City of Sandpoint PLUS

Why not? Let's just do it! What do we have to loose?

20 is Plenty!

20mph on all residential streets in town. All agreed? Council, get this done. Jennifer, please.

Apparently, there are many Sandpoint and Bonner County residents who would like to have a slip for their boat at the city’s Windbag or City Marinas but are not able to get one. There is a lottery that boat owners need to enter every year with Sandpoint Parks and Rec (P&R) Department in hopes of getting one of the few ‘available’ slips. They are in ‘short supply’ because most slip holders do not want to give up their spot. Is that because every slip is filled and fully used each and every season? Sadly not. There are many empty slips (The attached picture was taken in late July 2023), and it is a shame that this valuable public resource is not fully utilized. Why is this?

The lottery system is to blame. Once someone receives a slip through the lottery, they are loath to give it up whether they use it or not. If they were to relinquish it, they would go back into the pool with everyone else should they want another one and hope they get one. Without a waiting list, there is no telling if one will ever get a slip. One could try and fail for many years or even never get one while someone else new to town could succeed on the first try.

I would like to make a formal recommendation that the bylaws be amended to allow people to put their reserved slip back in the pool for others to use without losing their right to have it back in the future. There should be a waiting list for those interested so at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Surely, some people would like to buy a boat but don't because they have nowhere to keep it and no indication as to when they might have a spot. Most of the other marinas around town do not have space for sailboats and are much more expensive for all boats, power and sail. The city should also consider increasing slip fees to discourage owners from simply hanging on to a resource they don’t use.

The money may also help with the administration and maintenance of the docks and in managing an active waiting list. I am told that there are not enough ‘resources' to manage the latter, but the city had time to patrol the docks, and tell me to remove my boat within 24 hours from a dry dock that had not been used in over two years. I complied immediately but had to use another slip after finding my boat sinking because of a leak when on a temporary mooring. It took less than a day for them to find my boat again, ticket and fine me over $100 when my boat was clearly marked with my phone number so anyone could call me to tell me to move it along with a note mentioning the boat was under urgent repairs. If the city has the time and resources for such actions, then I would think they can manage a waiting list so that there are no empty slips. I don’t feel my actions caused much harm yet P&R threatens to deny me future use, which I see as purely punitive, … (and I thought Idaho was anti-government!;)

One major reason I moved to Sandpoint, was to use the beautiful lake. Failing to receive a slip after two lotteries (years), I discussed numerous ideas with P&R including asking them to contact owners not using their slips to see if I could borrow their spot for the season. But P&R refused. Apparently, the owner of one of the slips told P&R that he has been meaning’ to buy a boat’ for three years… So then, how did he secure a slip in the first place? … unless he simply registered another boat as a place holder that was never put in the water. Kami, the administrator, does her job in a professional manner, but she is being held to the rules, rules I don’t believe are in the community’s best interest. I bring this up now in hopes the ‘rules’ can be changed for 2024… Thanks for listening.