Jere,

Unfortunately, contributing money or not to Oxford's economy has
no impact on the marina that has to pay real money to have their
trash hauled away. Belhaven, NC has a real nice dingy dock and
trash recepticles for cruiser trash. All of it is paid for by by the city.
That is the way it should be for towns that have nearby anchorages
and benefit from cruisers that contribute to the local economy.
But, many achorages near marinas have no reasonable access to
anything but the marina itself. Even if a visitor to the marina buys
lots of stuff, the cost of trash disposal, water, etc still comes off
their bottom line.

Doug

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
...
Doug Dotson wrote:

Jere,

We just reopened our business in a marina and are being charged for trash
removal. Turns out that it costs $80 each time our dumpster is emptied
and
that's is twice a week. I have no problem if a marina charges a buck or
two
for trash disposal. On a busy weekend, anchored out boats can easily fill
a dumpster. Why should the marina bear the cost? Same thing with water
as long as the rate is fair.

Doug

"...as long as the rate is fair." is the operative phrase. When they try
to charge $1 for a shopping bag of trash, though?..... Or $5 to fill up
our 25 gallons of water? or $5 or more to charge our batteries?
(absolute max we could accept over 24 hours would be 3 kwh...) That gets
annoying pretty quickly.

As to why the marina should bear the cost: business! I won't go to a
marina that has such policies except as a last resort and will buy only
the absolute minimum if I have to go there. For instance, when we visit
the Oxford area, we save our shopping & such for Cambridge. That's
typically $1-200 that we don't contribute to Oxford's economy.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/