Hello CMBC members & Associates-
I hope everybody is getting ready for Halloween! I hope anybody in the Southeast that has loved ones are at least safe and secure. I cant imagine what anybody down in the SouthEast is experiencing.
In case you missed it, I wanted to provide a summary of last month’s meeting as much was covered. It is quite a bit of time until the next meeting so I wanted to make sure these are sent to you for your benefit as a reference.
September Meeting Summary
1) We worked with a CPA firm who specializes in non-profits to get answers to issues that have been surfacing with the club for years as we needed closure on recurring topics:
a. Members & Associates are CBMC members. It is okay to have tiered memberships as long as there is a legitimate reason for the tiered system. In this case it is the 92 slips that are assigned to the members.
b. It is ok to call each group “members” and “associates” in the club.
c. With the tiered system, it is compliant with IRS Guidelines to have members vote and associates not to vote.
d. No member or associate can pay more for services that are provided equally; therefore, starting in 2025, associates that are fortunate to receive a seasonal slip will not pay the extra $150 for that slip
2) An audit was completed and numbers/results are recorded satisfactory. Will continue to try to make recording processes more efficiently in the future.
3) A proposal was approved by membership for funds to repair/prevent damage to the bulkhead at 2 specific locations.
4) A proposal was approved by membership for funds to get electric in the marina up to code.
5) A by-law was passed to increase $150 to member dues that is earmarked into a separate account for Capital Funds/marina improvement
6) A proposal was approved for lift owners to pay $200 for each lift for electric upgrades that pertains to the lifts
THESE UPDATES WILL BE APPLIED TO THE 2025 DUES INVOICE YOU RECEIVE IN DECEMBER 2024 FOR 2025.
Off-season activity
1) Bulkhead and electrical upgrades will be completed.
2) An attempt to streamline the by-laws into by-laws, rules, and policies more in accordance with Roberts Rules will commence.
3) We will follow-up with specific leads to see if grants can help pay for marina and erosion.
4) We will explore beach clean-up options to see if reasonable for our club that has limited funds.
5) Ice eater placement (and ice eater retrieval in Spring), picnic table stacking, and burning of the “burn pile” will happen in early November and all may be on the same date. Volunteers will be needed.
I hope all of these help and please have a great and safe Winter with all of the holidays approaching as well as any travels/experiences you may enjoy.
Gerry Baffone
Crystal Beach Marina Boat Club
Commodore
302-528-4783
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Sept. 2024
Around the Marina
Newsletter #15 CMBC
“The Last One”! Around the Marina There are a lot of thoughts that go into the writing of the #15 Newsletter. It is the end of an era for me, as I did not choose to run for the office of Commodore, Crystal Manor Boat Club So there are some mixed feelings, but as one likes to say “It’s Time”.
It has been my distinct honor to serve as Commodore, Vice commodore, By-laws Chairman and Grievance Chair. I like to think that I learned a lot about the boat club, the members, and the needs of both, always putting the Club first. I hope in some way I have helped make the CMBC a safe, fun and activity filled environment for yourself and your children and even a lot of friends who have had some very enjoyable times with us.
This will be my last Newsletter, and I want to personally thank all of those members who have served with me as the “Executive Committee" We have accomplished a lot during this time and without the hard work, dedication and sacrifice, this could not have been possible. My leadership team was comprised of wonderful, caring people who feel strongly about the sanctity of the Boat Club and gave their all to make it a great place for family and friends. I will always consider the members friends and wish them continued success and good health over the years.
Now about the Newsletter.
There has been some ongoing activities around the Marina and perhaps the best was the joining of members and associates when the beach was once a ravaged with debris from storms in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Many members worked several days to clear small debris from the beach in an effort to help our Harbor Master clean the beach for members use over the next several weeks and we prepared for the return to school for our children and return to a hopefully more relaxed time as we head into Fall and Winter.
The coming together of our members, once again supports the efforts and our beach is a true testament of the commitment to our Boat Club. A BIG “Thank You” to all who helped with this effort. Some gave more and some gave less, but the job got done! I couldn’t miss this opportunity to thank Ed Groce for what he has brought to our Club. He has many ideas that I am sure will come to fruition and he is willing to spend the time and energy to get things done.
And another BIG Thank You to those who have been and will continue to help him with these projects. It will take all of us to work to get things done at our beach and Marina. Over the Fall and Winter a lot of activities will take place and as Ed identifies those activities, let’s all try to pitch in and support his efforts!
A Great way to end this Newsletter is to watch Deep Blue enter our Marina on their quest to deliver large contributions to deserving groups supporting our members of the Armed Forces and also our First Responders. Truly they make our Country the most wonderful country in the World. I am hopeful we will have many residents and members lining the bluff with waving American Flags in honor and support of their efforts! Thanks to Gil Eubanks for working so hard to make this a great supportive activity for these fine solders and first responders! It looks like with the bad weather and heavy winds it may take them to around 7:30 to reach our marina. I was hoping to have this all done before they arrived, but it doesn’t look like that will work!
Also want to thank those who helped with bringing in the swim markers. It makes it nice when everyone pitches in the get them out and into the sheds until next season. Bringing them really says the summer is over! Oh well, we got through another summer boating season!
What a way to “Sign Off”! I hope to be involved in boat club activities as we move forward, and I leave with grateful thoughts of the members of this boat club.
Roy Thompson
CMBC Commodore
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Around the Marina
Newsletter #14 CMBC
WOW, wasn’t that picnic one of the BEST ever? It was obvious that a lot of members and their families enjoyed the day. Kids were playing great games and having fun. Thanks to the Yetter brothers! And of course the egg toss was the BIG attraction. It’s amazing that the Baffone’s and the Delviscio’s did NOT win the trophy this year. On a serious note - weren’t the Fireworks amazing or WHAT? By far, the best ever and I understand that they were less expensive than in previous years! A very BIG Thank You to Gerry and his captains and all the wonderful volunteers we had working to make the picnic a hug success. I can’t wait til the next picnic, and I think Gerry and Betty Ann are already planning for that!
Just a reminder that at the end of last month’s meeting a vote was taken to move our meeting time to 9:00 A.M. This was approved by a “hand” vote with only 2 of the remaining attending voting “NO”! I am pleased to announce that we now have 9 new or “nearly” new picnics tables ready for members use. I know that the picnic tables were used for the picnic and we will continue to remove non-usable tables and replace them with “new” ones.
The burn pile is growing as some our members are helping out by helping clean the beach and place the pile so debris on the pile. We cannot burn the pile at this time but will need to wait until September to do so. Thank you to those that are helping keep our beach debris free and ready for use by members.
We still need to be mindful of trash at the beach. Since we do not have trash collection it is important that all members provide a container (Plastic bag) to take your trash home for disposal.
At the present time all of the slips are paid for and Gretchen has been making calls to those members who have not placed a boat in a slip. She is making sure that all who would like a slip can retain use of a slip for the remainder of the season.
It has been a great boating season to date! We have repaired the bulkhead that collapsed and are in the process of making a review of the needs at the marina. Bill Reilly will be forming a committee to review each catwalk and bulkhead to see if repair/ replacement is needed. We will then develop a budget to provide the materials to make the repairs. If there is anyone who would like to be a part of this committee, please let Bill know.
Ed Rowe will be our new Nomination chair and become a member of the executive team. He will also serve as our Parliamentarian for matters relating to Roberts Rules.
It was announced at the picnic that the date for the Poker Run will be in August ? and will be enjoying some time at the Chesapeake Inn. Details will follow and as always, Donna swain has done a great job of picking great activities for our members/ associates. Thanks so much to Donna for making all these plans for some really great activities.
As you can plainly see, our members and associates are using our beach on a daily and weekend basis. There are typically 20 - 25 people on the beach during the day. On two weekends we had 180 persons on the beach and on another weekend we had 247. It is great seeing so many members and/or associates using our beach. Please make sure to remove all trash each time you visit the beach. Thanks in advance for helping keep our beach clean and safe for others.
Well, that’s about it for this issue of Around the Marina. If you have items you would like me to include in my newsletter, please see me or send me an email! I will then use materials that is information for our boating members and associates. Please enjoy the rest of your summer boating season, be safe and careful! Hope to see you on the beach in the coming weeks.
Roy Thompson
Around the Marina
Newsletter #13
July 1
Happy 4th Of July!
I hope all of you have a very happy and activity filled 4th of July! We are getting ready to begin the busiest part of our boating season and I thought I would up-date you with regard to activities taking place and having prepared for the upcoming activities.
And of course the BIG activity of the month is the July 13th Boat Club picnic! This is certainly the event of the boating season and there will be lots and lots of people on the beach and on the water. For many it will be a 4 fun filled weekend with plenty to do, with highlights being the “corn on the cob” and of course who will miss the Egg Toss challenge! Now, If we can just keep either Gerry and Betty Ann or Darrin and Rhonda from winning the Egg Toss! I hope you are all looking forward to the next couple of weeks and all of the activities, everyone should have a “grand Old Time”!
The Marina: The bulkhead affecting 3 slips has been stabilized and boats are now being placed back in their originally assigned slips. This has been a long process as the collapse was repaired in 2 places. In addition, we had over a 2 and 1/2 months of unusually high low tides and enormously high, high tides keeping us from working on this project. Many of the best low tides occurred at night and therefore daylight activity was not possible. I was in constant contact with the contractor and we were both extremely frustrated with the unusual tides in our area.
The Gate: Unfortunately, so far this season we have already had 2 episodes of the entrance gate being damaged by cars/golf carts running through the gate. Apparently we still have members and or associates trying to “piggy back” through the gate behind another member entering the gate entrance. It is hard to determine how fast this gate goes up and down, but obviously it is faster than those entering had thought. The gate is repaired by members of the boat club assuring that we have security for our members. When damage occurs, we try to replace or repair the gate as quickly as possible. If the gate can be repaired and reset, we do that. If there is damage preventing us from re-mounting the gate, we will then bill the offending person for the purchase of the new gate. In the most recent event, the gate was damaged and needed to be replaced.
Projects: We are still planning on making some additional improvements as the season moves on. Foremost, is to repair the macadam at the launch site, which at this time is showing cracking at the edges and we would hope to cut this jagged edge and dig a trench to fill with concrete which should prevent additional cracking. We will also place pipes for installing the additional security cameras at this time. We will try our best to avoid any activity during the weekends and please note that we should stay away from this area until the cement cures, which usually takes 2 - 3 days.
I am pleased to inform you that the following members have joined the leadership team. Bill Reilly has agreed to become the Planning chairman and we will be planning a review of the needs at the marina. I am also pleased to inform you that Ed Rowe has agreed to become the Parliamentarian and also the Nomination chairman, which as you know will be coming up shortly.
Beach Clean Up: We had a very extensive beach clean-up early in the year, but unfortunately the Conowingo Dam has opened several extra gates and there is a lot of small debris on the beach. I have noticed several members coming together and begin a clean up process. If you see “gators” on the beach it is usually people cleaning the small debris or whatever they can fit in the back of their vehicle. The beach looks great but there is still a lot of small debris remaining. I would like to thank Ed and Lynda Boyer, Dan and Linda Short and Ryan Smith for their efforts to keep the debris down.
If you are at the beach it would be great if members, associates and guest would take some small amount of time to help with this process. It sure does help keep the beach clean for all of us enjoying the beach. Bring a leaf rake and small shovel and make piles that can be placed into the “gators”! Thanks to ALL who will be helping out!
I guess that’s about it for now. The beach looks good, boating members are enjoying their weekends and everything seems to be going “just right”. Please remember to take your trash, make sure beach fires are complete “out” by dousing with water, and please, please obey all of the boat club rules as this makes it great for everyone! As I said earlier, I hope you all have a wonderful July 4 weekend and also the best club picnic ever!
Roy
Around the Marina
Newsletter # 12
June 9, 2024
Our Memorial Day Weekend was perhaps one of the best all time! The weather was perfect for a day of boating and for enjoying the beach. Everyone was having an extremely wonderful time and we had a very large number of people taking advantage of the weather to spend hours on the beach! I personally counted 160 people on the beach on Sunday. I missed getting down to the beach on Saturday and everyone told me that Sunday’s crowd was much larger than on Sunday. Either way we had a large number of people taking advantage of the great weather! Thanks to all for having such a great time and no issues to speak of!
Please be reminded that our meeting time for this coming Saturday will begin at 9:00 A.M. I was asked by the Civic Association officers to move our start time back 1 hour so they could set up for Fun Day at the Pavilion! This helps us as we were going to try an earlier starting time to see how our members felt about meeting earlier. We will evaluate after the meeting and inform the members of any change we might want to make!
We still have an issue with extremely high low tides and high tides. On numerous occasions the tides covered the bulkhead and the cat walks. I report this to you because Mother Nature is keeping us from repairing the bulkhead that collapsed. We need dry conditions so we can pull back the bulkhead, repair the damaged area, reinforce the tie backs and secure the bulkhead for future use. Thank you for bearing with us on this repair.
Two members have not been permitted to place their boats in the slips that need repair until such time as the bulkhead is repaired, secured and “safe” for boaters to use. I can’t imagine it will be such longer, but do NOT mess with Mother Nature!
There are 5 picnic tables that are ready for painting! The paint has been purchased, brushes are ready for use and the tables have been sprayed with Wet and Forget which hinders the growth of Mold and Mildew. We are also ordering 4 new picnic tables which will bring us to 9 new and newer tables. We have been advised to paint the new tables after 1 year of weathering. If interested in helping paint the tables please let Teresa Smart know. I will meet you at the Marina and “stir” the paint and get you ready to paint.
We will also be placing any unsafe tables on the burn pile for disposing of them in September when we are permitted to burn again.
There are still many jobs around the Marina that can be done to those in need of Volunteer hours. Please see Gerry, Teresa or me regarding any projects that are ready for volunteers. DO NOT undertake any volunteer work without checking with us first. There is a priority listing of projects that need attention and we need those completed first.
A HUGE help will be to place debris on the burn pile as Conowingo has provided us with a new layer of debris that is now on our beach. I will certainly have more information for you at Saturday’s meeting, but the primary reason for this Newsletter is to inform you of the changed “starting time” of 9:00 A.M.
I hope to see you all there on Saturday. Remember the meeting will last 1 hour and 15 minutes, with a vote to exceed the time limit until such time as we complete the item being discussed.
Members will also be reminded to raise your hand and stand and speak your name in order to address the officers. Attendees, please do NOT address others at the meeting. Thank you for your patience and understanding! I DO appreciate your support and cooperation.
Roy
Around the Marina
Newsletter #11
Happy Memorial Day Weekend
I hope everyone’s planning a great Memorial Day Weekend here at the Marina! This is a time for family and friends to get together as we open the marina and beach for weekend celebrations! While the weather isn’t always what we would like, it is still a great time for boating and family fun. Please enjoy your weekend and please be safe! I would like to take this time to bring everyone up to date as we begin the boating season.
Here are some activities that have taken place in order for us to enjoy the marina and the beach. As announced at our recent membership meeting, Mike Downes did a fantastic job of getting our beach rid of the unbelievable amount of debris that had washed up on our beach. I know some members also helped remove some of the smaller limbs and logs and placed them on the burn pile. I’d like to thank Ed Boyer, Dan Famous, Darrin Delviscio, John Alto and Charlie Esbin for watching our burn pile as it quickly diminished. We actually burned the pile twice over the past 2 weeks and Mike Downes and Chris Brown helped spread the remains of the fire and debris for later disposal.
A BIG “thank you” goes out to John Mulvihill and Dave Henger for placing our swim buoys marking our swim area. Please note, NO boats in this marked area.
We had a GREAT Beach Clean UP Day, last Sunday! Teresa had water, and donuts for those who helped clean the debris and trash that had accumulated over the winter. The picnic tables were “unstacked” and placed around the trees for shade at the picnic area. 4 tables purchased last year will be painted (any one need an hour of volunteer time?) over the next several weeks. We will also be purchasing an additional 4 picnic tables and placing damaged or unsafe picnic tables on the burn pile. A member also volunteered to repair several picnic tables as his hour of volunteer time. Please see Teresa, Gerry or me regarding volunteer hours.
A “huge” thank you goes out to Todd Yetter who brought his tractor down to the beach and removed all of the debris from the bank side roadway and placed it on the burn pile. He also “scraped” the bank roadway, removing many of the small holes and bumps, while not perfect, it is a tremendous help to those using the roadway to get to their boats.
A BIG Thank you to Donna Swain, who has volunteered to be in charge of our security cameras. Donna has been at the shed numerous times recently going over the operation of the cameras and is now ready to review our cameras to determine anyone responsible for issues surrounding the electronic gate being damaged or other acts of vandalism that might occur. She is taking over this assignment for Mark Miller who is now the Vice President of the CBMCA! Congrats to Mark!
As we begin to place our boats in the marina, please remember you must have a “sticker” PRIOR to placing your boat in your slip. Failure to do so could incur a $25 fine for boats placed in the marina without a clearly visible sticker indicating that insurance was filed with our Membership chair, Gretchen Famous.
We are still waiting for our tides to stop coming in above our catwalks and bulkhead. At one point this week had a tide of about 12 inches over the bulkhead, and most days the tide was up to or over the catwalks. Once this tide situation settles down, Mike Downes will repair the bulkhead that has collapsed and we will then move boats into the 2 slips affected but this repair. Please bare with us as we want to make sure all of our slips are in good, safe condition for our members and your families.
We have several on-going projects that I will be reporting on as we move through Boating Season 2024. I hope this message was helpful and informative to you and that you will log on to our web site (crystalmanorboatclub.com) for more newsletters as time goes by!
Please enjoy a safe and fun filled Memorial Day Weekend!
Roy
Around the Marina
Newsletter # 10
I hope everyone had a very peaceful and relaxing winter and are excited about the coming of yet another boating season. On that note I thought it would be important to provide some info regarding the readying of the Marina for yet another very successful boating season. I hope you will find the info important and informative. Just a reminder, our first meeting of 2024 will be on Saturday, May 18 @ 10:00 on the Beach with a beach clean-up to follow!
As you all know by now, our Harbor Master, John Swain has resigned from this position. John has been a valuable member of our Executive Committee and many of the positive changes in our Marina are a direct result of John’s efforts and expertise. His shoes will certainly be hard to fill, but we will do our best to do so. If there are members of Club who feel they have the skills and are willing to make the efforts, please contact me or Gerry Baffone to discuss the position in detail
Over the winter, we received our Dredging permit from the MDE. This is a 3 year permit, so we can dredge for the next two years without applying for yet another new permit. Instead, I will be completing the application for a 10 year permit and have been assured that we should have no problem securing this extended permit. The channel was dredged and the depth within the channel is far deeper than when we finished the boating season last year.
As you leave the channel, please remember to take an immediate left hand turn and head straight out to open water. In previous years and for a very long time there has been 2 sand bars as you leave the channel going toward the open waters of the bay. These sand bars move and are affected by wind, rain and of course storms.
Please use your depth finders to track these sand bars and inform me of any changes that you see.
We have had a very rainy and windy winter down here at the beach. In a recent 3 day storm we received a tremendous amount of rain and an excessive amount of runoff at our marina. Unfortunately during the most recent severe storm we had a breach of an area of our bulkhead and had a collapse. This collapse was immediately stabilized by our contractor and has been waiting for more normal high and slow tides. As soon as this area stabilizes with lower water at our marina the collapsed area will be rebuilt as we have with the other issues we have repaired. I have spoken with the contractor and he will begin the process of repairing the bulkhead as soon as possible. Obviously we will keep you informed of any progress we may make in this area.
We recently we had a very successful removal of the Ice eaters in the marina. All of the Ice Eaters have been removed, marked, cleaned and stored on our shed. A few of our Ice Eaters had a 2x6 piece of decking placed on several catwalks to accommodate the installation of the Ice Eater. As we removed the Ice Eaters we noticed that the 2x6 decking presented a tripping hazard and the decking was replaced with Wear Decks as with all other catwalks with the new decking we are using on all replaced catwalks.
I want to personally THANK all members/associates of our club who took their time and efforts to complete this task. We finished the removal in less than 1 hour.
I am sure you noticed the very large amount of debris that was placed on our beach area. This debris was the result of the Conowingo Dam opening a number of gates after each storm that took place. At some points we were dealing with 9 gates releasing a large quantity of debris into the water. As a large storm over 3 days backed up at Conowingo, 22 gates were opened which certainly created a much larger debris field that ended up on our beach.
Teresa has contacted 3 contractors and as you can see the beach has been cleaned and smoothed and the burn pile which was extremely large has been disposed of and the beach is now ready for Beach Clean-up day to remove the small branches and twigs that remain. If you can, please come on the day of our 1st membership meeting of the year on May 18th at 10:00. Bring a small rake and perhaps some large trash bags and we should be ready for a great summer on the beach! Thanking you in advance for any efforts you will make on behalf of the Club. Your efforts will support those members and family members who spend long hours on our beach enjoying the Bay!
I want to especially THANK Darrin Delviscio, John Alto, Ed Boyer and Charley Esbin for joining me to watch over the burning of this burn pile. It was quite the sight and quite HOT!
Please, please be reminded that stickers MUST be placed on your boat PRIOR to launching. In this way we know that your boat is insured.
At the end of last year, the Executive Committee met to discuss several items. Most importantly, the EC indicated that they were not pleased with the tenor of our meetings due to actions and behavior of members during the questions and answer periods. A question about the length of our meetings was also discussed and several members stated that they wanted to reduce the length of the meetings because it delayed them getting out on the Bay.
The EC has decided that the meetings shall be scheduled for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At the end of the allowed time a timer will indicate that period is over. The Commodore will ask for a vote to extend the meeting to cover the last item brought for discussion. If the membership votes, the meeting will be extended to complete the item under discussion. If they do not vote to extend the meeting, the item will be placed on the agenda for the next meeting and the meeting will be adjourned.
Members wishing to speak at the meeting will raise their hand to be recognized They will stand and state their name and their beach address. After that, the member may engage in discussion with the officers of the club. Additional members may also gain the floor by again raising their hand and stating their name and beach address.
Projects remaining on the Agenda for the Marina, are as follows: continue monitoring the infrastructure of the Marina, including catwalks, bulkhead, bank side road, electric post at catwalks and video surveillance cameras. Installation of cement aprons in launch area where the macadam is cracking, black top coating of the macadam areas, grading of the Bankside roadway.
I am sorry to inform you that Mike Kelly has resigned as our Planning chairman. I have accepted his resignation with regret. Mike is a quality person and added a lot of integrity to our club. I will personally miss his interaction with the EC and me personally.
As of this newsletter, we have 2 vacancies that Gerry and I would like to resolve. If any member is interested in serving in these 2 positions please let me or Gerry know so we can hopefully move forward with filling these vacancies.
I am pleased to state that we have been very successful in completing projects and recognizing areas of need so we can have safe and clean beach and marina area. We need to continue our efforts in providing a wonderful boating and beach experience for our members and associates and their families. Your 1 hour of volunteer time is a great asset to our club as we identify areas of need so that we can continue to offer our members, associates and family members the BEST KEPT SECRET on the Chesapeake Bay.
Roy Thompson
Commodore
Crystal Manor Boat Club
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