Eastbayri.com

The boats are gone, but the docks? That’s another story.

State officials believe it will be another three to six weeks, at least, before they find out if they have the authority to force the removal of dozens of illegal floating docks that have been tied up in the upper Kickemuit River since last April.

The docks were brought in nine months ago by 1 Libby Lane resident Thomas Koolen, who never obtained the necessary permits from the state Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) to do so. Since then, CRMC officials have been fighting a busy legal battle to get them out.

The latest round in the effort came last Tuesday, when CRMC officials appeared before Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter in a continuation of a suit filed three months ago. CRMC officials had filed suit to force the docks’ removed in November; shortly afterwards, Mr. Koolen was ordered to remove them and fined $25,000.

Several weeks later, Mr. Koolen was due back in court for a status hearing on whether he was complying with the order, but that hearing was put on hold when Mr. Koolen filed for bankruptcy just before Christmas.

Bankruptcy cases require an automatic stay on court proceedings, so the status hearing wasn’t held until last Tuesday. One of the chief questions last week was whether Mr. Koolen’s bankruptcy “protects” him from enforcement actions such as CRMC’s, said the agency’s Laura Dwyer.

The good news for authority is that Judge Taft-Carter ruled that it does not, and enforcement actions can proceed. However, the judge said at the hearing that she would like to get a concurrent opinion to that effect from the bankruptcy court, before that becomes official.

“Getting a ruling from that court could take 3-6 weeks, and until then we wait,” Ms. Dwyer wrote in an e-mail to the Warren Times-Gazette.

Since the docks are floating and are under the jurisdiction of the CRMC, town officials have little power to intercede in efforts to remove them. Thus, wrote Ms. Dwyer, “both the town and the state are now tied up in the bankruptcy court matter.”

Reached Thursday, Warren Harbormaster Matt Calouro had a one-word comment on the development: “Frustrating.”

Meanwhile, Warren Town Council members last Tuesday approved the expenditure of $7,800 in town funds to pay for the removal of the three illegal boats Mr. Koolen had tied up behind his house until late December. Town officials had been stymied in their attempts to remove the boats until a wind storm blew the largest, the 74-foot Bon Moyage, toward shore. Deeming the development an emergency, town officials contracted a commercial salvage company to remove the Bon Moyage and two smaller boats, all of which were unregistered.

Town officials hope to recoup the removal and storage costs on the boats, which in total could top $12,000. But that effort could take months.