No More Free Boat Slips for Police

A view of Milwaukee’s Bradford Beach, McKinley Marina, and Veteran’s Park. June of 2012. Photo courtesy of MMSD.

The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) will have to begin paying for boat slips in the county-run McKinley Marina.

Under an agreement dating back to the 1990s, Milwaukee County was providing MPD with free slips and fuel for its boats in McKinley Marina. The county board recently voted to terminate this agreement.

The county and the city jointly applied for funding for the marina area in 1995. To receive the funds, an agreement was drawn up to have MPD patrol the waterways and provide boater safety and education training in exchange for free boat slips and fuel, according to Veronica Rudychev, Milwaukee County Parks financial manager.

The boat safety program no longer exists, Rudychev said, so the county’s attorneys determined the agreement is nullified. “Termination of this agreement would allow for parties to charge all slip tenants that are government agencies in a fair and equitable manner,” she told supervisors on March 12.

The county will begin charging MPD $2,500 per-slip annually, as well as fuel costs, which is estimated to bring in an estimated $25,000 annually. The cost for the boat slips is still below market value, Rudychev said.

The entire agreement came about nearly 30 years ago so that Parks could accept a $3 million state grant for improvements to the breakwater that wraps around McKinley Marina.