Portland Fish Pier Authority reviews finances, shore power damage, denied solar grant

[0:02] Rob: Good afternoon, everyone. Okay. Sorry, Rob. I just want to let everybody know that I apologize. I did just send out a few minutes ago an updated packet. We had made a small change to item number five, which is regarding the board retreat and facilitator. That is going to be a verbal update by Heather without a memo, as I previously indicated. So I apologize for any confusion. Thank you, Rob. You got it. Welcome, everyone, to our Fish Peer Authority Board of Directors meeting, September 17, 2 p.m. Our first agenda item is the approval of the August 20 meeting minutes. Hopefully, everybody had a chance to look at those over. They were a little confusing because it said special meeting versus a normal board meeting, but it's because we went into an executive session. Well, you guys went into an executive session. Entertain a motion to accept the 20 August 20 meeting minutes. I move that we accept the August 20 [1:11] John: meeting minutes. Second. I second it. Thank you, John. Thanks for the second. Any [1:17] Rob: discussion on that for the board or the public? Hearing none, we have to vote. [1:28] John: Motion carries. Or we have to vote. I'm sorry. Yes, I'm sorry. Yes, please. We have to do a roll call since we are on a. Okay, so to approve the minutes, John? Yes. Tracy? I abstain. I wasn't [1:43] Rob: at the meeting. Okay. Meredith? Yes. Matt? Yep. Brendan? Yes. Chris? Yes. Is that everyone I've got on the meeting? Whoops. I was barely there, so. Oh, Wesley. We are voting on minutes if you, since you're just joining, sounds [2:25] John: like me. Seven. Oh yeah, now we can. Sorry, I'm like walking [2:28] Rob: in and out of my office to talk about Great West. Is a yes. I'll abstain since I was barely present for that. Let's see, agenda item number three is our facilities update, Phil De Perro. Did you want to do two, the financial update, first? Oh, did I skip it? All right, sure, let's go with number two. That usually follows one. At least the new math. I don't know, there's a, there's new math, in case you guys didn't know. I went to a meeting, my kid's school, and it's no more, no more Singapore math, it's another new math. Yeah, how about you, Kayla? Number two, please. All right, thank you. So I'll quickly just give you a few highlights. We are three months into our fiscal year. For revenue, year to date, we have 186,000, which is about 24% of our expected revenues for the year. Moving on to expenditures, we have expended approximately $240,000 out of a budget of $470,000. And that is about 50% of our expected [3:40] John: expenditures. I'm happy to try to answer any questions. Could you just give me what page is [3:47] Rob: that on the agenda? It is, should be, hold on. [3:58] John: Page seven, maybe? I'm just going to get through the minutes. It is page seven, yes, okay, yep. I was just, I was looking at the first line item, [4:07] Rob: fiscal year 27 budget, and then you were talking about year to date, so yes, that's more helpful to follow along. I'm looking at my agenda on my phone when I have my laptop up, so it's a little tricky. Tracy, you have a question? Yeah, [4:30] Speaker E (unidentified): I was just curious about, and I, if it's not for this meeting, maybe another, but like particularly on the revenue, it appears that we've received like all the birthing that was budgeted. I don't know if that's, if we didn't budget correctly, or if that's generally paid in advance, and then like similarly, I think like parking's down, but I guess that is, that percentage is correct, I guess, for three months. [5:12] Rob: I think, Tracy, the parking does sort of track along for what we'd expect. And it's possible, and I can confirm this later and bring it back to you next month, but that may also, birthing may also have to do with our billing. Maybe we bill at the beginning of the year and we've just collected that at this point. Okay. [5:32] Speaker E (unidentified): That seems like a pretty low amount. I guess I hadn't realized it prior to that, the birthing was so. [5:40] Heather: Birthing on the fish pier is very affordable. And we do, based on working with Tanya and a couple of the birthing tenants, it is paid monthly. So I'm not sure what those numbers represent. [5:58] Rob: We're probably at capacity or close to capacity for as many boats as that can tie up there. And when I tied up there, it was around 400 a month, give or take. And then when you sell fish, you get a slight discount on your birthing, which is awesome. But if there's 10 boats at 400 a month, that's four grand. So we should be looking at a lot higher than seven grand. Robert, do you have any numbers about how many boats are tying up at the PFE currently? No, I do not. Yeah, I'm gonna just by eyeballing it when I go there, I'm looking at, you know, two, four, six, eight-ish, so maybe it's a little less, but I would definitely think the number should more align with 10 or 12 or even 15k annual revenue. So, well, I think that this birthing though is [6:56] Speaker E (unidentified): is the birthing on where Doug Mayo ties and, so a smaller number of boats, but it still seems pretty low. And I just was, what caught my eye is that 111%, compared to budget. And that seemed a little out of line, but we can take it up at another meeting. I just wanted [7:21] Rob: To point it out if it is an error. Tracy, I'd be more than happy to investigate that and bring back an answer. [7:29] Heather: Yeah, we can ask Tanya about that. She's the one that collects and engages with all of the birthing tenants. So we can check with her, check her numbers. [7:40] Speaker E (unidentified): Thanks. And then on the other side of that, I guess 50% of our expenditures in three months is what I'm hearing. So [7:50] Speaker G (unidentified): for [7:53] Rob: for the expenses yes and that is largely our contribution which is our payment to the fish gotcha i see that now yeah great To catch that Tracy thank you that does seem a little I don't say alarming but something to note for sure that we're already at 50 and we're three months in, if that's correct. All right. Anybody else want to have a comment on Kayla's financials? Anybody from the public? Hearing none. Now you're up for bat number three, Phil. All righty. Sounds good. Just to give you a quick update, the shore power project is pretty much 100% complete. Complete we did do a final inspection with the city's electrical inspector and he passed everything and I was down there so the only thing left to do really is to close the project out and I'm just waiting for the final construction documents as built and that sort of thing to receive those before I can sign off on the final pay requisition yeah when I was walking around with the contractor recently to he and my the electrical engineer we notice that somebody is already tampered with one of the Shore power units in the net yard they ended up taking it upon themselves to remove the factory installed GFI breakers and put their own breakers in which pretty much will void the warranty in that particular unit and making it no longer code compliant so where we go from here with that issue, I guess, well, is up for discussion. But it shouldn't happen. Nobody should be messing around with any of the shore power units down there, especially these since they're brand new. We haven't even closed the project out. Moving on, Maine Roofing did a inspection on the fish exchange building. We usually do those or we should be doing those at least once every couple of years in order to maintain the warranty. When they were up there, they noticed that several roof areas or several areas had been needed patching, which they ended up doing. There were sections of trim that were repaired because they were rotted out and missing. Same thing with the gutters and the drains were all cleaned out. So when they finished their inspection, they noted the membrane as being in poor condition. So that's probably something you want to keep an eye on and budget for in the future. And if we are going to be putting a solar system on there, it's something we may want to deal with sooner rather than later. We're also working on the fiber optics line for the security system. I've met down there several times with city staff. It's in the process of being installed, the fiber optics line from City Hall down to the Fish Pier. And they should have finished that, I think, by now. As of last week, they hadn't completed the entire installation. So after that's installed, we're working on getting all the old cameras off the poles down there and replacing them with new ones. That's in process, too. So that should be finished within the next several months. Other than that, it's things like fender system maintenance, which is ongoing. I've hired Waypoint Construction to replace six broken or missing piles along the fender system for sorting Pier 1. They've ordered the piles, and as soon as the piles are in, he's going to schedule that for installation. So I'm just working my way around the pier at this point, starting with sorting Pier 1. We'll go down to two, three, and then the other service piers, or at least service pier two, knowing that the other two are going to be replaced at some point. Also, the work on the water resources stormwater sewer project is still in process. They've made quite a bit of progress down there, it looks like. The place is pretty well torn up. I don't know if anybody's been through there recently, but they've pretty much taken over. More than half of the parking area on the west side of the site. And they've taken over some of the area out front, too. But hopefully they'll be finishing that up or this portion of it this month or next month, rather. They'll be finishing it up for the year and then start on again next spring. Other than that, it's just general maintenance throughout the facility. Things like lawn maintenance will be gearing up for winter ops here in the coming months. I have to imagine that winter is already, we're already talking about winter. But other than that, it's business as usual. usual. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Phil. I see Meredith has her hand up. [13:05] Speaker H (unidentified): Yeah. Thanks, Rob. Thanks, Phil. I guess I'm just curious. I mean, you were maybe not intentionally vague about who might have done that damage to the electrical, but is that something that the shore power units, is that something that you have a sense of who might have done that? [13:30] Rob: I wasn't there. I didn't see anything. I didn't see anybody tampering with it or any. Yeah, I wasn't there when it happened. Sure. So I can't really say. I don't know if anybody else down there who has connections with some of the other fishermen have heard anything or know anything about it. [13:52] Speaker H (unidentified): I guess it just strikes me. This is maybe more a comment for Heather or Kayla. I'm thinking, like, if we're thinking about that as, if that is damage being caused by tenants, birthing tenants, then is there something in the birthing agreement that would protect us and perhaps give us some, you know, mechanism to at least threaten some consequence? Because that is, like, to me, a pretty untenable outcome. So I don't know. I'm just really disappointed to hear that. Thanks. [14:29] Robert: Robert? Yeah, I'll definitely look into what the birthing agreement says for one. Two, I'll check my cameras and see if I can find something. Look, lobster has barrels and bats stacked up that might occlude me from being able to see that. And I can look into it. I might have an idea who would have done something like that. Phil, can we put locks on them? Can we put something around the boxes to deter this from happening? I mean, we can tell the guys, hey, you can't do this. You're not allowed to do this. There'll be consequences. But I think having some type of locking mechanism on them would further deter them from, you know, having the opportunity to do it. Is that something we can look at? [15:08] Rob: that we can i think there are areas that we can lock the covers up but then they won't be able to have any access to their cords right we're plugging the cords in okay so i mean i don't know to me that just seems like it's kind of you know i'll make it a point to have [15:30] Robert: A conversation with every boat captain that ties up on that side. I mean, there's only so many. There's, There's a high roller, the Joe Spinell, and I think he has the Hannah Joe over there sometimes. So it's mostly Newkirk boats that are over there. So let me have a conversation with everyone and let them know that is a big no-no. And I'll check the birthing and see if there's any type of recourse we could have, if anything. I mean, what if someone got electrocuted, got hurt? I mean, that's one of the major concerns, let alone starting a fire. You know, I mean, so I'll look into it on my end. [16:04] Rob: Yeah, I mean, the one part, one of the reasons we did this project was because there were safety concerns down right. We took care of the safety concerns, but now because they're not protected from the GFI breakers, there's, there's a safety concern with that particular unit now, and it doesn't meet code. So okay, I'll look into it. Okay, thanks. I agree with everyone that it's terrible, borderline egregious what somebody's done, and I think a written explanation and a written notification saying they are not allowed to tamper with that would be a written notification to all the tenants that are tying up there, and we should certainly figure out who it is and ask why would they mess with a brand new pedestal. I'm gonna get you in a second, Heather, I see your hand up, but while I'm, well, this is fresh on my mind, how many pedestals were installed, do you remember? Seven of that particular type, seven of, we got five out on the sorting pier and two in the net yard. So it was seven total pedestals with two outlets each, right? So 14 boats can, 14 boats can plug in. Yeah, I can't imagine why somebody would have to alter or tamper with a brand new pedestal unless something is acting up on it, but yeah, we should definitely get to this bottom of this. So this is, this is Chris, I dealt with [17:41] Speaker J (unidentified): GFI stuff on boats down as harbormaster, and when people have really crappy old tools that are full of corrosion and they try to plug stuff in, it'll trip the GFIs, and it, you know, obviously, you know, it frustrates people, but that's not the fault of the power pedestals, because you plug it in crap to something that's designed to not let you plug crap into it. [18:12] Rob: Right, and I know that the electrician was saying that these, you know, the way that these are set up now, they're much more sensitive than the old version. So Chris is exactly right, if you plug in something older in that's worn out or junky tools and that sort of thing, they're more likely to trip the GFI. But we did everything inspected as part of the project. You know, they have to go through and they do a series of inspections and testing just to make sure that everything's operating the way that it was designed and is supposed to. And the electricians did all that, and they found an issue with one of them. They repaired the issue and everything's in compliance now with the exception of that one unit. [19:07] Heather: Heather, go ahead. Yeah, so I'm wondering a couple of things. Has there been any correspondence with the vessels there about the new units? Like, I like the idea of a written warning, but has there been any, you know, notice of, you know, new units here? This is how they work. This is what the difference is because that might help in some of this education and then secondly I'm wondering if there are any cameras down there if some of the new cameras will go down there because I think enforcement will be key and a warning and you know a fine if it happens again would be the way to go. [19:49] Robert: Robert, I've had conversations with all the boats that tie up since the new pedestals were put in because of them being to code and being newer and some of the boats being older and not being compatible, like the Nicoli had to get different cords. You know, the cords he had were old. I know Canoop has had, you know, trouble with his boat. And it's just they're older systems that because, like Phil said, because they're to code and they're touchy, they're not working. And as far as cameras go, like I said, I do have a camera on the top of the Look Lobster trailer. And I'll see if I have a view of that. I have a view of where the boats were tied up to see if I can see anything. [20:33] Rob: Yeah, just to answer the, I guess, to go on about the cameras, Heather, too. Initially, we're starting with the installation of cameras over by Vessel Services, but the intent is to eventually, you know, make it over into the net yard, include that with the city system and wherever else they need it throughout the site. So it's just going to take a little bit of time. I mean, it's a matter of spending money and designing a system to cover all the areas that we need to cover. Thanks, everyone who commented. This is really disheartening to hear because we put so much emphasis on keeping, you know, shore power available for the fleet. And it's just sad to hear. Our last, you know, system was very dated and this is a new updated system, so hopefully it's just a little sort of a learning curve that we have to come up with. Typically, what, just so everybody knows, I mean, for the most part, most boats take a pretty sizable 30 amp cord and plug it into their boat, and then they would have outlets on their boat that then they would then operate machinery with, or a battery charger, or whatever. So I mean, that's simply what I would wager is going on, but not everybody has shore power hookups. They just plug in a, you know, household, almost like a household cord, or a slightly ruggeder than household cord, and those can be, you know, light duty, and they're low gauge, and they're just, they are rot with problems. I had some more comments unless anybody else wants to comment on the [22:22] Speaker E (unidentified): particular project, Tracy, shore power project. Yeah, thanks. There was some, it when you were talking about the letter that might possibly be a good, you know, send to the boat, but there was some talk when the shore power project first started that these new pedestals could monitor the usage. I don't know if that's something that we need to discuss as a board for, as some, if that's something that we want to, you know, do or just forego that feature. I think, if I heard you right, Phil, that we could monitor the usage of electric now where we couldn't do that before. [23:13] Rob: Yes, there are analog meters in each power pedestal head, but that would mean recording the start of when somebody plugs in and recording the end of when somebody unplugs. I'm not sure how that would be handled. To me, I guess it would be pretty tough. Somebody would have to be on top of that all the time. So, it'd be kind of, I just think it'd be tough to monitor unless it's the same people that are using the same pedestals all the time. So what does happen there at the PFE is it's not assigned birthing. It's come first come first serve transient birthing. That's the definition. Condition, but this could be something you could use as a sort of, not a threat, but like, hey, listen, we're giving you free power right now. It's included with your birthing, but if you keep screwing up our equipment, we're going to start charging you a usage fee. And obviously it would be some legwork, but typically people sort of get into a routine of tying up in the same spot if possible. It's not guaranteed that when you go out to sea for five days of fishing, you come back, you're going to tie up in your same berth, but I'd say around 75, 80 percent of the time you usually get the same berth. So you can sort of track who's tying up where, and you could also sort of track who's using the juice and how much, if you just wanted to see how much each station is using. Maybe the first day of the month you could take, record the numbers, and then at the end of the month record the numbers, and that'll give you an idea as to, you know, how much power is being used out of that particular station. Is that done remotely, or do you have to walk out? And you actually have to walk out, look at the numbers. It very sits, like I said, it's like an old analog meter that's in the corner of the unit, so, and they're very small. I mean, in my age you probably need to wear glasses, and my age too. All right, I'm hoping that we've beat this up pretty good. You mentioned the roof inspection, which is about every two years. Sounds like very good preventative. We have been doing them. You Since the roof was replaced, this was just something that, you know, based on some of the other roofs that we've replaced, I started reading some of the details of the warranty, and it's recommended that an inspection be done and the roof get cleaned, you know, once every year or two. You know, they just want to make sure that somebody's keeping an eye on it and there's nothing major going on up there that would cause a roof to get punctured that, you know, wouldn't necessarily happen otherwise. So I've been trying, I've been trying to, you know, any roofs that I've been involved with, I've been trying to keep on top of it by having them inspected. That's good that you're doing that. And certainly, if we move forward with our solar panel project, we would certainly want to replace the membrane prior to installing panels. That led me to another, peaked my brain a little bit. Do we have a document or any kind of, you know, working document that we can follow for our maintenance schedules for different systems at the PFE, different systems on the pier? Like, that would be really helpful if we somehow had a, spreadsheet type document or some sort of working Google Drive document that we could, you know, hand on to whomever may or may not, you know, take over for you, Phil. I know you're, you're getting closer, we all are getting closer to retirement. So is that something we got going there at the facilities, or no? I haven't seen one and I haven't developed one, but I could certainly put a spreadsheet together and just make notes on it as to what was done when yeah I mean something's better than nothing so we're not starting from scratch so sure all right well very good I don't want to take up too much more time everybody good on let's see that was the facility report number three anybody from the public want to comment we are moving to item for our subcommittee for the PFE chair Matt yeah so we didn't have our subcommittee meeting last time so I [28:05] Robert: was hoping that I can run with this, Matt. Yeah. Yes. Not did. Yeah, I planned on it. Okay, everyone, this is our management report for August. We had 16 auctions with 311,000 pounds landed with a budget of 225. The year before we did 230,000 with a budget of 225, and so far this month in September we've done 11 auctions for 129,000 with a budget of 250, so we're on track to hit budget. No contract unloads year-to-date, ground fish 505,000 with a budget of 450. No pumping to date to speak of. Financial August was 8,000. 8, that was a positive 88.34 with a budget of a negative 18,980 with a variance of a positive 27,814. Year to date, I put in there, we're at a positive 27,482 with a budget of negative 37,960 with a difference of 65,442. Financial performance, that's just a commentary that AI throws stuff together to summarize. Financial notes, we're still 200,000 into our 250,000 line of credit. Cash reserve is currently available. We are accounts receivable right now is at 365,000 and our checking balance is at 176. High cash was 244, low was 59. We had an average of 176 for the month. And that just we go on to auction activity. 229,693 sold to the auction. 74,008 pounds sold after auction. 63.62 was refused, and we held 1,000 pounds to be auctioned the next day. Operations update, continue to do I'm Skip and Hidden Fjord unloads. Salmon auctions continue to be held weekly and remain strong, growing a part of the exchange's operations. Participation from multiple buyers has been consistent. We've had more people coming on each week. It's been a very successful program so far. Very happy with it. We have started off with just two customers buying all the fish, then it went to three, and now I believe we have six or seven different customers that are on board and buying, so that's doing really well. Facility report, the look lobster deck is currently being replaced. I mean, we had a guy like it says almost fall through some of the boards and the railing was so bad he almost tipped over that and hit the concrete. So I had a couple of carpenters bid on that. Estimated to be at around $10,500 for the project. It will address safety concerns and make it safe operating environment for everyone using the property. Recruitment, one of our part-time employees decided to leave. So I used Indeed for the first time. And boy, was that successful. I had probably 50 applicants by the next day. I put this together on a Sunday afternoon. And we have two people that we've hired that are doing very well. Fleet activity. No newer returning vessel updates at this time. There is a boat tied up, I believe it's named the Valiant, that may be coming to the exchange. We're kind of waiting to hear on that one. Social media Jade decided to stay on until the end of the year, which is fantastic. She's brought so many great ideas and done so many great things, so we're lucky to have her until around Christmas time. McNeil vessels, we still have the one boat. Ben said nothing's changed, still looking to foreclose and have a public auction sometime this fall. All new buyers, North Coast Seafood, we actually just got his letter of credit today and hopefully they'll start. buying as soon as next week. Lockwood and Winant, a New York by a company. We should have his in the next week and get him going, hopefully in the next couple of weeks as well. So two more new buyers will be added soon to the auction to create better market, better prices, and continue to grow our firebase. And that's it for me. Anybody happens, it has any questions? Thanks. [32:52] Rob: Robert. Yeah, Tracy. [32:57] Speaker E (unidentified): Noting that the pumping isn't occurring this year, do you know what the revenue would be or on that? I don't think it was. I think it'd be around between [33:12] Robert: five and set five thousand to seven thousand bucks, okay, I believe, is what it would be. So not a lot. [33:22] Rob: Heather? Oh, I'm sorry. Tracy, are you done? [33:25] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, for now. I might have another question. I don't know if this is the time for it. [33:30] Rob: Oh, Heather, did you yank your hand down? [33:32] Heather: I do. I just wanted to ask Robert about the job posting. Indeed is a good spot. I'm wondering where the job postings were going prior to Indeed, if this was the first time they went there. [33:46] Robert: Can you repeat that? I didn't hear you. I'm sorry. [33:47] Heather: Sorry. The job postings, the openings, the ads, where were you posting them, if not on Indeed? [33:54] Robert: We were, well, since I started, it's just been word of mouth with the crew, bringing people on. And then, we started using our social platform. We put on TikTok, and Instagram, and that's where we got, I think we still have one of the guys that we got from that. And then we have two more guys that came on from Indeed. Great, thanks. Yep. Does [34:23] Rob: anybody else have any questions for Robert? I've got a couple. I'm gonna just go ahead. How do we charge the salmon auction? How do we create revenue there? What's the price per pound to the Pfe? It's the same as any other [34:44] Robert: any other product, so 12 cents to the seller, 20 cents to the buyer. That was discussed when we started the program. [34:52] Rob: $0.12 from the people that are auctioning their salmon, and then whoever wants to buy it kicks in another $0.20? Yep. Got it. All right. And so around $0.32, or actually $0.32 is what we create for revenue, right, from our sales of fish. Correct. So we had a good month of August, obviously. obviously and the prices have been phenomenal which i assume equates to lack of inventory from other places and perhaps because of the price of fuel they realize they have to keep the price up i don't know i was probably i was hoping to ask mary if she had any insight onto why the prices have been unusually strong for several months if not the entire summer even what last week was like four or five bucks a pound average for some of the boats the pumping of the heron i think may increase as i was fishing yesterday. I saw the Pervidian large herring saner head out and there's been so much pogies around that some of the herring saners have decided not to go until pogies sort of thin out. But we do, we did get more quota for herring, so that's a good thing, and hopefully we'll see some herring pumping happen at the PFE. The Providian won't sell because they pump their own at their facility, but other boats like Mark Beaker's boat or Larry Rich's boat might go, and then Robert the intern, Jade, I haven't checked our social media, but is she tech savvy? I assume tech savvy, but tech net internet, you know, tech technology savvy. I mean, we hired her to be an internet, to be an intern, and she's been working on social media. Would she be able to modernize our website with some more accurate pictures? We have some pictures of boats that don't sell boats, that have been painted, older pictures. And I would love to see us, you know, while we still have Jade on hand, try to revamp and get some, you know, new pictures up. It would be enjoyable to check out the actual fleet that we have. [37:22] Robert: Well, we had actually planned on doing that. She doesn't really have any website experience, and we, once we had that conversation, Heather, we decided just to have her stay on the social media. And I actually had our web guys, Ibex, tell us that our website is outdated enough that it needs to be either moved to a new platform or rebuilt. So we actually, they actually just reached back out to me on that at the beginning of the week, and we're working on having a conversation. They told me the platform that they'd want to move it to, and what we need to do is to determine how many things on our current website we want to move to the next one. And it's not, I mean, I think he said it'd be between three and $5,000 to do the transition. So it's not a lot of money. And at that point we would put new pictures on. So instead of doing it now, it makes sense to wait until we do the transfer to the new platform. So that's definitely a work in progress. We actually have folders of pictures that we've been compiling since we started talking about this that we have [38:26] Rob: have for the website. Sounds good. All right. Yeah, if we end up with another intern, that did that intern come from Gulf of Maine Research, or how did we end up getting her? I just can't remember right [38:38] John: now. Heather, the University of Southern Maine internship program. Okay, so as a thought next [38:48] Rob: Next time we get one, let's see if we can get one with web making experience. [38:55] Robert: All right. One more thing, Rob. One of the things that Matt, I was talking to, the new platform will be much more accessible than the current one, where I think we'll have more liberties to make changes like pictures and other things. So I think let's wait and see how that shakes out. And that might just solve itself. [39:19] Heather: Yeah, I'll just add that was part of the original plan with our intern Jade now was to have her, you know, she's capturing photos, she's capturing content of the exchange for social, let's make use of it on the website. Apparently, our web developer and the platform it's hosted on is incredibly complicated, which is not true of website building now in 2026. Any of us could go build one, but it's on something that like, you know, none of us can access, only they can access. I think they're honestly still coding, which is like writing a different language. And so it's not just like, hey, let me upload a new photo. I do hope we can get there because it will make these types of updates so much easier. We can have an intern manage it. Just a quick little thing. Whereas right now we have to go through like a contractor every single time we need a tiny little change to our website. So that conversation, Robert, when you're ready to bring it to us, I think that'll be a good one to have around upgrading the website. [40:22] Rob: Thanks, Heather, for that comment. Anybody else have anything for Robert? Anybody from the public? Tracy, did you want to have a follow-up? [40:33] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, I don't know if this is Robert or anyone else, but there's a parking lot on the cozy harbor side of the building and i think there's a few fishermen using that as their overnight or trip fishing lot even though it's posted as two hour and then they're going through the gate near cozies and to get over to their boats and whatnot and i didn't know if there is a distinction between those two lots and where the other boats have traditionally parked and walked through to get to their boats? Or if that's an arrangement with someone else that's not on this call? [41:25] Heather: So my best guess is that due to the construction that's going on the fish pier that has torn up the parking spaces for the home fleet, they have decided to park there. I don't know if they have a handshake agreement with Cozy or not. We the city did provide parking passes. I reached out to everybody whether or not they responded to get their parking passes is a different story, but I handed out a lot of parking passes to fishermen for the front lot, which is technically the Pierce Atwood lot, it's the one that abuts Commercial Street, so they should be parking there and they should have permits there. I don't know, again, if they have an agreement with Cozy Harbor, they can do that. But as far as like city and where they should be going, it's that lot that's been torn up is for the home fleet. And now they've been given passes to park in the front lot. I think this gets to a broader topic that I'll bring up under other items, which is kind of patrolling and security of the fish pier. We may need to start talking about that as a board. Okay. [42:31] Speaker E (unidentified): I actually think it's the transient berthing boats that are doing this. So I don't know if, that's why I didn't know if it was Robert or other business or Phil, like if that's just open, the parking lot out back is open for all the boats. [42:55] Rob: I'm not sure which parking lot you're talking about, but like, for instance, behind Cozy Harbor, they lease a section of that area that abuts their building. And the Marine Trade Center has rights to a section that abuts their building. What's this over there? The other seafood company has rights. Bristol Seafood has rights to a section of the parking lot behind their company. So there's not a lot of open parking in that area. That's a free for all. There's very, little, actually. I think some parking that's available, you know, we don't like to have people parking it for longer than, you know, I don't know, several hours, I guess. By the substation between Vessel Services and the Marine Trade Center. There's an area over there that I guess is part of the subdivision, you know, the city would control. But everything else, even over at the fish exchange, you guys are renting lots, I don't know, 7, 8, 9, 11 or something. There's several lots. You'd have to look on the subdivision plan to see exactly who's got rights to which lots. Everything else would be common area, which includes mostly just like the roadways and pass-through areas and the lodge areas out in front of where the loading docks are. The ones that the city is responsible for, clearing snow and that sort of thing. But everything else, I think, is paid parking. [44:33] Robert: On my end, I've heard nothing from anybody. Cozy Harbor hasn't complained to me about people parking there that shouldn't. Can I ask how you heard about it, Tracy? Did someone from Cozy say something? [44:45] Speaker E (unidentified): No, Brian's noticed that. He's like, oh, that'd be a far better way to get to my boat than the other way, which I know we've discussed in the past has not been very well kept. It's kind of sludgy back there and very narrow and everything, so he's like, oh, if you know that's an option to park either across from the fish exchanges entrance or in that back lot, I'd rather be in the back lot, but it does say two hour parking, but I think there are guys that are parking there on trips. [45:24] Rob: So which water are you talking about, Tracy, that's that's not well maintained? [45:29] Speaker E (unidentified): Memorial behind like the fisherman's memorial. Okay, yeah, there's a few spots, so I would I would [45:37] Heather: guess Tracy Cozy Harbor is like essentially closing up shop over there, so there's probably no one to it is Cozy Harbors lot, but yeah, there's probably nobody monitoring enforcing that, so I suppose it's a risk that they have decided to take, but you know, I'm I'm I'm reaching out to Cozy to actually speak with them soon and kind of get an update on business operations because I've heard a lot of different things through the waterfront grapevine. I talked [46:06] Robert: to Roland a couple of times a week and he hasn't said anything to me. I've been trying to get him for a cup of coffee for a while, but I could have a conversation with him to see if, you know, if the lot's full over on my end, if there's a couple of spaces over there the captains could use, I have no problem asking that. [46:27] Rob: I'm hoping by next month, by October sometime, the construction will be done, and they'll have some pavement back down that will allow the home fleet to park where they normally do. That's about a month, six weeks away, I think. This is triggering a conversation we had last month, and I promise I'll move this along to the next item as soon as we can, but I think having a second entrance or means of egress to the pier is, because we talked about maybe closing that entrance, you know, we're business as usual, so to speak, except for the parking. But if we close that secondary way to get onto the pier and then we have a problem with sewer lines or, I mean, God forbid, we had a huge problem right in front of the PFE when there was like a sinkhole. So I think having two means of egress has merit, and closing that off should really have a lot of thoughtfulness before we decide to close that off at some point for development. I think it would be important to have, always have two means to get in and out of there. When did you hear Cozy Harbor is shutting down, Heather? [47:55] Heather: Not a hundred percent shutting down. They've changed their business model a little bit. And I think that they are, they're just not really doing any, anything on the Fish Pier side. It's mostly on St. John's Street, but I did also hear that they may be leaving the location on St. John Street, so you know, this is all hearsay. I need to go to the GM scuttlebutt. I got you. [48:17] Robert: Robert, have you heard any rumors about that? No, I have not, and like I said, I talked to Roland a couple times a week. I know that he's pretty overwhelmed trying to fill the shoes of John Norton. You know, I said I've got 40 years of knowledge I'm trying to learn in a couple of months, but I can keep trying to have a cup of coffee with him, see if I can find out, because I mean, it'd be great to know what's going on. I mean, they did agree to continue with the lease until 2028, so as far as I know, they're staying on board until 2028. Okay, I guess that's all we [48:56] Rob: can hope for. They're a major player and a major, not so much a major player, but a major contributor to our bottom line when our, when it comes to rents, a substantial amount of revenue. [49:06] Robert: There I'd hate to lose it if they went away, Rob. There would be no problem filling that building. That's good to know. I'm looking at one fellow right now that would throw his hat in the ring, so and I know other people were interested as well, so yeah, that wouldn't be a problem, but I'll see what I can find out, Roger. Thank you. All right, I think we can move on, right, anybody? [49:28] Rob: Anybody want to add anything to this or a question? Looks good. Number, let's see. Number five. It looks like Heather's staff retreat update. [49:42] Heather: Yep. Thanks, Rob. So we've got an update for everybody. I know we've sent around some info several times regarding potential facilitators for our retreat. After getting some additional guidance from the city, staff has actually been tasked with selecting a facilitator for your retreat. We've not yet made the selection. We're working with Brendan to approve, you know, what is the budget going to be? But just wanted to let you all know that your input is very valuable. It has been taken into consideration and we will be making a selection to, for a particular facilitator to then schedule the retreat. Treat so that'll be what comes next is you know a poll to get everybody's day and time that works best. We will probably hold it at city hall so it's off-site but still city related and I'm thinking it'll probably be we talked about like a half day so the you know probably the morning chunk of the day but we'll send out the poll to kind of get a sense of what people can make happen so that's the update for now. We are still planning to make this happen you know before winter sets in so over the Next two months hopefully so stay tuned keep an eye out for that we plan to try to schedule that in the next week or so. Thanks. [51:00] Rob: Heather anybody have any comments on that report from Heather? I would suggest that you reward us for our work that we volunteer. So feed us well. Give us some good pastries from Standard Bakery or something. [51:21] Heather: There will be snacks. Don't worry. [51:22] Rob: I want more than snacks. I want either something substantial. OK, let's see. Looks like you are still up to bat, Heather, for number six, correct? [51:34] Heather: Yes. So I've got an update for everybody on the CMAIN grant application that we submitted. I thought maybe June at this point, so I attached a memo, and if you haven't reviewed it, I'll run through it. We heard, this is page 18, just one, the very end of the packet, so we received a letter maybe two weeks ago from MDF, the Main Development Foundation. They administer the grant, that we were not selected for the Seafood Infrastructure Adaptation Fund grant program. That is the solar panel proposal we put together. So I reached out to the program manager to get a sense of, to get some better insight as to what the reviewers had to say. And, you know, why was this project, what would have made it better if we decide to pursue it in the future? And, you know, essentially what were the issues that made, that it made it not one of the chosen proposals. So they did say right off the bat that they actually ended up getting more applicants than they expected in kind of the 11th hour. I know in the beginning, they were saying not a lot of people qualify. It has to be on municipal property. And in the end, a bunch of applications came through, which is good for their application. The strength of our proposal included positioning the fish exchange as critical infrastructure. That was obvious. Yes, we had a strong argument that solar panels would be, you know, would help dramatically reduce costs and support the exchange because it's solar panels that aligned well with climate goals and our ties as the fish exchange to a public entity. The city was very clear and compelling, which was not true of a lot of the applications they received. So overall, they thought there was good management structure between exchange and city team. However, they did highlight a handful of weaknesses, which included, you know, uncertainty around the future of the seafood industry and the future of the exchange itself. They would have liked to see, you know, a clearer picture as to what that future looks like, where are we going? And I think, honestly, that speaks directly to a lot of what we hope to accomplish at this retreat, which is what are our goals? What is our vision? Where are we going? So, you know, possibly bad timing, but we'll get the next one. One other comment was they had some questions around the public benefit. So this can be something that is very direct, like, you know, people in the community are benefiting very clearly, or it's indirect, which was this proposal. So, you know, as a public benefit, solar panels on the fish exchange is, you could argue, is like a public good, but for their purposes, it wasn't that clear, like, okay, people can now come in here and see fishermen and eat a fish sandwich, you know, as an example. The one other comment was that there was nothing real specific about, like, yes, solar panels would be a new piece of equipment, but there was no new equipment or access or opportunity that created that improved accessibility for the public or for any other user, any other small business. And so they really wanted to see that, like, broader benefit. And although the exchange is, you know, a public entity and there's that public benefit, this grant was really designed to benefit more than just the applicant. So had we included other entities, other small businesses, other seafood operators, that may have made it a bit stronger. Longer. One takeaway that she wanted to note was that there are a lot of allies and advocates for the exchange. So there are a lot of people out there, sounds like reviewers and people involved in the process who want to be able to support what we do. But we may need to maybe get a little more creative about what that looks like in the future. So I wanted to be sure everybody had that context. As you know, we charge ahead into our retreat and think about the future of the exchange and also, you know, as future grant opportunities arise, any [55:45] Rob: comments for Heather on that? Disappointed for me. And wasn't there a 70 million dollars at one point in that fund? [56:01] Heather: No, this was the, this was like a 350, 300, 000 grant application or total funds for each. I think they're awarding several projects, but it wasn't that high. That might be the infrastructure fund, which we did get for the service peers. So that's good. Okay. Yeah. [56:23] Rob: So I understand what you're saying, and it does seem frustrating that this is food delivery, right? Food stability and very necessary cog. I don't really have to explain this. You guys know I'm preaching to the choir, but disappointed. But I hope we can maybe seek out another funding source in the future and we can task you, because you're a good grant writer, task you with that. I would love to see alternative energy of some form to help offset the extraordinary cost of our electric bill at the PFE. The rest of the pier, you know, people pay for their electricity themselves, but the city of Portland and essentially the Fish Pier Authority, we pay for that energy from the exchange. Now, granted, they're making some money and hopefully the trend continues, but we're hamstrung with our quotas and the situation with the National Marine Fisheries Service. We can't fish much harder, unfortunately, and I do believe one of our boats may be for sale. One of our top producers, I think, Eleanor Jay, is for sale. I know it's for sale. So, yeah, I would seek other grant sources and I would hope that we would get it fully funded and not do that partial thing where we're going to offset some of the costs. I would suggest we offset all our energy costs because our energy costs are only going to go up. I mean, this is unprecedented prices for diesel. Diesel is going to directly reflect the gas electricity costs. So I see a couple of hands. I'll go with Chris first. [58:29] Speaker J (unidentified): This question is for Heather. Just curious as to who wrote the grant application. And if in the future it may be wise to have some folks on the board review a grant application before it's submitted. I know there's a couple people, me included, who live in the grant review and writing world daily, that it may be helpful to have another set of eyes to review applications to make sure that nothing's being overlooked or missed. That's all. Yeah, that'd be great. I did [59:05] Heather: the entire grant application. And next time I'd be happy to share that with you. [59:10] Speaker J (unidentified): I'm happy to help. [59:13] Rob: That's great, Chris. I appreciate that. I think that's something we may want to do, a subcommittee for grant writing at some point, or grant opportunities. Meredith. [59:27] Speaker H (unidentified): Yeah, I was going to kind of say something similar. Not that, not that I don't have full faith, Heather, in your ability, but I think there, I'm disappointed in this outcome too, honestly. And I just wonder if, Chris and I might have a slightly unique perspective on some of the things that are being asked for because of just understanding some of these federal sources and what, like, the, you know, the framing is on the other side. Even though it seemed like to me there was real clear connection here, and I'm, I'm disappointed with this outcome too, but we've also stayed out of it and done all of our kind of due diligence to keep a firewall within our department so that we could be Helpful to the to the authority, at least I have. And so if I can be helpful in that manner going forward, I'd really be glad to help. [1:00:31] Rob: Yeah, I think climate resiliency is a buzzword now, and I don't think it's going away. And technology is increasing at a rapid rate. We all watch the news. We've all heard AI is going to be the best thing since sliced bread, or it's going to kill us all. At the end of the day, we're going to bring quality protein food to the dock which will be distributed across the country everybody sits down and eats at some point in a day and we want to meet in pfe fish and if we can make pfe fish the most you know sustainably caught and then if we can make our shoreside infrastructure more sustainable that would check boxes for a rosier future right I mean it's very hard to find optimism in the realm of commercial fishing when we have almost a continuous Loss of quota is king and when we have every time we turn around the quota is cut it's it's cut, it's cut. I mean, there's been some windfalls, but there's a lot of choke species that are really, you know, hampering potential landings. And it's also not in really bringing forth new money or people that want to get into this business. There's a handful and it's a very small handful. But thanks for your hard work, Heather. I'm sure that was a little bit of disappointment and,, but yeah, let's utilize this board's experience next time for sure as a, as a review to, look it over. Sorry, I lost my spot on what number we're on. So looks like number seven. We're getting close to wrapping this up, which is good. I think yeah so other items not on the agenda anybody from the board want to add or city staff of course Tracy [1:02:47] Speaker E (unidentified): Okay so this is probably coming from far out but it kind of I just thought of it as you all were talking about the grants and the ability to you know apply for different potential fundings I was just going to throw it out to see if anybody would think that there would be an alignment with the fish exchange or the city of Portland obtaining any quota if there were permits being auctioned off and that would be a support service of some sorts to the ground fish fleet and that's just food for Thought I guess more to discuss at the [1:03:49] Rob: Retreat that's been discussed before, Tracy, that the PFE should buy a permit. I think the State of Maine permit bank is the place to buy that, and we would, the fleet would welcome any more affordable quota. We certainly need it. Other communities such as Gloucester have a huge permit bank, millions and millions of pounds, way larger than ours, and that was through some federal money and I'm not sure private money. I know Cape Cod has a bunch of private money that they bought out a bunch of permits. I don't like it. I don't like the permit, the quota being gobbled up by entities, but if it's going to get gobbled up, I would rather have it controlled by the state and then evenly distributed, right? The whole thing is even distribution, right? Everybody should be able to get the equal share of the quota. I've been to some affordable quota when it's obtained by funding from affordable quota distributed equally. Recently I went to a council meeting, Tracy, and for the rest of the board to give you an idea it's kind of dysfunctional what's going on, and there was even quote, there was even a mention of just sort of eliminating the sector system because it's failing, and that was from a sector manager who is also the chair of the New England Fisheries Management Council. So we could have change. Everything's slow, everything's, you know, bureaucratic, nothing happens quickly, but this could lead to some more of our discussions at our summit due to, you know, for the future planning and we have to think outside the box. So, you know, I appreciate that comment, Tracy. I certainly want to not bore everybody, but it's on the minds of every single fisherman. Can I get enough quota? Can I go fishing? Can I make it work? Can I afford $5.60 diesel? Am I going to, you know, turn a profit? These are real daily items or trip-by-trip items that are on our minds. [1:06:08] Heather: Heather, you got your hand up? Yeah, mine's a different topic. So if anybody else has a comment on Tracy's. I have two things. One is the topic of security on the fish pier. So I'm not sure how up-to-date everybody is with the security issues that have been happening on the pier. But there have been multiple recurring instances of loitering and people doing, you know, illegal things in corners of the fish pier. Obviously, we've like seen this type of evidence around before, but it is recurring, and some of the tenants on the fish pier are not pleased with this activity, and they are requesting some sort of, you know, patrol security. And the city has a constable program that was started earlier this year in April. The constable program is really a patrol, and they don't go 24 7. They kind of end around where the fish pier is, and they're not patrolling the fish pier. They're not authorized to, you know, take action. They're there to kind of like supervise and control. So this is happening. We've had someone from city hall, Michael McKenzie, you come down multiple times to help diffuse situations on the fish pier. But I want you all to start thinking about what could we possibly do on the fish pier for better security, better, you know, management of these types of activities and people. And with that, I will also note that, you know, we've got this new camera system coming, and that should help with at least monitoring. But we may still need to think through what, you know, like an enforcement or a management protocol looks like. [1:08:04] Rob: Thanks for bringing that up to our attention, Heather. Appreciate that. Robert? [1:08:09] Robert: Yeah. So one of the things I do every morning when I come in, I drive around and check the pier, and then I do a walk over the net yard. Then I walk around behind the building because sometimes a homeless guy will set up shop over where one of the gates are. And so I generally police the exchange on a daily basis. Are you talking about over by the Marine Trade Center and over that way? This is the entire fish pier. This [1:08:37] Heather: is over by the Tamaki building. This is over by the Marine Trade Center. This is where the trailers used to be for the fishing gear that was parked in the parking lot that's currently torn up. So I've actually not heard any fish exchange specific examples. It's the fish pier as a property, there's just not a lot going on. And so it becomes kind of a no man's land for a lot of this type of activity, especially in particular hours of the day. [1:09:05] Robert: I've also seen them congregate around the restroom that's right up there, you know, at the top of the road. So as far as homeless folks, I, you know, people were sleeping there today when I left. And like you said, kind of hard for them to get where the trailers are now because it's a mound of dirt about 30 feet high. But I'll certainly keep my eye out, but I haven't seen anything to report. Last thing I had was someone broke into one of the fishermen's trucks, and I was able to go to the recording and find the gentleman, but it's nighttime, they have hoodies on. I mean, they know what they're doing, so I'll stay diligent on that. I've [1:09:43] Rob: been fishing out of Portland since 1982, and substance abuse and homelessness have been a problem. Bums, we used to call them, break into boats, sleep on boats, sleep in trucks. Mostly it was alcohol back then. Now, of course, it's a wide variety of other substances. Certainly, we don't want to find people shooting up, but you know what? We find needles, and we find the caps from needles, and it's terrible. So why can't we ask Portland PD to patrol part of the city's property? Heather? [1:10:16] Heather: Heather? The police are not taking on that, the homelessness and the drug problem as like, we need to police everybody. At least right now, that's not been how the city's approaching it. And a lot of this doesn't need to be a police confrontation, right? It can be like two steps down from that. It can be, it doesn't have to be law enforcement. It can be like security patrol style. So that's what we're starting to think about for places like the Fish Pier, the Maine State Pier. But, you know, like there is no solution. There is no particular strategy defined at this time. So based on what we're seeing, like I don't know if anybody heard, but the mayor spoke on Monday and it sounds like the city is finally starting. Wes, you can fill us in better than I can, but it sounds like the city is starting to get a little bit more forceful on the homelessness and the drug issue, and so tbd on what happens, but we have been contacted multiple times by multiple tenants on the fish pier who are not pleased with the activity, so bringing this to your attention as the board to think about what can we do about it are [1:11:31] Rob: you talking about hiring private security or something maybe [1:11:35] Heather: or like you like is there some sort of program we can work with the police department on having specific to the fish pier [1:11:41] Rob: i don't know yeah gotcha spitballing ideas no problem yeah i mean it's it's a long problem i know it's a very long occurring problem and it's no fun to have a homeless person on your vehicle or on your boat and then obviously finding that detritus that goes along with it 's a piece of property that you're right isn't monitored it's dark there's grass people are going to sleep on it 's it's a challenge yeah so i mean like do we need new [1:12:14] Heather: lighting? Do you know, I'm putting this out there for you guys to think about, like, what solutions we need, and then I did have one other topic that's come across my desk in the past few days. Mike Foster reached out from Vessel Services, and I don't know if he's on. My great, no. So he hasn't submitted a formal request, which I'll encourage him to do, but he's asking for some guidance in initiating a formal request for lease forgiveness over the period of the service peer closure. So I want to put that on your radar, that he'll probably submit a formal letter request to at least begin a discussion around what type of support he can get due to these closures. So I think we probably knew this was coming. We spent a lot of time thinking about what the solutions could be for Service Peer One in particular. And given that we did receive grant funding to rebuild the peers, we decided it would not be worth spending a whole lot of money for short term repairs that would take almost just as long as at this point. So maybe this is the best solution, but just so y'all know that came across my desk, and he will probably be submitting a formal, some sort of formal request to the board regarding a lease forgiveness or some sort of credit maybe. [1:13:41] Rob: Does anybody have any experience as a landlord when something like this occurs? Is it a typical or is it a standard or is it an occasional event where the landlord knows that their tenant is being partially displaced or their business is being interrupted? It seems to me logically that yeah, we would probably want to offer some rent abatement, a rent abatement to one of our most important, in my opinion most important tenants, second to the PFE. Our most important tenant is the PFE, our second one it would be where the fishermen get their fuel and ice, being vessels. So I'm I'm in Favor of some sort of forgiveness, for sure. I don't know exactly the specifics, but I didn't know if anybody else, maybe, you know, someone in the city or state has any experience with that. Chris, you had your hand up but you pulled it down. Is that all right? Is that what you wanted? Yeah. [1:14:49] Speaker J (unidentified): I was, you know, I think, you know, engaging Portland PD just to patrol that area, you know, every hour and a half, two hours during darkness is not too much to ask. They don't have to police. They don't have to get out and do a walkthrough. But just, you know, sending a police car down there and shooting a spotlight in the corners every, you know, three times a night. That's all you're going to need to do to scare everybody out of there. It's not rocket surgery. [1:15:17] Rob: I love that one. I agree with you, Chris. Chris, I think Portland PD can be tasked. I know they're spread thin and so wasn't everybody else. I had a couple more comments. Wes? [1:15:30] Speaker G (unidentified): Yeah, I'll just chime in because I was invoked and I don't have much to add, but it does sound like, I also don't agree having, I think the issue is that it seems like an empty area and anything we can do to change that, whether it's lighting, maybe have PD come by, sounds like a good solution but I think the changes that Heather alluded to are probably at the state level so who knows how long it'll take. Thanks. [1:16:04] Rob: For that list I had one question for Robert. I mentioned the Eleanor J. Sometimes I get Eleanor J and then Josephine L mixed up. Which one is Mark or Mitchell's boat? John's boat? There you go. I screw his name up too. I know Knoop's got the old one and John's got the new one. From what I've heard the Eleanor Jay has. [1:16:25] Robert: Sold. Okay, I don't know the particulars, I just know that the vessel has been sold and that the gentleman was looking to buy another boat, a little smaller than that one, and continue to fish at the PFE's, but this is all just gossip from the guys. But I do know that he did sell the boat. What's going to happen moving forward I don't know. The, like I said, there is a new boat, the Valiant I believe it's called, and I can't think of the guy's name, it's an odd name, the one that owns the boat right, Mickey's. Is that Mickey's son, Rink? Yeah, Rink Varian. Yeah, Rink. So yeah, Rink has brought the Valiant and he might start fishing at the exchange as well. So that's what I know as far as boats go. What's the Jesse Jane, Robert? That's one of Evan's boats. Okay. Oh, gillnutter, I believe so. Yes, and he just brings in a bat here and a bat there. It's not generating a lot of fish, but he brings that fish in and bats. Gotcha. All [1:17:34] Rob: right, so that's too bad. So they are, they still landing trips the Eleanor J [1:17:40] Robert: We actually just had a trip, had him land this week. Yes, so they're still fishing. They're like the top boat, right? Wouldn't you say? Yeah, I mean, I know he bailed us out over the winter time. I mean, he brought in what, 75, 80,000 pounds, but he has been our largest vessel. Yes. [1:17:58] Rob: Yeah, I'd be ashamed to lose him. Yep, I heard a Gloucester, a person from Gloucester bought the boat, but you know, like you said, a lot of gossip in the waterfront. My next comment is about our start time. My day starts at four when I go fishing typically. And I cut my day short today to make this meeting. And I'm happy to do it for today. Really wanted to be here and full participation in front of a computer when I could not be distracted and have, you know, all my attention and energy. But what happens in the next months or months is our daylight wanes. We all I'll know that after November, we're going to have even less daylight. So if you're going to have me cut another day short, I say me because I'm the one that's going to not be able to make the meetings. And I want to reiterate what I mentioned last time is it's hard to get industry's participation in meetings. Like Tracy is a fisherman's wife, and I'm an active fisherman. And fish is what is the name of this panel, fish peer authority, and the PFE generates the most revenue. So we want to make sure you keep me happy and participating, or at least I would wager that you want to have fishermen involved, and I can't make two o'clock meetings. So I can suggest that we go back to three o'clock, and the person that can't make those four can only make them for a while. We can push all our voting items to the beginning and we can go from there. Otherwise, I'm sorry, but I won't be able to make two o'clock meetings moving forward unless it happens to land on a bad weather day. Fishing is 100% weather dependent, and when there's good weather we go make that, we make, we make hay when the sun shines. But even three o'clock's a stretch. I do my main commercial fishing safety council meeting at 7 p.m. So food for thought, I suggest we go back to 3 p.m for next meeting, and that's where I'm at. If you guys don't like it, that's totally fine, someone else can run the meeting. I'm not trying to be flippant or disrespectful in any way. And that being said, if no one has any comments, we will discuss our next meeting date. I believe it is October 15th, 2026. That would be the last meeting before the times change and the clocks move forward. Fall ahead, spring back, fall ahead. [1:20:59] John: Fall back. Fall back, spring forward. [1:21:02] Rob: I always forget that. So we lose an hour in November, I know that. All right, very good, thank you guys, great meeting, and look forward to seeing you guys in the future, 3 p.m, okay. [1:21:17] John: For everyone, show of hands, or we can vote on it. We would, we would need to take another poll if we [1:21:25] Heather: were to adjust the meeting time again, since that's how we did it last time. Yeah, I never got any [1:21:30] Rob: notification on the, on the meeting poll. So typically we set the meeting date as our last agenda item, but it was always 3 p.m, was never a question of time. So sure, if you don't mind pulling the crew here, Meredith, Rob, with all due respect, I, we had this discussion on multiple [1:21:59] Speaker H (unidentified): meetings that you were not on. And then we polled about it. And I am sympathetic to the challenges that fishermen face joining meetings. We do a lot of evening meetings at DMR. But this is a broader body. And the majority of the people on this body voted for an earlier time because it accommodated more people's schedules. So I just, I'm troubled by being asked to do something again to try to achieve a different outcome, that's all. Yeah. [1:22:36] Rob: It's fun, if you don't want to have any fishermen involvement at your fish peer authority, fish peer authority meetings, that's, that's fine with me. I can make them when the weather's bad and I can miss them when the weather's good. All right, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Don't move, second. [1:22:57] Speaker G (unidentified): Is [1:23:04] Speaker E (unidentified): he gone? [1:23:07] Rob: I think he left. So I'll go ahead and do a roll call. Tracy, yes. Meredith, yes. Matt, yes. Let's see, John, yes. Wes, yes. And Brendan, yes. Thank you everyone, thanks everybody. [1:23:29] John: Thanks, Heather. Thank you, Kayla. Thanks, everyone. Have a good day, everyone.