Jennifer Kaye

We are very concerned about restricting the ability for us to use both of our 74-foot passenger vessels until 9:30am on July 20 due to the Tri Rock Triathlon. Our passenger vessels carry up to 48 people on each boat. Sometimes our boats are requested to sail from 8:30-10:30 from our dock for private cruises. Our company leases and operates the dock at 80 Compromise Street, these docks are on the property of the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront Hotel, just at the opening of Market Slip (Ego Alley). Since we also run these docks, we have boaters that pay money to tie up to the dock-side location to enjoy breakfast at the restaurant of the hotel, Pusser's Caribbean Grille. Boaters would not be able to get to the restaurant if the harbor closures are in place. Further more, we transport one of our vessels over from Back Creek to pick up guests from our Ticket Office at the Annapolis Marriott Hotel. Again, if we can't transit the area, we couldn't bring this boat to the dock to prepare it for our morning trips. Our morning trips can start between 8:30 and 9:30. The economic impact that this harbor closure could have on our small company (that runs 300 feet of dockspace at a restaurant open for breakfast, and owns 2 passenger vessels) is quite substantial. If we cannot run cruises until 9:30am, it could be a loss of $4000 or more for both boats. Dock revenue could be around $300. This is why our company opposes the harbor closure. This triathlon was held in very early May with some congestion in the harbor last year. Now that it may be moved to a busy summer weekend really hurts our local business, since our business is ON the water. We do not have other choices of where we can run our business. We can't use a different dock to pick up passengers. We pay a hefty amount to use the dock we do have to operate our business, we should be able to operate our business.