Happy holidays.

What beautiful fall colors we had this year. And with our light winds, the colors stayed longer than usual.  Now it’s time to get those rakes out. Some of the deciduous trees along the park area facing the marina have been putting on quite a show.

Speaking of a show, wait until you see the holiday light display that the staff and volunteers have assembled for you this year. Last year, we had a few electrical problems and often could not display the whole project at the same time. We have run a few new power lines to handle the load. I can’t wait.

Last year, my dental hygienist gave me a wonderful night-time color photograph that she took of the port at Christmas. If you are down at the port, that photo now hangs in Harbormaster Kevin’s office. I am sure he will let you see it. This year, you may see a salmon swimming upstream and perhaps a sea turtle among the new additions. We all hope you get an opportunity to come down to the port and enjoy this event.

Between now and February we are replacing a lot of the pilings that hold our marina together. Last month, we opened bids from 10 different companies and hired Pacific Pile and Marine to do the job.  Many of the old creosote-coated pilings were installed more than 30 years ago. The new pilings are galvanized steel and much more environmentally friendly. Ports are required to mitigate new construction projects over the water by cleaning up old things that could be hazardous or obsolete. So when we needed to find a mitigation project required for the construction of the passenger-only ferry dock, we looked all over the sound for a task that we could accomplish. A quick look at our own facility gave us the project that could fill the requirement for the mitigation and in the end benefit our own facility as well. Expect to see some activity in December.

The port is in the final stages of preparing the 2012 budget. A couple of things we are looking to do is replace the gates to all of the permanent moorage docks with new and more modern ones.

To keep up with our landscaping efforts, it is time to get the crew a new lawnmower.

One of the most popular investments we made in the past couple of years was the purchase of the electric car that allows visiting boaters to get to our local retail stores and purchase local goods and supplies. We are thinking that one additional car might be worth getting so that more guests will be able to get around town and buy more stuff.

I would like to congratulate Walt Elliott on his election to the port commission. Both Commissioner Marc Bissonnette and I look forward to welcoming Walt to the board.

Nautical term
Here is a new term that showed up on my Coast Guard “Cuttermen” Organization Facebook page: Hodgepodge.

“Hotchpotch” was a maritime term describing the method of equally dividing cargo and property damaged when two ships have collided and both are deemed to be responsible.

Well, once again we are running out of space here so I want to wish all of you — on behalf of the commission and port staff — a wonderful, happy holiday season and safe travels wherever you go. As always, thank you for taking a few minutes to read this stuff. I hope you found something interesting.

— Email Kingston Port Commissioner Pete DeBoer at pete@petedeboer.com.