March 8, 2002 – The V.I. National Park has issued a Request for Proposals from contractors on collecting mooring and anchoring fees from boaters overnighting in park waters. Bid information will be available March 16 at www.fedbizops.gov only. It will not be available at the park.
Bidding requirements and evaluation criteria will be explained and questions will be answered at a pre-bid conference at 9 a.m. on March 28 at the Marketplace third-floor meeting space. Proposals are due on or about April 16.
The park held two meetings late last year to ask for input on how it should go about collecting the marine use fees. Park Superintendent John King said about 10 people attended each meeting. He said Friday that about 30 people have expressed an interest in receiving Request for Proposal documents, "but I don't know how many we'll actually get."
He said the park has identified three possible scenarios for collecting fees:
– Having attendants stationed at various land points around the island to collect the money. If boaters fail to come ashore to pay their fees, someone would go out in a boat to collect.
– Having pipe safes on shore where boaters would leave envelopes with their payments. Again, an attendant would go out in a boat to collect from those boaters who did not pay their fees.
– A totally water-based collection system with an attendant going from boat to boat.
"It could be a combination of these," King said, explaining that the park might decide to go with more than one contractor and a variety of collection methods. The decision will be based on what methods the contractors propose, he added.
King said the initial contract will be for one year with the option of extending it annually for four more years. "It depends on how it goes," he said.
According to a press release from the park, the collection service is being procured "in accordance with Part 15 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The North American Industry Classification System Code is 711510. The standard size is $5 million." King had no idea what this means but said the park's regional contracting office told him this federal "boilerplate" information was necessary when issuing a Request for Proposals.
The V.I. National Park plan is to charge boaters $15 a night for mooring, with the maximum size for a vessel being 60 feet in length. Fees will vary for anchoring — $10 a night for vessels of 60 feet or less, $15 a night for those 60-75 long, and $25 for those over 75 feet.
The park has 182 moorings, 154 of them on St. John's north shore and 28 on the south shore. Anchoring within the park boundaries has a variety of restrictions; it is prohibited in park waters on St. John's south shore.