Upgrades Underway at Fairhope Docks

After 30 years of leasing out its marina, the City of Fairhope, Alabama, has taken over control of the facility once again.

Lynn Maser, Fairhope special assistant, said the city had been contemplating the takeover since last spring, when a new administration took over city government. As part of the City’s research, Maser talked to 15 different harbormasters in cities that operated their own marinas.

Fairhope’s marina had not been cared for the way that it should have been.“We looked at it and said ‘What can we do better with this piece of property?’” Maser said.

The marina started out as a commercial fishing dock. It has 92 slips, but has always reserved 30 for commercial vessels, although it’s never actually had more than 10 commercial vessels docked there.

After the city began running the facility in mid-October, it addressed two issues immediately. “We had some severe erosion underneath the fuel dock and underneath the tank; we have just rebuilt the fuel dock and secured that area, so we are now preparing to go out to bid on the fuel tanks,” Maser said.

The travelift area adjacent to the fuel dock has a similar erosion problem, and the city will be addressing that next.

Other work has included replacement of some sections of the seawall.
Once those initial repairs are completed, the city will begin dock renovations, starting with some covered slips. Maser said the city still must make choices about the type of dock that it wants to install.

Fairhope is using a variety of grants to help fund its renovations. “We have applied for the Clean Water grant for our pumpout; that is a 75/25 match,” Maser said. The Gulf of Mexico Alliance has given the city an honorarium that will go toward a slip redesign/reconfiguration with the goal of adding more slips within the same area. Since the area attracts a lot of transient boaters—both loopers and sports fishermen—the city is likely to apply for a Building Infrastructure Grant (BIG) to help pay for the costs of new slips.

“We did have Hurricane Nate come flying through, so we will be looking for some funds from FEMA, and we have applied for the Restore Act Funds, which are available because of the BP oil spill,” Maser said.

The city plans improvements to the bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities. “We also have a hangout area on the docks for boaters that we are going to enlarge and improve,” Maser said. Market demand could dictate other improvements as well.

She said the current 33 slip holders have been very supportive of the renovation plans. “They love sitting back and watching us do the work,” she added.