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03/01/2016 03:30 PMWould the purchase of a surplus 25-foot Coast Guard SAFEboat for the Police Department Marine Patrol be a decision in the town’s best interest?
That’s one of the questions that the selectmen’s Ad Hoc Committee on Marine Patrol, convened for the first time last month, has been discussing.
Even though the town referendum denied approval of $92,000 of town funds to match a federal Port Security grant for a new police boat, many in the community and among town leaders still supported the concept of Marine Patrol, just not with that boat. So to assess the town’s Marine Patrol function, the Board of Selectmen formed an Ad Hoc Committee on Marine Patrol in January. Two members of the Board of Finance, two from the Police Commission, and First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., were named to the group.
Coincidentally, Les Bowman of the town’s Harbor Management Commission learned that the Coast Guard had declared six 25-foot response boats moored in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, to be surplus equipment. He alerted Fortuna to the opportunity to buy one at the municipal agency price of $25,000.
When the Coast Guard declares one of its patrol boats surplus, the boat is first offered to municipalities before being put up for public auction.
Fortuna then asked Old Saybrook police officers Sgt. Jeff DePerry and Patrolman Ryan Walsh to go to Buzzards Bay and determine if one of the six surplus SAFEboats would suit the Marine Patrol mission. The two officers found that one vessels was suitable, so the town took the next step and hired Gallagher Marine Surveyors to assess that vessel’s condition and seaworthiness. The firm’s conclusion was that the boat was in above-average condition and was a good value since the fair market value of comparable boats was about $50,000.
Included in the Coast Guard’s $25,000 purchase price was a boat trailer and one used outboard motor. But since the boat as purchased would be stripped down for the Police Department to use it, an electronics package would need to be added; communications equipment could be transferred from the existing, if not seaworthy, police boat. To prepare it for use, the boat would also need to have two new twin outboard motors. To add the equipment and the motors would add about $50,000 to the $25,000 purchase price.
For once, the fact that the Police Department did not have a seaworthy boat with which to conduct marine patrols last season may now present an opportunity: Without a boat to use, the department’s Marine Patrol budget still has $53,000 remaining unspent in the account. If the Ad Hoc Committee, the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance, and the town were to support re-purpose this funding to support the boat purchase, just $17,000 in new town funds would be needed to buy and equip the surplus boat.
The Ad Hoc Committee on the Marine Patrol had a second meeting on Feb. 25 at which members were to have more discussion on the Marine Patrol function and whether to recommend the town move forward with the boat purchase to equip the Marine Patrol for this season.