Cruise Ships and School

Last night, we talked with RSU 13 Superintendent Judith Lucarelli about MacDougal School reverting back to the City of Rockland. As you know, the kids are over at South School now, and with our combined districts, the school is now unused.

Originally, in 1931, the land was given to the City by a civic group for the recreational use of the boys and girls of Rockland. Educational use could be allowed.

We talked, not in great detail, but hashed over some questions, such as, who would get the boiler in the school- should the city choose to demolish the building, the RSU thought it was theirs to take out, the city isn't so sure. Dr. Lucarelli mentioned that the school system still needs the practice field for football, but the city would want the whole parcel back. Since Dr. Lucarelli also mentioned that the football use would only be needed for the coming season, I wondered if the city could just rent them the use of that portion. Plus, Mr. Mundo was there from the Unitarian Universalist Church. They need the parking that they had previously been renting from the school, and they had also paid to repave a walkway from the parking to the street.

We're going to have another conversation soon, I'll keep you posted as to when.

We also talked over the Harbor Management Commission's proposed cruise ship policy. Several members of the cruise ship industry, Mr. Isganitis from the Comprehensive Planning Commission, Economic Development Advisory Committee, and the Chamber of Commerce, and Ms. Closter, the Executive Director of the Chamber, came to express that they felt the policy might discourage cruise ships from coming to Rockland. Personally, I don't want to discourage them, I just want us to make sure that we have the facilities in place to be able to handle them, and that we work up slowly, so that the folks who use the public landing, the festivals, and the town is able to handle the volume. It very well could be that we could take in a few more than the proposal from Harbor Management, but I think it is prudent that we proceed a little carefully at first so that we can learn what works and what doesn't.

Harbor Management is going to meet with other involved stakeholders, and talk some more about the amount of ships and the sizes.

As far as the fee for ships goes: there was discussion from the podium about the fact that council wants to increase the dollar a person fee to six dollars. Six dollars is in line with what is charged at other ports.

It's a lot of work that is being put in by everyone, and thanks to those of you who are working on all this.