At last week’s meeting, the Chestertown Mayor and Council voted to send a letter of intent to purchase the Chestertown marina from Roy Kirby. The letter, which is non-binding, would allow for a stand-still period by the marina owner and give the town a six-month study period. After the study there would be no obligation on the town’s part to buy the property.

It would take the property off the market, said Matt Tobriner, a member of the Port Study Group, which was formed to look at public access to the waterfront. The purchase would be funded by grants and outside entities and not tax coffers. Kirby has not officially put the property up for sale; he is offering it to the town first, according to Tobriner. He is trying to live up to his promise to the town when he bought this property in 2003 to keep this as a working marina.

The marina is made up of three contiguous parcels of land with three buildings and 55 working boat slips, about 89,000 square feet. About 40-percent of the land along Front Street has been approved for sale and development of seven residential building lots. If the marina was purchased by a private company and those lots were developed, the public’s access to the river would be lost. The town also could lose a site of major historical significance. According to the Port Study Groups report, Chestertown was created to be a colonial port for trade from the Caribbean, Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa. Chestertown’s port history can be traced back to 1706.

The town has an opportunity to preserve the lessons of the waterfront’s rich history and culture for future generations, the report states. If the town should buy the marina the Port Study Group estimates revenue generated from the marina to be $250,000 to $325,000 a year depending on the number of boat slips available. The in-town spending by transient boaters is estimated to be anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000. The property does not come without its problems. A number of docks, bulkheads and pilings are in dire need of repair or replacement, and the basin needs to be dredged to open up the boat slips that are silted in. There is also the question of whether or not the town would make any money. John Trumpy, of Roy Kirby & Sons Inc., said taxes on the marina are about $17,000 a year.

The council agreed to form the Chestertown Port Committee to look at the feasibility of purchasing the marina. The committee will report back to the council monthly on its progress and work closely with Town Manager Bill Ingersoll. Councilman Jim Gatto asked the committee specifically to show what the town has to gain monetarily from purchasing the marina and what it has to lose from letting it be developed.