The New Year holiday is universally recognized as a time of renewal, change and transition. I would definitely say that our Long Beach Marinas team is experiencing each of these to the fullest degree. In recent months we have seen the retirements of two of our management team leaders in Elvira Hallinan our Bureau Manager since 2014 and Kimarie Vestre our long-time Alamitos Bay Marina Supervisor.
In November I was appointed as Interim Marine Bureau Manager while the City works to hire a permanent manager via a nationwide open bulletin search. I have found the manager role to be equal parts complex, difficult, invigorating and exciting depending on the time of day. I want to thank both of our Maintenance Superintendents – Cory and Eric – for their dedication to the job and continued support. I also want to recognize all of our Long Beach Marinas staff that keep our marinas, beaches and waterways operational and active 24/7/365. Thank you for all you do and your continued dedication to the Long Beach waterfront in all its forms.
Much like any industry these days the Long Beach Marinas has had a heck of a time maintaining our work force staffing levels. The good news is that we are moving expediently to fill position vacancies across Beach Maintenance, Marine Maintenance and Marina Operations. By end of January 2023 we will have onboarded four Maintenance Assistant II positions, four Marine Aides, one Provisional Marina Agent I, one Provisional Marina Agent II, and will be holding interviews to fill a number of other roles in each of our maintenance and operations divisions. If you see a new face in a City of Long Beach uniform on your dock please be sure to say hello and welcome one of our new employees to the Long Beach Marinas.
Our 5-Year Capital Improvement Projects Plan remains in full gear and you will begin to see activation on parking lot revitalization at Shoreline Marina in the months ahead. This project will be a full re-do of the boatowner parking lot which is going to require some creative management of boatowner parking availability in the coming months. We will be sending out notification to affected boatowners via email before the project starts. It will be done in phases to limit the closure of parking stalls to sections at a time. We also continue to move forward on our ABM Restroom rebuild project and look to take the project out to bid for construction of the first two restrooms in 2023.
Lastly, thank you to each of you, our boatowners and permittees, for your continued patronage of the Long Beach Marinas. From me and each of our Long Beach Marinas employees we wish you and yours well and good tides in 2023. Happy New Year!
Be well and safe boating,
Todd Leland
Interim Marine Bureau Manager