According to Bristol Harbormaster Greg Marsili, pending the resolution of a couple of minor details, the plans for the proposed 70-slip marina expansion will be going out to bid in the beginning of the new year. The next step, he says, “all depends on the council,” though the town still hopes to break ground on the project in July, with the project completed in time for the summer of 2020.

The latest plan expands the project to the State Street dock with a new fueling station, something that will be a welcome addition for local boaters accustomed to fueling at stations in Portsmouth or Tiverton.

Also new to the Church Street side of the plan is an adjustment of the breakwater which will serve to enlarge the area of protection from southwesterly winds.

The plan for an expanded town marina dates back to before a November 2016 bond referendum, in which voters approved $17 million for capital projects, including $2 million to build a new public marina, to ease the long waiting list of residents hoping for a public slip.

Not all residents are happy with the scale of project.

Of the 70 proposed slips, 50 will be made available to local residents, with the remaining designated for transient boaters — so while the the latest plans have changed the configuration of the slips, the overall number of slips did not change. Following the voter-approved funding for the expansion, with the realization of the project seeming so close at hand, the waiting list actually expanded. It now numbers some 120 hopeful boat-owning residents, some of whom have been waiting for as long as a decade.

Last spring, residents Patrick McCarthy and Donald Hemond, a member of the Bristol Capital Projects Commission, organized BOOM — Build Our Ocean Marina — a group of concerned citizens keen to move forward with the project. According to Mr. McCarthy, while BOOM is very pleased the project is moving forward, he doesn’t feel it goes far enough.

“With only 50 dock slips becoming available … regarding the size and scope of this expansion, both are inadequate,” he said. “A downtown comprehensive resident parking plan to accommodate a larger marina is imperative, and a planned occupancy in 2020 means it’s taken over five years from concept to commissioning to completion. We welcome this starting point, but that’s woefully way too much time and it’s too small to accommodate our large membership!”

“I think it’s going to be good for the town,” said Harbormaster Marsili. “It’s a good design, and I think everyone is going to like it.”

Town Administrator Steve Contente responded to the complaint that the marina will not meet enough local demand: “If it’s a benefit to the average citizen who doesn’t have a boat, I’m in favor. It can’t push out commercial fishermen, which this won’t,” he said. “We need to maintain our working waterfront. And it has to be a revenue generator, which it will be with 20 transient spaces. When they fill up every weekend in the summer, those people will be visiting our restaurants and shops.”