VERO BEACH — City officials are trying to work out a lease with the Indian River County Youth Sailing Association on a surplus publicly owned building on the outskirts of the Vero Beach Utilities wastewater treatment plant.
“Charlie (Pope) and youth sailing have taken a liking to this building,” said City Manager Jim O’Connor at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Last month, the group of sailing and rowing enthusiasts and O’Connor went looking for a solution after sailing interests butted heads with locals who were upset that a MacWilliam Park site slated for a boathouse would cut into land used as an off-leash dog park.
Dog owners got hundreds of signatures on petitions and packed a council meeting to protest the proposed construction of a large bouthouse on the northeast side of the Barber Bridge, There was also some concern that sculling traffic would interfere with sailboats tethered to a mooring ball at the city marina.
The building, which has direct waterfront access near the southwest end of the 17th Street causeway, is not being used by the sewer utility, except that it houses an ice machine. It was on a list of structures to be demolished.
O’Connor said the lease “would not be $1 per year” because the association would need to pay for utilities for the building and it’s not currently metered on a separate account.
He said issues of access would also need to be worked out as the building lies behind locked gates, but that he did not forsee the youth sailing activities interfering with utility personnel due to the location of the building.
“It’s at the south end of the property, removed from the plant, so there’s no interaction with the wastewater treatment plant,” O’Connor said.
Members of the youth sailing association purchase kits from which they build their own small sailboats for the purpose of learning how to sail on the Indian River Lagoon.
It was not discussed whether the building could serve some of the needs of the rowing groups which travel to Vero to practice, or just the sailing association. Plans for a boathouse with training and storage facilities to draw college sculling teams from all over the United States are still on hold.
O’Connor said he and the staff would come back with a proposed lease at a future meeting of the council if all the details and costs can be worked out to the satisfaction of both parties.
