Warrenton has struggled with overcrowding and illegal camping at the Hammond Marina during the Buoy 10 salmon fishery.

WARRENTON —

Overstretched by the coronavirus pandemic, Warrenton had a rough first summer owning the Hammond Marina and dealing with a crush of visitors during the Buoy 10 salmon fishery. The city took over the marina from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last year after having managed it since Hammond was absorbed in 1991.

Next to the marina is a parking area where the city provides overflow camping during Buoy 10. Farther north is Seafarers’ Park, which is usually off -limits to campers but sometimes takes overflow from the main parking area.

Tony Faletti, a resident, raised his concern with the City Commission on Tuesday about the number of people camping around the marina and the amount of barbecues on bone-dry grass.

“I think the city needs to look at maybe having no open hibachis out there in the grass because we’re opening ourselves up to a major fire that could take off and go quickly,” he said.

Mayor Henry Balensifer agreed with Faletti. He also said he felt it was disrespectful when he saw the city allowing people to camp in the park and place drinks on a rock memorial to five crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard motor lifeboat Triumph who died in 1961 while aiding mariners.

“I’ve never seen an RV (catch) fire, but I imagine with all that plastic and fiberglass, it could go up and be really hard to put down,” the mayor said.

“And with them packed in like that, it’s going to be very hard to evacuate those people, and it’s going to be pretty quick to spread to other RVs that are all camped out there.”

Police Chief Mathew Workman said that only around 5% of his department’s 437 calls during Buoy 10 were directly tied to the recreational fishery, although the statistics didn’t include a dramatic spike in traffic stops. Police were called to the marina about everything from boats sinking and logs on fire to parking violations and a rock thrown through someone’s window, he said.

“It almost becomes like a Vegas atmosphere, where what happens here, stays here, and they can do whatever they want,” Workman said of visiting fishermen. “And they get very frustrated when my officers tell them, ‘No, you can’t and will not do this.’”

There were two major theft cases related to visiting fishermen. A guide’s rods and reels were stolen and later recovered by the Astoria Police Department, Workman said, while a woman’s purse containing a handgun was stolen from a vehicle and tracked through an iWatch to Hillsboro.

City staff argued that the park acts as an important overflow to the main marina parking lot and other campgrounds like Fort Stevens State Park and KOA, cutting down on illegally parked RVs around the city.

Jane Sweet, the harbormaster of the Warrenton and Hammond marinas, said it was a challenge managing fishermen who come in at all hours during the season after having just laid off a marina staffer because of revenue losses from the pandemic.

“We were down revenue-wise about 37% from the prior year,” she said.

The city doesn’t allow campfires at the marina and has been evicting people in no-camping areas, City Manager Linda Engbretson said. She asked commissioners for direction regarding overflow camping and barbecues.

Commissioners pushed staff to add more signs at the Hammond Marina, offer a definite amount of camping spots and not allow overflow camping in Seafarers’ Park. A task force created by the city for the marina has suggested expanding RV parking onto nearby areas of dredge spoils.

“I think that there’s a lot of things we need to do in order to protect our aquatic areas from further degradation, signage being the biggest thing, and making people aware of where they are in relationship to our city park and memorials, and doing a better job of telling them where the camping can go,” Commissioner Pam Ackley said.