When the Native Choice was recently pulled from the water, it wasn’t in the same condition it was a year ago.
There’s a hole in one of the pontoons. A torn nose cone. Dents, dings and scratches throughout.
After a year of use as a water taxi, some wear-and-tear is to be expected — but who pays for the repairs has to be determined.
It won’t be Harry Frisch, the Beaver Street Fisheries chairman, who stepped up last year to help the city continue the water taxi service amid a public spat between City Council and the mayor on the issue. Frisch spent close to $339,000 on two vessels, with the idea he’d recoup his costs by selling the boats once the city had a long-term plan in place.
Without almost $27,000 in work, according to a Tavares-based dealer, Frisch won’t come close. The tab will be paid by the city and/or Lakeshore Marine Services, the operator for the past year.
According to the contract, Lakeshore is responsible for $2,500 in normal maintenance and repair of the 102-passenger Native Choice and 50-passenger Sea Charm I leased to the city by Frisch. The city covers the rest, unless it’s determined there was operator negligence.
City spokeswoman Pam Roman said when both vessels were removed from the water, the damage to the Native Choice “is not in keeping with the normal wear and tear.”
The city sent Lakeshore partner Heather Surface and Ron Hilliard Sr., the operations director, an invoice last week breaking down costs to repair the boat. The total was $26,910 with the largest line item being $20,802 for replacing sections of the pontoons. A slew of accompanying pictures show parts of the starboard and port pontoons dented and damaged.
The letter from the city’s Office of General Counsel didn’t say Lakeshore was responsible. But it did say the city retained rights at any time in the future to pursue the costs.
The company doing the repairs, Trident Pontoons, is the company Frisch bought the boats from and is now working together with him with to sell the boats.
“I don’t know if it’s negligence,” said Trident owner Robbie Cunningham.
Cunningham said he was “pretty shocked” when he saw the condition of the Native Choice and speculated the pontoon damage could have been the result of “a lot of crashing against some dock.” Without the repairs, he said there is no way he could sell the boat for anywhere close to what Frisch paid for it.
Last week, the Sea Charm was pulled from the water but Cunningham said it looked to be “in much, much better shape.” He’ll inspect it in the coming days and submit a repair invoice to the city.
Surface said she was not aware of any incidents other than the normal use of operating the Native Choice close to 11 hours a day, seven days a week the past year.
“I’ve met with all the captains and asked them,” she said. “They’re not aware of any accidents or incidents.”
The boats are docked each night at the Jacksonville Landing, with that part of the St. Johns River having an enforced “no-wake zone.” It’s possible, Surface said, that something could have happened when the boats were not in Lakeshore’s possession.
After seeing the pontoons, she said much of it looked consistent with water-taxi usage.
If the city determines the damage is beyond normal wear-and-tear and seeks costs above the $2,500 contractually required, Surface said she’d like more input. Typical protocol would be to have a local objective, independent survey of the damage to secure estimates for repair.
That’s more complicated at this point, as the boats are in Central Florida with Cunningham.
There also could be additional costs regarding the boats’ motors. The engines for the Native Choice have a combined 7,000 hours or so, Cunningham said he was told, which would be about the life of an engine. If new motors are determined to be needed, the cost is about $20,000, he said.
Those additional hours would be considered normal wear-and-tear, according to Roman.
Roman said the city is reviewing Trident’s quote for repairs and will pursue reimbursement from Lakeshore “as appropriate.”
At this point, Lakeshore hasn’t been pegged with any extra costs.
Instead, Surface said the focus continues with an eye toward Friday, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first home preseason game. A third boat, a 60-seater from Virginia, arrived Monday evening that will satisfy the contractual requirements of larger events like Jaguars games.
Lakeshore has purchased one other boat and is leasing another, in all having the capability to serve more than 200 people at a time.
Last year, there were 1,200 riders during the first preseason game, but the company had only a couple of days to prepare. That isn’t the case this time around.
“We will be ready,” she said.
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