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Spongers May Have To Pay To Call Docks Home

Previous Fee Proposal Spurred Move To Hudson

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: March 21, 2009

TARPON SPRINGS - Working boats tied up along the Sponge Docks is one of this city's most iconic images.

Tuesday night, the City Commission decided to take a stab at implementing a fee that would keep all other vessels from docking in the prized slots along the Anclote River.

Commissioners asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would implement a registration fee that will help the city enforce its rule that only working sponging vessels can tie up along the Sponge Docks. The area is supposed to be off limits to other kinds of commercial vessels but the city hasn't been putting in much enforcement effort.

The amount of the fee has not yet been set. Tuesday night, commissioners indicated they want a fee in the range of $50 to $100 a year. In exchange for the fee the vessel will receive a decal designating it as a working sponge boat authorized to tie up at the Sponge Docks.

Several years ago the city attempted to charge sponge boats up to several hundred dollars to tie up at the Sponge Docks. In response, many boats headed north to Pasco County and began docking in the Hudson area.

The city soon relented and said working sponge boats could dock at no cost at the Sponge Docks. At the same time, however, it declared the docks off limits to other vessels.

According to the city's public services administrator, Juan Cruz, some of the vessels now tied up at the Sponge Docks aren't actively engaged in sponge harvesting and shouldn't be there.

To make matters worse, some of the operators of boats that rarely work often wait for the real sponge boats to head out into the gulf and then grab their dock spaces and don't budge, Cruz said.

The registration fee would give the city the money it needs to enforce the working-boats-only policy at the Sponge Docks, Cruz said. He proposed a $25-a-year fee, but commissioners did not think that was enough.

Because boats tied up at the Sponge Docks receive free water and electricity from the city, they should have to pay from $50 to $100, commissioners said. They seemed, however, to be leaning toward the lower end of that fee range.

Commissioners said they would make their decision on the Sponge Docks registration fee at they same time they are considering an overhaul of the fee schedule for the Tarpon Springs City Marina. The municipal marina is just to the east of the Sponge Docks, near the site of the former Pappas Riverside Restaurant.

The city is considering raising the annual fee for one of the 12 long-term slips at the marina. The fee for the long-term slips varies with the size of the slip.

For example, it now costs a city resident $145 a year to rent the 560-foot slip on a long-term basis. Nonresidents must pay an additional 20 percent.

The city is considering raising that to fee to $168 a year for pleasure craft and $210 for commercial vessels and scrapping what is in effect the 20 percent discount for residents.

Because there is a waiting list for rentals of the long-term slips, however, commissioners want residents to have first priority in claiming any slips that become available.

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