Plan scrapped to sell Montauk commercial fishing docks

A short-lived plan that would have seen two Montauk commercial fishing docks put on the selling block was scuttled Friday night after a four-hour conference among East Hampton town officials and attorneys.

"It's off the table," said supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who hatched the plan to sell the two town-owned commercial fishing docks in Montauk harbor as a way to plug a $30 million budget deficit.

The proposal evoked protests from the scores of commercial fisherman who viewed the plan as the latest setback for their battered industry.

Wilkinson, who met with town attorneys late Friday, said that stipulations in a local waterfront revitalization plan the town adopted with state and federal regulators prevented East Hampton from selling the docks.

Some 50 commercial fishing boats depend on the dock, many year round, as a home port for fishing locally and throughout the northeast.

Commercial boats require lots of room to moor, maneuver and store gear, needs few local marinas can accommodate. In addition, tie-up costs at private docks are several times what the town charges the commercial boats.

"The long liners, the lobster boats, gill netters, draggers - there's no [other] place for these boats to go," said lobsterman Bob Huser, 68, who ties his 35-foot boat, Top Notch, at the Star Island Commercial Dock. "It closing the door and locking it."

Earlier in the day, Wilkinson said he'd been bombarded by calls and visits from local fishermen telling him to reconsider the plan. Even in the early afternoon, he had been steadfast in keeping all sale options on the table.

"I'm not taking anything off" the table, said Wilkinson, a Republican from Montauk who campaigned on fiscal prudence.

Fishermen and their representatives who faced the loss of their dock spaces expressed relief Friday night.

"I am beyond elated," said Bonnie Brady, director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, which represents local commercial fishing interests. Earlier, she had threatened a lawsuit based on the waterfront plan's stipulations."

"I'm very happy," said longtime Montauk fisherman Dave Aripotch, who has kept commercial boats at the Star Island commercial dock in Montauk for 23 years. He is married to Brady. "The thing that scares us the most is losing local infrastructure [like dockage] that obviously is in demand."

Fishermen pay between $2,000 and $4,000 a year to tie up at the docks. Critics say the town is subsidizing commercial boats while charters and other recreation boats pay considerably higher costs at nearby private marinas.

Brady said commercial fishing is vital to the Montauk economy, with $12 million in fish landings last year, and a local business impact of four times that.

Wilkinson said the town loses money on the two docks - it took in $55,000 last year, but has spent $1.2 million on them over the past 10 years. Fishermen dispute the investment number, noting some dock areas are in long disrepair.

While the sale is off, its potential resonated quickly around Montauk Harbor in the day since it was first reported in the East Hampton Star. A block from one commercial port, at a restaurant/bar called The Dock, the day's special was replaced by a statement: "Montauk's soul for sale. Contact Town Hall."

With Mitchell Freedman