_{The Crescent City Harbor District was pursuing an EPA Climate Change grant to revitalize its boatyard following Fashion Blacksmith’s departure. | Photo by Gavin Van Alstine}

Crescent City Harbor commissioners say revitalizing the port’s boatyard is still among their top priorities, though the federal grant they hoped to use for the project isn’t likely to arrive.

The Crescent City Harbor District had applied for a $20 million Environmental Protection Agency Climate Change grant. Officials planned to use $13 million of those funds to pay for dredging, new equipment and boat haul-out and pier improvements.

Other proposed uses included securing a long-term source of ice for the fishing fleet and hiring new staff to spearhead construction projects at the harbor.

But, due to a Trump administration decision, that EPA grant program will likely end, Mike Bahr, CEO of Community System Solutions told commissioners on Tuesday.

“The harbor was still being reviewed and the program was ended for all grants that were not awarded,” he said. “And the Trump administration has asked for a pull back on grants that were awarded… that program is dead, so we’ll have to look for other grant funding for the boatyard.”

In a Jan. 31 memo to the Harbor District Board, Bahr said none of the federal grants the district has either obtained or is pursuing “meet the categories the administration is targeting for defunding: ‘woke,’ DEI, green energy and EVs, climate change, and overseas aid. And only one of the active grants is at risk of having payment reimbursements paused.”

On Tuesday, Bahr said the EPA announced last week that most of its grant-funded programs were completely ended. The agency may come out with different programs, “but we don’t know when they will be,” he said.

However, the active grant Bahr spoke of in his Jan. 31 memo, a $1.35 million FEMA/CalOES Hazard Mitigation Grant, is still active and the Harbor District is still being reimbursed.

He said he and Harbormaster Mike Rademaker were also concerned about $15 million in U.S. Department of Transportation Port Infrastructure Development Program dollars slated for upgrades to Citizens Dock and an adjacent seawall. However, after meeting with Maritime Administration representatives on Friday, Bahr said those grant dollars were safe.

About $7.3 million in 2022 PIDP grant dollars are going toward the construction of a new seawall and repairs to a seafood packing and trucking area. Those dollars will also replace aging cargo handling equipment.

The Harbor District secured a second $8 million PIDP grant last year for the first phase of the Citizens Dock reconstruction.

“There will be changes in the contract documents around minority hiring, some civil rights language, but those grants appear to be 100 percent safe according to the MARAD folks,” he said. “They do have a director now and that is not an area that will be impacted.”

MARAD is also accepting applications for its 2025it 2025 PIDP grant, Bahr said.

Still, Bahr said, the Harbor District should look to the State of California for grant funding that is not at risk for federal pullback.

Though Bahr’s presentation was on Tuesday’s Harbor District agenda as an information item, the Board of Commissioners discussed setting priorities. Most commissioners were adamant that a boatyard should be the district’s top priority.

“We’re a defunct harbor without a boat yard,” Commissioner Rick Shepherd, a long-time commercial fisherman, said “Something’s going to happen and it’ll be a catastrophe. We need the boatyard.”

Bahr brought up a community survey the Board of Commissioners approved at a special meeting Feb. 7. Coming on the heels of a tour of the port’s properties, the questionnaire sought public input on how the Harbor District should use its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program dollars.

Bahr said the Harbor District has about $900,000 in HMGP dollars to use for environmental studies and engineering plans. Those dollars could be used toward revitalizing a boatyard, he said.

Shepherd’s colleague, Dan Schmidt, said that while a boatyard is important, he said it might be better to go to an existing marine repair business and see if they’re interested in coming to Crescent City.

Schmidt’s comment came after Del Norte Triplicate editor Roger Gitlin told the Board to swallow their pride and approach Fashion Blacksmith, the Harbor’s previous tenant, to see if they’re interested in returning to the port.

Schmidt said he’d rather find someone who wants to be at the Crescent City Harbor, but he also suggested waiting until the survey results were available.

“There are a lot of things out there that need our work and our attention,” Schmidt said, adding the ice plant and RV parks to the list of the Harbor District’s priorities. “We are all eager to hear from the public [on] what the public wants us to do in terms of priorities.”

Harbor District Board president Gerhard Weber said that the commissioners’ concerns about a boatyard are valid, but the port needs additional businesses as well because “fishing cannot sustain the harbor by itself.” He also pointed out that results from the public questionnaire have yet to come back.

“For me to make a decision right now to come up with the three top items, I don’t think I’m qualified to do so without knowing what’s going on,” Weber said.

Efforts to revitalize the boatyard come roughly a year after the Harbor District and Fashion Blacksmith reached a settlement agreement that had the port paying $2.6 million over a period of about 10 years. Fashion Blacksmith was ordered to vacate the premises by June 30, 2024.

That $2.6 million, plus 5 percent interest, was meant to compensate Fashion Blacksmith owner Ted Long for its projected profits had it served out the remainder of its 12 year lease with the Harbor District.