Harbor Commission calls for 'new regime' in Old Lyme
Dec. 10—OLD LYME — The Harbor Management Commission is calling for a "new regime" with the arrival of Harbor Master Matt Lynch.
Lynch, appointed by Gov. Ned Lamont at the commission's request, replaces nine-year Harbor Master Harry Plaut. The commission in August voted to remove Plaut from the position after his term had expired.
The harbor master is appointed by the state and overseen by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to manage the safe and efficient operations of waterways in Old Lyme. Lynch this past week described the position as "a conduit between the public and the town."
Plaut, the owner of a waterfront services business, was also harbor master in Westbrook from 2019 until he resigned from that town in November. The resignation came after September meeting minutes showed town auditors in Westbrook raised concerns about Plaut's doing paid buoy maintenance for the town while he served as the harbor master.
Old Lyme Harbor Commission co-chairman Michael Presti last week said his group is looking to modernize the harbor master role and increase the harbor master's "on-water presence."
The commission is also looking to separate the harbor master from private, for-profit entities that install buoys and the moorings for boats to tie onto, Presti said.
Plaut's business, HS Plaut Environmental, is on the town's list of qualified mooring inspectors who can be hired by private boaters and businesses to check their moorings.
Commission co-chairwoman Teri Lewis described it as a gray area when the harbor master is also a private installer.
"If Harry wants to still install, he can still install in the harbor, but now we have a separate person that's being the harbor master," she said. "It's just managed better."
Plaut in a Friday phone call put it this way: "Out with the old, in with the new."
The 71-year-old said the "good ol' boys" network in place during much of his tenure has been replaced.
"It went from a good ol' boys club to a younger group of people that were concerned about the environment, concerned about open space and (riparian) rights to the waterways," he said. "So the mindset changed."
He said the benefit of the old regime of the Harbor Management Commission was that he was told what to do and what not to do.
"So that was what I was used to," he said. "Now with the transition, there was no specific, 'This is what we want you to do.'"
Plaut said the job of harbor master, for which he was paid the state-mandated stipend of $450 a year in both Old Lyme and Westbrook, involves patrolling the waters, keeping a record of where boats can be moored and making sure the waterways are safe to navigate.
Lewis said the commission is committed to updating its paper-based mooring permitting system. The commission last year launched an online system for those looking to anchor their boats within its jurisdiction.
Plaut, for his part, acknowledged adjusting to new technology had been difficult for him.
"I'm not as computer savvy as younger people are," he said, adding he had relied on one of his business employees to help him with handling the online forms.
Time for a change
Presti, the Harbor Management Commission co-chairman, said Plaut's paid work for the commission itself was limited to putting in a couple buoys marking the Black Hall River and two town moorings off the Connecticut River that are open for public use.
Plaut said the few buoys amount to about a thousand dollars' worth of work in Old Lyme. He acknowledged concerns here and in Westbrook about potential conflicts that could arise from serving as harbor master while getting paid by the town, but said it happens in many towns.
"The conflict is that supposedly you're making money off something that you're supposed to do for free," he said.
He said when harbor masters can't do mooring work themselves, companies are hired to do it for them.
He emphasized the $450 yearly stipend authorized by the state is low for the time and resources expended by the harbor master.
In Westbrook, he said the town had paid him an extra $250 a month until he resigned.
Presti said the Old Lyme commission would be reexamining compensation going forward. He said there's the potential to recommend to the Board of Finance more money for stipends or other expenses.
Plaut also worked for the town installing swim lines and cleaning the town's public beaches until his contract came up at the end of the season, according to Old Lyme Parks and Recreation Department Director Don Bugbee.
He said Plaut has been doing the work for quite a few years outside of any bid process that would have required multiple quotes.
"I thought it was time to get estimates, and some estimates from other people," Bugbee said.
"It was time for a change."
More presence
Lynch, 39, is a senior manager for Towboat US in Old Saybrook and an owner of Waterside Transit Services LLC.
"I'm on the water just about every day in the season as it is, so this is another way for me to help promote safe boating," he said last week by phone. "That's what I'm all about."
Lynch holds a U.S. Coast Guard 200-ton Inland Masters License, is a National Safe Boating Council Instructor, and a Member of the Niantic Bay Yacht Club.
"Hopefully I'll have a little more presence out there than we've had in the past," he said.
"For me, my big push is going to be boating safety," he said. "A lot goes on in that little strip of Old Lyme's water," he said. "It gets a little crazy out there on our gorgeous weekends. Hopefully we'll encourage boating responsibly and safely.
