Financial Background
FINANCIAL BACKGROUND
Collingwood is developing as a recreational town; the attractions of the revitalized Harbourlands area will be much more interesting and exciting for residents as well as being a draw for tourists. Our membership is 1000+ registered members 70% are residents and taxpayers and only 10% own boats. Please register today to add your name in support of positive change on the water-front.
In 2013, the Town of Collingwood Council approved the purchase of a head dock and one finger dock from Kropf Industrial. The head dock is the structure with ramp access that runs parallel and is attached to the East Harbour wall. The finger docks are attached to the head dock and provide mooring slips for recreational boats.
The head dock presently accommodates four finger docks; one of them belongs to the Town and the other three belong to the Collingwood Yacht Club (CYC). The Town’s finger dock comprises of 22 boat slips which are rented out to seasonal and visiting transient boaters. The income generated from one 22 slip finger dock is in the range of $28,000 to $32,000 per annum – depending on the boat length. The Town does not have enough boat slips available to meet demand and currently has a waiting list for approximately 80 slips. Some Collingwood residents are docking their boats in Thornbury Marina as Collingwood has nothing to offer them.
The CYC has a long-term lease with the Town for the land and water basin immediately to the south of the Terminal Building. In 2012, when the water levels dropped, some of the Club members with deep draft vessels experienced difficulty docking. Rather than dredge the basin, the CYC asked the Town for permission to relocate up to three of their docks to the south harbour where the water was deeper. Council permitted their relocation on a temporary basis and the CYC installed a wave break and relocated their docks to the Southern portion of the harbour in 2013. One of the conditions that the CYC agreed to was that the water level remain below the recorded average for July 2012 of 176.04 meters above sea level. It should be noted that the recorded average for July 2013 was 176.09 and for July 2014, it was 176.46 Extreme low water levels are no longer an issue.
The Town has an agreement with the CYC that their temporary use of the South harbour can continue without charge until the end of the boating season in 2016. It is the view of our coalition that when this temporary arrangement comes to an end, the CYC should return to their leased space in the basin. Any CYC member who wanted to keep their boat in the south harbour should be welcome to stay at the town marina. The Town would then have additional space for three more finger docks attached to its head dock resulting in an additional $90,000 to $100,000 in income annually. This could be the start of a Municipal Marina with expanded access to the Harbour to accommodate growing interest in this public facility. We are achieving more than satisfying a market demand for more slip rentals by installing these additional docks; it will also encourage expanded recreational use in the Port of Collingwood.
There is value in the wooden dock infrastructures but there is a much greater value in the space it occupies. This publicly-owned space on water and land should be carefully preserved and developed by the community
Please register today to add your name in support of positive change on the water-front.