Here is the scenario......Beautiful day and all you want to do is stay on the river as long as you can. The sun starts to set and you pull up anchor and head back to the Bay. Its about 9pm and you find a spot to tie up your boat at the Upper James St. dock. It is dark out and your tired from all the Sun and Fun! You want to get something to eat and have a few cocktails. It is getting late......and it is time to crash. You just had a wonderful day on the St. Lawrence River.
You wake up on Sunday morning......it is gorgeous out. It is going to be another beauty of a day. You sit on the back of your boat, just taking in the sights and the sounds of the river. Then you spot a small orange envelope. Someone has come by about 6am and left you a You have violated the Over Night Docking Rules.......You are now FINED $50.00........isn't that just effffffiiin great......You spoke with a security guy the night before and were told just pay the $25.00 [$1 per foot] to the dock attendant in the morning. So you get up and start wandering the docks. No attendants to be found.......it is 9 am and you want to talk with someone about this fine. 10:30 am and still nobody! You want to get going on this beautiful day but you also want to resolve this fine. You think the fine is unfair, feeling unjustly accused of not paying the $25.00. Now it is almost noon and you have just pissed the better part of the day away waiting for an attendant. Finally you say screw it and pay the $25.00 and say to yourself.......I am NEVER coming back to Alex Bay Again!
This is what was told to me yesterday......The guy was wandering up and down the dock. He stopped me and asked if I was a local.........then he told me that story. He was pissed and I do not blame him. I spoke with 2 others that also received the $50.00 fines and they were equally pissed off. Vowing never to return.
But there are some boaters that will go 2 or 3 days without paying the over night fee. Get fined the $50.00 ignore it, move their boat, wait a couple days and then return......with no intention of paying anything. Not even the donation. So what is the plan to resolve that situation? Or do you just target the boaters that will never return again?
2 comments:
All the more reason to simplfy and standardize the process via " Hammonite's Central Pay Station Idea" Feed a machine money which in turn spits out a time and date stamped sticker which must be displayed on the windshield of the boat. " So simple, even a caveman could think it up " . ( Sorry , couldnt resist)
To think the boaters who are docking there overnight are spending their money in Alex Bay businesses. Then they're fined in appreciation of their patronage.
That's why I'll stick to the lake and not the river. Between the idiot villages, the idiot tourists and the law enforcement convention on the water, it's simply not worth the aggravation.
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