Harbor numbers continue to slide into ?06
The poor economy of Michigan was being blamed for the continuing decline in fuel sales, launch fees, and visitors at the Rogers City Marina. Harbormaster Brian Wagner submitted a report on the harbor boat count and fuel sales September 12 to the Harbor Advisory Committee. Copies of the report were given to members of the Rogers City Council, who are looking at ways of promoting the harbor to improve its financial condition. For starters, the city is looking at providing incentives to charter boat fishermen. At last week?s harbor advisory committee meeting, Deb Greene said the city council would look at a plan to supplement the charter boats with fuel.
Council would allow up to four charter boats, who pay their docking fees in full, $1,600 in fuel during the 2007 season. It is one step being made by council to reverse numbers that have been headed in the wrong direction.
WAGNER SAID the boat traffic numbers have been down all over and the trend continued into September. Traffic was described as quiet this month. The downstate economy and high fuel prices were a big part of the problem during the ?06 season, but just recently the rough weather has kept the fishing down. The only figure in the fuel chart that went up was diesel fuel sales in August, which are nearly double from a year ago (7,543 gallons, 2005; 14,263 gallons, 2006). Most of the mid-grade fuel sales have showed declines the last three years. During the heart of the tourism season, mid-grade fuel went from 15,309 gallons sold in August 2004 to 6,808 gallons in 2006, which is more than a 50 percent drop in two years.
From July 2004 to 2005 the numbers were steady, but there was a significant drop from 2005 to 2006 (16,117 in 2005 to 8,983 in 2006). The daily launch fees indicated an extremely slow start to the boating season with only 110 purchased in May and June. In June 2005 alone, there were 335 daily launch slips purchased. The numbers from August 2004 to August 2006 dropped dramatically from 4,715 to 1,710 this year. According to the report, the boats and people also were down across the board. In August 2004 there were 971 people that visited the harbor.
IN OTHER harbor news:
? Weed treatment was successful. It was costly, but may need to be done yearly.
? The harbor purc
? The contract for the old comfort station, currently being leased by Jeff Farmer, expires at the end of the month. Farmer has not paid the lease payment for 2005 or 2006, city officials said. There has been some interest expressed from another individual in renting the building. The comfort station is open for a couple of hours on the weekend.
? There also has been discussion by the harbor advisory committee and city council about ways of keeping fish cleaner Jay Greeves employed next season. One option ruled out by the council is to not leave the station unmanned.
? Boats are scheduled to be taken out September 29.