Moorage Fees At Edmonds: Most To Rise

EDMONDS - The Port of Edmonds, previously known for its bargain moorage rates, may soon get an altogether different reputation - at least among boat owners who lease the largest slips.

Under a proposed rate schedule, most of the approximately 1,000 boat owners who moor or store their boats at the Edmonds Marina are expected by Oct. 1 to be paying higher rates - some as high as about $134 more a month. On the other hand, some will pay about $16 less a month.

It's all a question of size.

Port officials expect the new rates to bring the port closer in line with other marinas, such as the Port of Everett Marina and Seattle's Shilshole Marina. The port plans to charge tenants by the square foot instead of the linear foot, a change considered more equitable by officials in several marinas.

If the new rates are accepted, boat owners leasing the marina's 11 largest, 50-foot-long covered slips can expect their current annual payments to skyrocket from about $2,040 to about $3,648, said port manager Bill Stevens.

By comparison, those leasing the port's 173 28-foot covered slips would pay about $357 more a year. Tenants who lease some of the smaller, 20-foot uncovered slips, would pay about $15 less a year, he said.

"Now for the first time, they're being asked to pay for what they're using," said Stevens.

Stevens said he is revamping the rate system in response to the Port Commission's recent decision to raise an additional $377,000 annually through moorage rates.

The three-member commission voted 2 to 1 for the increase last week to help cover costs for large capital projects and port maintenance. Stevens said the port has identified about $3 million worth of expenditures during the last three months of this year and during 1992, including an $800,000 repair to the north bulkhead.

The new rates are needed "to maintain and keep our port financially healthy," said Port Commissioner Jerry Blanton, who joined Port Commission Chairman John Dodge in voting for the increase. "I felt we needed to have the raise in order to have the finances to do that."

Blanton pointed to a final $1.2 million debt-service payment on the construction of the port's mid-marina due by the end of 1992, as well as the replacement of the wooden pilings supporting the marina's docks and boat sheds. That project is expected to cost about $5 million and has been recommended during the next five years.

But some tenants don't agree the port needs such a large revenue increase.

"I think all the tenants are skeptical of the need," said charter-boat owner Coley Aldrich, pointing out the commission approved no increases from 1984 until last summer. "It just seems like a very strange way to manage it - all of a sudden (port officials maintain) there's this big need."

However, Aldrich, who leases a 50-foot uncovered slip, acknowledges that charging by the square foot is more equitable.

"I believe a small increase was warranted," said Gerald Graham, who has leased a 20-foot uncovered slip for nearly five years. "The only contention (among tenants) is the magnitude of the increase."

"I feel we, the big, big boat owners, are paying for the increase," added Mike Jablinske, who owns one of Edmonds' oldest and largest charter-boat businesses and leases a 50-foot covered slip. "We can handle it because we run a business out of there, but there's a possibility we'll have to raise our rates."

Jablinske said he probably will try to transfer to an open slip to save costs.

Stevens said he expects to present the new rate table to the commission Monday. Since the revenue increase has already been approved, no action is necessary, but commissioners may suggest changes, he said.

But even tenants skeptical of the change don't think it will chase away too many boat owners. There's currently a waiting list of about 800 for slips and dry moorage.

"If it forces some people out of boating it will be too bad, but I really don't think it will," Aldrich said. "They have a tremendous waiting list; it's a great facility and a great location."