Marina To Receive State Grants

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will meet on Tuesday to accept $35,000 in grants for boating related issues.

This is the eighth year that the California Department of Boating and Waterways has awarded these grants to the Marina del Rey station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. 

One grant of $25,000, with a $2,500 matching requirement from the sheriff’s department, will be allocated for removal and disposal of abandoned boats in the marina. The other grant of $10,000, now in its second year of funding, will assist registered boat owners who can no longer pay slip fees and are interested in surrendering their vessel to the sheriff’s department. 

The Department of Boating and Waterways, the entity that disburses the grants, was absorbed by the Parks and Recreation Department in July. 

DBW was primarily funded through boating registration fees and gasoline taxes on boat fuel and generated about $69 million a year. These funds are now be included in the Parks and Recreation’s budget, and could be allocated for non-boating related issues.

The sheriff’s department received about $115,000 last year to enforce boating regulations in Marina del Rey and the Santa Monica Bay. It is still unclear how much it will collect this year, as members of the California Boating Commission, which was spared when DBW was eliminated, no longer have the authority to dictate how boating loans and grants are disbursed throughout California.