By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
During its meeting last week, the Washington City Council authorized the city manager to sign an agreement so a local sailing club could obtain a temporary permit to locate a floating dock at the city’s waterfront.
Last month, the council gave its approval for the Little Washington Sailing Club to attach a floating dock to one of the free city-owned docks along the waterfront. In order for the club to attach its floating dock to the permanent dock, it needs permission to do so from the state. The club sought the city’s permission to apply for a Coastal Area Management Act permit on behalf of the city.
The club, under the Downtown Washington on the Waterfront umbrella, plans to locate its floating dock (used to store sailing dinghies) at J dock, one of the city’s free docks from mid-April through early September. Last month, the council also approved the club’s request to be exempt it from the two-day maximum stay the city imposes on boats at the free docks.
During the spring and summer of 2009, the club conducted several two-week training sessions and one one-week session. Those sessions taught the basics of sailing and provided opportunities for children to boost their self-confidence, increase their self-reliance and learn teamwork and respect for the environment, Bill Walker, a club administrator, told the council in January.
In other business last week, the council indicated it plans to take a closer look at requests for voluntary annexation.
Last month, LJ’s Body Shop, located about near the Betsy Bailey Nelson Animal Control Facility on U.S. Highway 264 east of Washington, submitted a petition for noncontiguous satellite annexation by the city.
Several council members, including Mayor Pro Tempore Bobby Roberson and Doug Mercer, said the city must close analyze such requests to determine if they make sense financially for the city. They said that tax revenues such annexations may generate may not be enough to pay for the services the city will be required to provide the annexed satellite areas.
Mercer and Roberson said the city should perform a cost-to-benefits analysis of each such request to make determine if any benefits the city receives by annexing noncontiguous areas outweigh the costs of providing services — such as fire and police protection and water and sewer connections — to those areas.