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Tube City Video Almanac for Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009

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Volunteers were busy at the McKees Point Marina this month, pulling in the docks as the facility at the foot of Fifth Avenue closes down for the winter.

It takes about four weekends --- eight to 10 days total --- to bring in the docks each fall, and another eight to 10 days to replace them in the spring, says Ray Dougherty, marina manager for the past three years.

The books are also being closed on what was a successful season for the city-owned marina.

According to Dougherty, the marina turned a $3,000 profit, and more than 80 percent of the 186 slips were rented. That profit comes despite a late-spring ice jam that damaged more than 30 of the support poles that hold the docks in place, which caused the marina to open late.

The poles were replaced by pipes fabricated at McKeesport's Camp-Hill Corporation and welded and coated by Dura-Bond in Port Vue.

"Other than that it was a great year, and we had nothing but positive comments about the marina," Dougherty says.

Next year, Dougherty says, the marina hopes to attract a boat sales and service firm which will likely help boost occupancy to between 90 and 100 percent.

The marina's budget was about $110,000 this year. In light of the recession and to keep the marina competitive, Dougherty says the prices were lowered this year by about $2 per foot on the larger docks.

"Our overhead has been totally cut out by the people volunteering to take the docks out and little cost savings here and there," he says.

Next year will see several improvements at the marina, according to Dougherty, including a new permanently-installed self-service gas pump that will save the city thousands of dollars per year in money spent pulling in the gasoline lines and removing them at the end of the season.

New solar-powered lighting will also lower the marina's electric bill.

The marina is on the Youghiogheny River, just south of the Monongahela, which keeps its boaters out of the way of towboats and barges on the Mon. The Yough has about a seven to nine foot channel at McKeesport, according to Dougherty. Although some taller boats have a tough time making it under the CSX railroad bridge, the marina is equipped to handle boats up to 70 feet long.

"We also have jet-ski docks," Dougherty says. "We've actually had a very large increase to about 16 or 17 jet-ski docks this year ... I think people have gone out and gotten jet-skis just to stay on the river," rather than maintaining more expensive full-size boats.

Boaters who a rent a slip at the marina are allowed use of a private room at the McKees Point Cafe, located on the first floor of the Palisades Ballroom. Although the menu is limited, the cafe is also open to the public for breakfast and lunch.

While the boating business is understandably seasonal, Dougherty says the marina has made McKeesport a destination for people who otherwise wouldn't have any reason to come to the city.

In a city that often gets a portrayed only as a community in decline, the McKees Point Marina may represent a unique opportunity to show off a better side of the McKeesport area to visitors. About 90 percent of the boaters are from outside the city --- many of them from Westmoreland County, Dougherty says.