Let's Talk More About The Salisbury Marina

Did you know they charge $1,400.00 a year to park your Boat at their Marina? Did you also know that they keep raising their rates 10% every year?

I happen to have a friend who used to dock his Boat there but after so many problems with Coastal Property Management they chose to say enough is enough. While they owned a $300,000.00 Boat, they had just pre-paid 6 months in advance and signed a contract. During the winter they would periodically stop by to check on things and every time they went onto the Boat they found there was no power. Mind you, this is the winter months and on a Boat you must keep the heat running so things don't freeze up.

After a couple times this happened, they went to the management company and asked what the problem was. Their response was, you're using too much electric. They replied, no I'm not. I'm barely keeping it warm enough to keep things from freezing. The next time they came back, the breaker was cut off again. After enough complaining the management company actually had a meter placed on their breaker box and ultimately came to learn they were NOT using too much electric and in fact according to their contract, they could use as much electric as they wanted anyway.

Their other major issue was fuel. Most of the time the Marina didn't have fuel in the tanks. Remember now, this is a $300,000.00 Boat and when they would fuel up, it was quite a bit of money. They had asked the management company to at least provide a schedule of when they might expect to receive fuel and one was never sent out.

This particular individual slip renter went out and purchased a brand new Boat a few weeks ago and chose to never return to Salisbury because of so many issues. They said to me, where's all their money going? They rarely have fuel. There's no maintain ace done there. They rarely ever see them power washing the docks and theirs pigeon crap everywhere. But he kept saying, where's their money going? They usually hire a College Student to work their and they actually provide a place to live upstairs, so they can't be paying them too much money, where's the money going?

You, the taxpayers, have in act been providing between $30,000.00 a year to $50,000.00 year just to keep this management company going, yet no one can understand where the money is going? Doesn't this management company PAY the City every month for leasing this space? It can't be much, if the taxpayers are forking up to $50,000.00 a year to keep them afloat.

Shanie Shields mentioned, maybe we should provide a pavilion and a grill so the Boaters can have a place to hang out. Well Shanie, not for nothing but, where's their money going? She also mentioned holding an event down there with a Jazz Band once a year. She said, don't hold it right at the Docks, hold it across the street. Shanie, wouldn't that event be called, "Riverfest?"

Anyhow, the whole thing stinks. If they had cut my electric off to my Boat several times, let me assure you, there would have been some serious issues right then and there. They treat their customers poorly and have no respect for their property. I have also heard numerous times that they would regularly go on board, (perhaps it's in their contract) and look around. I can remember being on a Boat/Yacht a few years ago with someone else who leased a slip there and when we pulled in, all the gates were locked. It took us almost an hour to get someone out there just so we could get off the docks.

So when the Daily Times writes an article about the Marina the next time, maybe they should talk to some of the Boat Owners out there and see just how many issues they have experienced too.