Bull Hill Is (Currently) City Property
After a 3-Year Lapse, Bull Hill Boat Club Seeks to Re-Lease the Pier
Bull Hill is a beautiful spot and potentially wonderful resource for boaters in New Castle… but it needs some work. Even after city public works employees recently removed a severely weathered and unsafe section, other questionable structures remain and refuse and debris litter the area, as seen some of the photos below, taken on June 15.
During its June 8 meeting, New Castle City Council discussed the pier at Bull Hill. Administrator Bill Barthel reported that a lease which had granted use of the site to Bull Hill Boat Club for decades, had expired in 2017, but that the club had expressed recent interest in re-establishing it. For the moment, however, Bull Hill is a public resource. So what are the benefits of essentially re-privatizing it?
At the meeting, club president Michael Thatcher noted that maintenance of the pier had “gotten away from us a little bit.” Thatcher explained that the club’s membership currently stands at a little over a dozen members, mostly older and nearly half non-boaters themselves. He described the pier as “still useful unless the tide is low” and noted that members still use it.
Under the previous lease, there was a $10 fee for non-club members to use the boat ramp, requiring coordination with a club member to open it up and collect the fee. Council member Russ Smith questioned the club’s intent to keep the site accessible for regular residents of New Castle. As Thatcher questioned the practicality of doing so, Smith insisted that a reasonable usage fee for non-members remain part of any new lease that would put a padlock on what is otherwise a common resource.
Other points of discussion included Mr. Barthel’s recommendation that any new lease have a longer term, such as 5 years, Council member Suzanne Souder encouraging Mr. Thatcher and the club to be more visible in town to grow its membership, and further talk about the current state of the site. On that point, Mr. Thatcher expressed his and the club’s desire to re-improve and maintain the site, but no plans for doing so. In the end, the Council encouraged Mr. Barthel to work with the club on the terms of a new agreement, which will be subject to future Council approval once worked out.
About a week after that meeting, I stopped by Bull Hill to take the photos accompanying this article. While there, I happened to meet a member of the club, whose name I did not get but who, seemingly in his 30s, claimed to be its youngest member. He stated that there is interest in doing more with the site but only himself and one other member really keep it up any more, describing the constant chore of handling driftwood and debris constantly washing ashore as just the most visible issue.
As seen in the photos, the main boat ramp is severely cracked and uneven; there is no safe access from land to the current main dock (photo above); the stairs remaining are wobbly, with most boards heavily weathered and some out of place; and detritus litters the otherwise beautiful area.
Opinion: If the Bull Hill Pier is to remain largely the closed-off domain of a private club, then there needs to be an appropriate trade-off for the city. Improvements cost money and take time, but a formalized return to the status quo risks further neglect of a resource that residents throughout New Castle could make use of, if only they even knew about it. I urge City Council to think carefully about the terms and requirements that should be part of handing this public resource back to a private club that restricts public access while adding little apparent value to the site.
I would love to see the club have a renewal, get some new members and return itself and Bull Hill Pier to glory days… that would, of course, be the ideal solution and I absolutely wish the club and its members the best in pursuing it. However, the city needs to be realistic about how best to manage a site that could be a boon to the city if cared for and cultivated, but which currently risks total dilapidation.
I live in the historic district and have been a boat owner in the past. The idea of a boat club in town is intriguing. The questions I have are: Where do the boaters leave their towing vehicles and trailers? Does the site need to be dredged? Could this become a money maker for the city if the city took control of it? Bull Hill is potentially a beautiful site to enjoy the river, have a picnic but the river debris is overwhelming. A club and it’s members could help to maintain and clean up the area, but I would still want to be able to enjoy it as a resident of the city.