BELMAR — Following a heated exchange between the mayor and borough council president at the Dec. 10 meeting, the borough council added a resolution to the meeting agenda setting marina slip rates for 2025. The measure was later adopted in a vote of 4-1.
The marina rates are available online through the borough website.
The motion to add the resolution to the council’s Dec. 10 agenda was made by Council President Mark Levis after tensions were raised between himself and Mayor Gerald Buccafusco, who was against the inclusion of the measure.
Levis, who is the harbor commission liaison, first raised the issue during the meeting’s workshop discussion. He said the marina fees for the upcoming season were approved by the harbor commission in November, but the corresponding resolution for the council to approve the fees was not on the council agenda despite his request.
“They need to get these rates approved before the year starts because that’s when they can start getting leases out…they’ll go out Jan. 1 if we get the resolution approved,” Levis said. “We actually targeted to get this out by August. I do commend the harbor commission in doing their diligence to actually get this right…I don’t have any problem with this. There was a lot of debate about this. The harbor commission actually shot down our first draft of this and came back and made some good recommendations…that’s the resolution they approved and put on our desk to approve.”
He said the mayor “was still reviewing” the resolution and asked what the delay was, noting that “time is pretty important on this.”
Mayor Buccafusco cited a lack of understanding with the resolution regarding “why the rates work the way they do, in terms of the size of the slips and the different rates for different-sized boats.” He likened the marina to a parking lot and questioned why there couldn’t be a single standard rate for particular spaces.
This is an excerpt of the print article. For more on this story, read The Coast Star—on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.
Check out our other Belmar stories, updated daily. And remember to pick up a copy of The Coast Star—on newsstands Thursday or online in our e-Edition.
Subscribe today! If you're not already an annual subscriber to The Coast Star, get your subscription today! For just $38 per year, you will receive local mail delivery weekly, with pages and pages of local news and online access to our e-edition on Starnewsgroup.com.
 6x10 4c.jpg)
