Complying With A Court Order, Ken Harris Removes Docks

While it’s not unusual for smaller dock operators to pull their docks out of the water in the off season, Ken Harris’s fast response to a Superior Court order for the removal of his docks may herald the end of an era.

Harris has long operated a small marina at the bottom of Rocky Hollow Road but he ran afoul of the state in recent years.

The state Coastal Management Resources Council issued a “cease-and-desist” order , calling for the removal of his docks. Harris Marina sits on what the CRMC classifies as Type 1 - conservation - shoreline. (A map of East Greenwich shoreline classifications is attached, right.)

Superior Court Judge Allen Rubine appointed a “special master” to oversee the removal of the Harris Marina “floats” on Oct. 6.

“It gives him the authority to act and enforce the will of the court,” said Town Solicitor Peter Clarkin of Special Master Christopher Mulhearn. If Harris did not remove them, Clarkin said, Mulhearn had the power to hire someone to do the work and the bill would be sent to Harris.

As it happened, Harris removed the docks last week, piling them up beside his shanty, on what has been determined is town land. Harris bought the shanty in 1979, but did not have a lease for the land the shanty sits on until last year, when.

The state, however, didn't care about the shanty and the land. Rather, the Coastal Resources Management Council was only concerned with the docks, according to CRMC’s Jim Boyd.

“When the CRMC established regulations in the 1980s, no new marinas in Type 1 waters were allowed,” explained Boyd. If you couldn’t date your marina’s existance prior to 1980, he said, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the CRMC would not permit it. If you could prove that your marina dated before 1980, you could be “grandfathered,” Boyd said.

Harris only recently applied for permits. His application to the Army Corps (which must precede the CRMC application, Boyd said) was denied last year. Harris has said in his defense that he hadn’t known about the need to apply for permits until a couple of years ago. He said Monday that docks have been in the water off his shanty since he took ownership of the building in 1979.

Harris is not the only small marina in East Greenwich on Type 1 shoreline. Anderson Marina, for instance, sits just to the south of Harris. It has also been used as a marina for decades. Boyd said that other marinas had the necessary permits.

“I do know they all have permits,” said Boyd. “They all went through the proper procedures to obtain their permits.”

Harris, reached Monday, would not elaborate about the future. “Yes, I have plans but I don’t want to discuss them now,” he said. “I took a raw deal with the state and the town so I kind of want to just keep it to myself.”