Future of Yorktown Piers Uncertain

Saturday, December 11, 2010

The future of Yorktown’s piers is up in the air after supervisors voted this week not to extend the contract of the current management company.

Since Riverwalk opened, the piers have been managed by Coastal Properties Management, Inc. The county recently sent out a Request For Proposal (RFP) and received two bids, with the current management company offering the lowest bid at $105,000 per year. The new bid includes a five percent increase in the profits the company would collect, which is something three of the five supervisors found unacceptable.

The other option presented to the board was to have the county manage the piers, which would cost an estimated $115,000. The extra $10,000 over the contractor’s amount is mainly due to insurance and staffing costs.

Board member Walt Zaremba offered the most strident objection to the increase (which would be about $2,750 each year). “We’re at the front end of a budget… faced with incredible detriments in revenue,” he said, as well as possible large costs relating to Chesapeake Bay pollution restrictions. Every organization and county office will be trying to get more money out of the budget, he argued.

“[County employees] haven’t had pay raises in three years… we’re facing more unfunded state mandates… and we’ll hear [requests for more money] over and over,” Zaremba told fellow board members. “We keep saying we’ll hold the line on spending, but to me, this is the tip of the iceberg.

“I would support this [contract renewal] if it had no increase.”

County Administrator James McReynolds said he understood Zaremba’s concern, but he pointed out the county had followed the rules, chosen the lowest RFP bid, and presented it to the board. The other option would be to spend more to run the piers in-house. “What should we do?” he asked.

Supervisors didn’t really have any suggestions, other than to start the RFP process again or go back to the current management company and ask that they reduce their request to the previous amount. The company has never asked for an increase for the service before, but Director of Community Services Anne Smith said the piers hadn’t been making the profit the company expected over the years, and that the company is only breaking even.

The piers bring in about $55,000 in profits on average each year. Of the cost of the new contract, about $105,000, the profit reduces the cost to the county to about $50,000, which is paid for with revenues from Riverwalk.

Supervisor Tom Shepperd supported the contract renewal with the increase. “Their profit is only based on usage,” he pointed out. “We don’t pay for it. That five percent isn’t coming out of our pocket, but comes out of the use of the dock. They only get a profit if people use the dock… and they still have to provide the service” no matter what, he said.

“There’s less cost to the county with the contract,” Shepperd said. “that way, we would err to [the side of] less cost.”

Supervisor Sheila Noll and Shepperd both voted to renew the contract; Don Wiggins, Zaremba and George Hrichak dissented.

The county has until February before the current contract expires to decide what to do. Supervisors didn’t discuss how many vessels or people use the piers, but according to a previous WYDaily story, 26 cruise ships were scheduled to dock at Yorktown in 2010, bringing tourists and revenues to the area.