
Fees to moor or keep a boat at Falmouth Town Landing recently increased. File photo / The Forecaster
The Falmouth Town Council unanimously signed off on a new harbor fee schedule last month that will address a shortfall between the harbor’s revenue and budget.
Under the new schedule – approved on Sept. 23 – resident annual fees for space in the harbor will increase from $100 to $140; non-resident annual fees will increase from $300 to $440; service mooring fees will remain at $120; marina transient and seasonal rental mooring fees will increase from $300 to $440; yacht transient and seasonal and rental mooring fees will increase from $120 to $200.
Seasonal rentals are vessels that rent from a yacht club or marina for an entire boating season and transient rentals are vessels that rent from a yacht club or marina for less than an entire boating season, according to the town.
The harbor, which has been operating at a deficit, has a budget of $283,150 for fiscal year 2025.
The fees are increasing because “we’re trying to get as much of the costs associated with the harbor covered by these fees, as opposed to putting it on the mill rate, making it a tax burden for everyone,” said councilor Janice de Lima.
De Lima also indicated that the cost increases make sense given that Falmouth offers a number of services at their harbor, including a “pump out” capability that allows boat users to get rid of sewage in their tanks.
The company Handy Boat, an anchorage based in Falmouth, is the only entity in town that provides marina moorings in the seasonal and transient rental category, according to Harbormaster David Young. In FY 24, Handy Boat had 95 moorings and paid $28,500 in fees.
The Portland Yacht Club, based in Portland, is the only entity that pays fees in the yacht transient and seasonal rental mooring category. In FY 24, there were 20 moorings.
Resident dinghy permits, non-resident dinghy permits and Town Landing mooring access waiting-list fees will stay the same – $50, $100 and $10, respectively.
Falmouth does not charge commercial fishermen with mooring permits beyond the standard resident or non-resident rate, in part because it has less in the way of a traditional working waterfront than other towns, according to Harbormaster David Young.
The town revisits fee increases on a three- to four-year cycle, and this new increase would take effect in 2025, according to Police Chief John Kilbride, who spoke about the item at a Harbor Committee meeting in April. “Last year, to run the harbor was $241,000 and we were over the budget forecast. The price of doing business is incredibly high,” he said.
Under an initial fee schedule floated by Falmouth’s Harbor Committee in the spring, resident fee increases were higher, a bump from $100 to $175. Non-resident fees would have risen by $100, to $400. Total net revenue from the harbor would have increased $100,850 with the initially proposed increases.
After discussion, the Harbor Committee decided to send the proposed fee schedule to the Town Council to adjust, with the guidance that non-residents should be saddled with more of the increase, not residents.
During council discussion on Sept. 9, council Chair Jay Trickett pointed out that the number of non-residents paying mooring fees has declined since the council last addressed harbor fees. If that trend continues, and the town chooses to bank on increased revenue by upping non-resident fees over resident fees, this could pose a problem for revenue generation.
Councilor Tommy Johnson said he’s heard from residents that they are happy to pay more than $100 because it feels like a low fee to pay for the luxury of having a mooring at the Town Landing.
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