room, and free dingy-docking would come with the mooring fee, according to Piggott.
While some boaters support the idea of mooring fields, others do not.
Charlene and Steve Isenberg live in a boat anchored in the bay near downtown St. Augustine.
They and everyone else who anchors in St. Augustine don't have to pay anything to do so.
The Isenbergs don't like the mooring fields proposal.
"If it were free it'd be fine," Mrs. Isenberg said.
The city commission will consider three proposed mooring fields.
One would be located just off shore from the fort or Castillo de San Marcos. The second one would be south of the Bridge of Lions, and the third mooring field would be in Salt Run, near the St. Augustine lighthouse.
The mooring fields are expected to cost approximately $435,000 to make, Piggott said.
He added that mooring fields are "more restrictive" than the free anchoring allowed now. "However it is better for the environment and it's eventually going to save the taxpayers a lot more money," Piggott said.
"We spent more than $100,000 over the last year on removing derelict boats."
Derelict or abandoned boats are a big reason for the mooring fields proposal.
Those boats can bang into bridges and other vessels as well as pollute the water.
The city commission will hear Piggott's presentation November 9. Piggott expects a public hearing in December.
©2009 First Coast News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, or redistributed.
