USA: Town Officials in Race for Manchester Harbor Dredging Funds

Town officials last week met with state Senator Bruce Tarr, state Representative Brad Hill, and a representative of the state’s Seaport Advisory Council and its Division of Waterways about the potential dredging of parts of Manchester Harbor.

The town hopes to have a commercial mooring area off Masconomo Park and an area adjacent to Crocker’s Boatyard and Manchester Marine dredged, and is seeking funding from the state. The town hopes to have the project move forward by 2014, though Town Administrator Wayne Melville said the state program to award funding is “fiercely competitive.”

Manchester-by-the-Sea harbor offers a shallow channel waterway providing limited access to all but larger vessels wishing to visit port. The community maintains four docking facilities that provide for public tie-up with a strictly enforced one-hour limit and a 45′ maximum length restriction.

The United States Coast Guard​ maintains the aids to navigation clearly marking the channel and entrance. Services provided by private marinas, including “pump-out“, fuel, supplies, and hoisting capabilities, complement those services provided by the Town.

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Dredging Today Staff, December 19, 2011;