[B]URLINGTON – Burlington officials will be missing out on a $1.5 million federal grant designed to add slips for visiting boaters at Perkins Pier, after efforts to match the funds fell through.
The city was awarded a boating infrastructure grant through a program with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in May 2014. As part of the application, Burlington committed to a cost-share, meaning the grant would become available only under the condition the funds were matched.
The funding became available on July 1, 2016, and the city had three years to secure the additional financing and complete the project. The grant was set to expire on June 30.
Cindy Wight, director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront, said the department applied for financing through the Community Economic Development Office’s Public Investment Action Plan.
That initiative would have covered a portion of the matching funds needed, but the department would have been required to find alternative sources, such as private donations, to cover the remainder of the project. The CEDO funding was awarded to competitor projects, and the parks department decided to turn back the grant and abandon the project.
“It’s never easy to turn back $1.5 million,” Wight said.
Mike Wichrowski, lands and facilities administrator for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, said the grant would have covered the cost of half of about 95 slips for people visiting, known transient boaters. It would also cover water and power hookups at each slip, and a dump station.
The new marina would have had about 200 slips in total.
“After about two years, it was pretty clear they weren’t going to get the funding in place, get a contract and actually build the docks,” Wichrowski said.
The parks department last year sent a letter to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, which administers the federal grant funds, notifying it they would not be completing the project.
Alex Farrell, a member of the Burlington Parks Commission for nearly the past year, said on Wednesday he was not aware of the funding falling through.
“I couldn’t imagine a situation where we would just pass up a matching grant, unless we had a budget restriction,” he said.
Farrell said he believes there is high demand for transient slips on the Burlington waterfront.
“Folks want to come to Burlington and want to find a slip and it’s very difficult for them,” he said. “The more transient slips we can add, it’s a huge boom to our economy.”
Nancy Kaplan, who served on the Burlington Parks Commission for nine years, including chair for the past six years, also couldn’t recall the federal grant.
“It always sounds easy to say we have this money and didn’t spend it, but it really is so much more complicated than that,” she said.
Kaplan said there are many factors that go into identifying and funding a project, and revenue streams within the department budget are earmarked and can be difficult to spend.
This is the first time Vermont has applied for and been awarded a Tier II level grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Wichrowski. This level means prospective projects are scored across the country, individually, for a maximum of $1.5 million.
There were 16 projects awarded a total of $16 million in funds municipalities across the country this year.
“You’re competing with major marinas like Corpus Christi, Texas, or Los Angeles, California, rather than a small marina in Shoreham, Vermont, or Newport, Vermont,” Wichrowski said.
He said most municipalities in other states often put the matching funding up to voters, and may also use a combination of state funds and private donations.
Transient vessels are boats that are 26 feet in length or longer, and require deeper water to be able to dock. The boating infrastructure grant is a nationwide program designed to help boaters basically travel long distances or go to different areas around the lake.
Many boaters come up the East Coast and down the St. Lawrence River, connecting to Lake Champlain via the Chambly Canal on the Richelieu River. They can venture south, exiting the lake through the Champlain Canal to the Hudson River.
The private Burlington Harbor Marina opened in May with 160 slips for both seasonal and visiting vessels, increasing the city’s capacity for boat traffic.
The Department of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront is currently planning the future of the Perkins Pier waterfront site, according to Wight. She said the waterfront, which doesn’t have a master plan, has evolved since the city first applied for the grant.
“It’s a different landscape down there,” she said.
