NEWBURYPORT — Plum Island residents hoping they can cast their votes on Election Day in the Plum Island Boat House will likely have to settle for a rental trailer in the Northern Boulevard building’s parking lot after the city condemned the ramp leading to the entrance.
Mayor Sean Reardon recently sent the City Council a request for $8,000 from the city’s free cash account to cover the costs of renting a temporary Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant office trailer for the Ward 1P voting location.
“This is not a long-term solution,” Reardon said. “We’ve got to figure out what to do with that boathouse. It’s in pretty rough shape, apart from the ramp.”
For decades Ward 1P residents have been voting at the former U.S. Coast Guard facility known colloquially as the “boat house.”
But a winter storm forced the city in January to change the polling location to the People’s United Methodist Church on Purchase Street (where Ward 1 votes) during the special election regarding building a new Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School.
“There was a huge buildup of ice and junk in the boat house parking lot that was inhibiting access to the building,” Ward 1 City Councilor Sharif Zeid said.
In March, residents went back to voting at the boat house for the presidential primary.
But Zeid said the ramp to get into the building was condemned over the summer.
Chief of Staff Andrew Levine said the city currently has $3.5 million in free cash available. The mayor’s spending request will be before the council Monday night as a transfer.
If Reardon’s ask is approved, Levine said the city would move fast to rent a trailer that includes a restroom.
“This is a big election and we’re expecting a lot of people,” Levine said. “We have to come up with a plan for this. Then we’ll look at the building in general and see how we move forward with it.”
Zeid said he looks forward to supporting the mayor’s request.
“Residents want to vote on the island,” he said. “This trailer idea is the best solution for now. It lets us stay on the island and doesn’t disrupt or cause us to have to do a change of polling place.”
Once the election is over, Zeid added, the city will need to pay closer attention to the boat house.
“It’s not considered viable now,” Zeid said. “We need to come up with something else.”
Reardon says his office has been trying to come up with a Plan B for a while. But bringing the boat house into full compliance with the ADA, he said, could cost the city between $50,000 to $100,000.
“This is a building that’s 100 years old,” Reardon said. “So, those are just some of the conversations that we have to have.”
The city-owned property has been without any meaningful maintenance for at least a decade, according to Zeid. Earlier this year, he and City Clerk Richard Jones had been looking into moving the polling place to Plum Island Hall. But that building is located in Newbury.
The pair also looked at using the Mass Audubon Joppa Flats Education Center as well as the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge headquarters but owners showed little interest.
But Zeid said Friday he’s coming back to the idea of approaching refuge staff.
“It’s in Newburyport, just before the Plum Island Airport,” he said. “It obviously is handicap-accessible and is a fairly new building. There has been some change in leadership over there and there seems like there may be an opportunity to have that conversation again.”
People’s United Methodist Church also remains on the table, according to Zeid.
“I don’t have anything that I favor, at this point,” Zeid said. “Right now, I want to figure out which ones are actually viable. We need stable places to vote and I look forward to receiving some public input on the matter in the future.”