Timely successful dredging of both the inner and outer harbors last year led to the fifth consecutive year of increased freighter traffic into St. Joseph and Benton Harbor in 2015, according to a report slated for delivery tonight to the St. Joseph City Commission by Harbor Master Larry Lavalley.
Lavalley's Annual Harbor Report is on the agenda at City Hall tonight, and will credit an $800,000 appropriation for harbor maintenance with keeping the harbor open for the full shipping season once both the outer harbor was dredged and the inner harbor eliminated a high spot, clearing the way for deeper drafts. In fact, Lavalley's report notes that Dock 63 in the local harbor reports receiving vessel receipts with the deepest draft since they started operations 13-and-a-half years ago in 2002.
The local harbor saw 46 vessels arrive in the harbor this past year, 15 more than a year earlier, and they delivered 409,493 tons of materials including limestone, salt, stone, and bulk cement. There are three commercial docks in the harbor, Central Dock, Dock 63, and the Lafarge/Holcim Dock.
Lafarge drew the lion's share of the traffic with 32 vessels bringing in 200,493 tons of bulk cement. Dock 63 received a dozen shipments of limestone, salt and stone for another 185,177 tons, and Central Dock picked up the balance of 2 shipments containing 24,000 tons of limestone.
Lavalley's harbor report says all three commercial docks experience an increase of receipts in 2015 over 2014, when 31 ships brought in 365,346 tons. While 40 ships showed up in 2013, they brought smaller tonnage of 296,583 tons that year.
The Harbor Master says the tentative allocation for harbor maintenance in 2016 is set at $1.5-million. He says that if that figure is approved and finalized, it "should be adequate for all necessary harbor dredging and hopefully to provide a drainage pipe at the airport which would allow for storage of dredged material from the inner harbor of 40,000 cubic yards for the future."
The steady, five-year rise, has helped turned things around following a fall-off from 2010 to 2011. Even though the numbers are impressive, and headed in the right direction, former Harbor Master Herb Quade reported in 1998 that 59 ships had arrived on the local scene that year, bearing 759,431 tons of cargo.
A viable commercial harbor is also critical to the well-being of recreational boating activities who garner the benefits of dredging operations for deeper drafts and the replenishment of local beaches where sand gets re-deposited through operations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Economic Developers also fight routinely for successful appropriations of dredging dollars as a critical infrastructure attraction for business and industry who might need such resources in order to establish a base of operations in the local community.
St. Joseph City Commissioners will receive the Harbor Master's Annual Harbor Report in their regularly scheduled city commission meeting at St. Joseph City Hall tonight.
