Editor’s Note: Due to a misunderstanding by our freelance reporter, the rate of the marina lease increase was incorrect in previous posts. The lease rate has increased nearly $100,000 per year, not per month. The Highline Times Jan. 6 print edition also contains this inaccuracy. We have also made some other corrections to the article. The Times/News regrets the error.

By Christina Gramling

The Des Moines Marina lease went up by nearly $100,000 per year, starting Jan. 1.

The city of Des Moines received a very large discount for many years, but that will all end in 2012. Harbormaster Joe Dusenbury said he thinks the City Council will approve the lease at its Jan. 12 meeting.

“They don’t have a lot of options,” Dusenbury noted.

There have been some possible alternatives, such as creating a walkway on the breakwater to deem it as “public access” making it a “no-fee” lease area or the purchase or trade of land in areas that are of little use to the state has also been pondered by the city, said Dusenbury.

“Trading lands that are half public access and covered up [by the Marina’s for tideland the city owns has come up in the past,” said Dusenbury. Unfortunately none of these options made much difference in price, he added.

The large rate hike is the result of the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) not charging for all the leased land in the original lease and constant administrative changes within the DNR, Dusenbury said.

The city has leased the marina’s land from the DNR since 1969, with an original cost of $1,800 yearly, according to Dusenbury. The most current lease began in 1972 and ended in 2002.

After 10 years of negotiations the price has been set at approximately $106,000 per year. It was previously about $16,000 per year.

Although the lease ended in 2002 the city has paid the lower price while negotiations were being made, saving the city thousands of dollars during this period.

The marina has been preparing for this increase for several years.

“We had a cautiously good year, last year, but we’ve been thinking about this for 10 years now,” said Dusenbury.

The marina has made budget cuts and streamlined their costs in many areas. Former Assistant Harbormaster Jerry Ellingson retired in 2010 as well as the marina’s office manager. Those positions have been strategically left unfilled.

There have also been various rate increases for services the marina provides.

In the 1980s a new formula to calculate aquatic lands leases in the state was created by the DNR. However this was not applied to the Des Moines Marina lease and several portions were considered “no-fee” lease lands.

For instance the public pier that was built in 1980 is considered a “no-fee” area because of its designation as “public access.” However, large portions of other areas were also labeled as “no-fee” without any apparent reason or official records stating why.

In the mid-‘90s when Dusenbury arrived as the harbormaster, the lease price was $8,000 per year and was based on a 35-acre rectangle. In the past the lease was based on three small locations, the pier and waters directly surrounding it, the breakwater and a small portion at the entrance of the marina.

Now the lease amount is accurately based on this correct area, Dusenbury noted.