No changes in Harbour Marina management

By DAVID JUDD

Port Dover Harbour Marina will return to county council’s agenda this spring.
A long-awaited report on ways to manage the marina is expected in April.
A year ago, Port Dover volunteers offered to manage the marina on behalf of the county.
In response, a staff report should be ready in two months, Kevin Lichach, Norfolk’s general manager of community services, told councillors last Tuesday, Feb. 5.
It’s too late to change things for the 2013 marina season, Mr. Lichach said. For now, the community services department will continue to manage the marina as it has since 2009.
Last February, Rick Bedding of Port Dover asked council to create a municipal services board to look after the marina.
Under Mr. Bedding’s proposal, the county would continue to own the marina and have final say over money matters.
But council would appoint citizens to a municipal services board that would operate the marina.
For many years, a board of politicians and Port Dover citizens successfully ran the marina.
In 2008, council put its community services department in charge of managing the marina with advice from a committee of volunteers.
The volunteers resigned after they felt their advice was ignored.
From that time until now, community services staff have operated the marina without relying on citizen input.
Port Dover marina is the most profitable municipally owned marina in Ontario.
It has made up to $335,000 a year in profit.
Norfolk County acquired the marina from the federal government in 2007.