By GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – Anyone with aspirations of managing a port – sleuthing for smugglers while rubbing elbows with scalawags and flannel-clad pirates along brine-scented docks – may want to consider the Port of Alsea.
They may also want to consider the actual job requirements without all the blarney.
“I think people don’t realize how much of the job is administrative, doing payroll, reconciling bank accounts, making moorage reservations and selling annual launches,” said Port of Alsea manager Roxie Cuellar. “We’re a government entity and that means we have a lot of different requirements – a state required budget process, annual audits, all those kinds of things a lot of people don’t think about.”
After nine years on the job, Cuellar plans to retire this fall. The port’s board wants to find a successor who can begin as a part-timer in April so they can learn the ropes before taking over in October. The application period opened Monday and closes March 22.
The port usually hires seasonal workers beginning in mid-May, one at five days a week and another at two. The new port manager would ease in by taking on normal port maintenance duties and shifts at the Dock of the Bay shop while also working one day in the office.
“They would be paid $19 an hour for those three days, and they would be here through the busy season and get exposed to all that entails,” Cuellar said. “And then ideally when the seasonal workers are through, about the middle of October, they would be ready to step in as port manager.”
Once on the job the salary would come in just under $65,000 a year, although the exact amount would depend on experience, aptitude and negotiations with the port’s five-member board. The manager’s only benefits would be paid vacation and sick days.
Formed in 1910
The port district was formed in 1910 and holds land in public trust throughout much of the Alsea estuary. It boasts some of the best crabbing in the state as well as salmon fishing and clamming. The port area includes docks for crabbing, fishing and moorage, a launch ramp, Robinson Park and picnic area and public restrooms.
The Port of Alsea district stretches from an area south of Seal Rock through Waldport, east to the Lincoln-Benton county line and south through Yachats to Lane County.
Alsea Bay and the Alsea River see more than 50,000 user days by boaters annually, according to an Oregon State Marine Board survey from 1999. An estimated 5,000 boats are launched each year from the port’s boat ramp.
The port is overseen by a five-member board and the manager, who is responsible for preparing the budget, which is about $500,000 a year. Revenues come from property taxes, launch fees, the manufacture and sale of crab measuring devices, and income from its retail operation Dock of the Bay, which the Port purchased in 2021 to help raise money to dredge near the marina more regularly.
Voters approved a $2.5 million bond in 2018 to rebuild its deteriorating marina, which was completed in April 2021.
Manager transition
During the busy season, September to October, the front door never stops swinging at the Port of Alsea office.
“They come in to rent slips, report issues like maybe the pay station not working, all kinds of things, including – ‘Do you guys have a magnet that I could use to try to find the keys that I dropped into the water?’” Cuellar said. “We do.”
The port will post the job on its website, local social media and in newspapers. Applications will be accepted until March 22. Budget planning begins in March and ends in April so the goal is to have a candidate in place to learn that process.
Because a new manager cannot be brought up to speed in a matter of weeks, Cuellar will stay on the job for training until mid-October when she hopes to retire – kind of.
“I’ll probably look for some type of small position, maybe as a consultant or something,” said Cuellar, who is also chair of the Southwest Lincoln Water PUD board. “You know I’m 76 years old but I can’t imagine not working. But I don’t want full time and I don’t want to be at work at 8 o’ clock in the morning so I’ll probably take some time off and then see what is out there.”
Cuellar’s time at the port has not been without controversy, which included a hotly contested race for board members that saw personal attacks and allegations.
Cuellar acknowledged there was some crazy drama going on but nothing a new manager will step into.
“I think everybody has put it behind them,” she said. “And I’ve had people that were involved in the recalls come in and say ‘Sorry about that, let’s go back to the way it was before.’ So I think it’s fine. And if they’re mad at anybody, they’re mad at me.
“I think some people will be happy to have a new port manager,” she added with a laugh.
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
Wow Roxie. Kudos for a job well done. What an asset to our region you are.