To Port Executive Director Rob Fixx and the Port of Bellingham Commission:
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At one time, the port tenant Blaine Marina Inc. offered fueling services to tenants and visitors to Blaine marina including commercial fishing boats as well as recreational boaters. The fact that there was also a fueling service across the harbor from Semiahmoo meant that the two services were competitive in price & insured access to marine fuel for all of us that need it for prosperity, recreation, and safety. Our community then lost that fuel service inside Blaine Marina.
In 2016, the Port was considering re-introducing fueling services to Blaine Harbor when they entertained a presentation made by the Semiahmoo Marina Condominium Association (SMCA ) manager Doug Romano and then President of the SMCA, Paul Barlock. In their presentation, SMCA committed to the Port of Bellingham to offer fuel discounts to Blaine Marina tenants, as they were for Semiahmoo Yacht Club. They also promised discounts for commercial operators. Thereafter, the Port of Bellingham decided against developing fueling services at Blaine Harbor, which is the only Port of Bellingham marina that doesn’t offer this service.
Since that time, these commitments made by Semiahmoo, to the Port and to the public, have been slowly & systematically revoked.
Equally egregious is the fact that SMCA manager Romano, under the direction of the Semiahmoo Board of Directors, has capriciously, unfairly, and unreasonably banned some Blaine-based businesses and tenants from buying fuel or offering commercial services at Semiahmoo. These companies/tenants include David Rasmussen of Western Yacht Systems and The Dream Boat Company. Western Yacht Systems being banned for life, the Dream Boat Company (not just Capt. Randall Parten (owner), but the entire company) for 20 years – in practice banned for life.
Yacht services of any kind require access to fuel. There are many hundreds of boaters in our area that no longer have access to what is a miniscule number of marine service providers in our immediate area. There are three Blaine-based general marine service providers; 2/3 of them have been banned from any access to fuel, and banned from serving the tenants of Semiahmoo Marina.
One of the businesses provides local marine rescue, towing, de-watering, and other emergency marine assistance. The company has saved multiple boats from sinking, and pulled people from the water in the bay in the dead of winter. The company no longer has any local access to fuel. And no-one has seen any evidence of a legitimate reason why.
There are Blaine businesses buying their fuel in cans for their marine operations. There are stranded transient boaters being towed into Blaine Marina, seasick from being afloat for hours, being forced to tote multiple massive fuel cans down their boat just to get home. There are now commercial fisherman operating their large vessels entirely from 5-gallon cans.
The SMCA Board of Directors is responsible for all these decisions. The marina manager is an employee of that association. The President of the SMCA Board of Directors started his own private marine service business in 2019. The constraining and ultimately the banning of outside marine service providers started shortly after their President started his own business, and the injustices have been ramping up since.
A great number of affected boaters are in support of this petition, but are unwilling to put their names to it, for fear of retribution. I.e. they fear having Semiahmoo revoke their access to fuel. This is a problem. And it's been going on far too long.
In short, the Semiahmoo Marina has failed to honor its publicly stated commitments made to POB in 2016, and since then they have been engaging in predatory behavior that's typical of monopolistic organizations. In their presentation to the POB, they stated overtly and in public, on the record: “I mean this isn’t, uh, to become a monopoly”, and said that they ‘wanted to be a good neighbor’. It is the Port’s obligation to provide for the prosperity and safety of our entire maritime community. SMCA made public vows to uphold that.
We, the undersigned, call on the Port of Bellingham to prioritize a mechanism of providing fuel services to its tenants and all visiting boats and vessels. The businesses and boating citizens of ALL local marinas should have access to the basic public services that are available at other POB marinas.
Moreover, and more urgently, we call on the Port of Bellingham to use their good offices to request that Semiahmoo Marina honor the public commitments it made to the Port of Bellingham; reinstate the fuel discounts they promised to Blaine Marina tenants, businesses & commercial fisherman, and to immediately rescind its anti-competitive edicts (bans), not only against private marine rescue services, but against any and all marine businesses operating in Whatcom County.
Thank you.