Something in the water
I wouldn’t normally drive 50 miles out of my way to see a dock. I had reason to believe the new day docks on the Delaware River in Bristol Borough, Pennsylvania, were worth the detour.
“I have gone there on a beautiful summer weekend, and thought: Where am I, Miami?,” Stacey Mulholland told me the day before when explaining her connection to the project. “The boats that are coming in are amazing.”
Now a public affairs specialist for the Delaware River Basin Commission, Mulholland was deputy chief of staff for Pennsylvania Congressman Michael Fitzpatrick in 2013 when Bristol submitted an application for a boating infrastructure grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to build a new pier and day docks. She helped shepherd the application through the process.
“I used to like to say I was the ambassador to Bristol Borough,” Mulholland said. “It’s just such a special place, and this project has been transformative for them.”
When I visited Bristol, it was a drizzly Wednesday morning, and the waterfront was quiet. But in the way that a stage is quiet before a big performance.
On the south side of the pier, which was completed in July 2017, two gangways lead down to docks extending into the Delaware River like floating red carpets. At the foot of the pier, a large pavilion with “Bristol” painted in ornate lettering beckons visitors to cross the threshold into the downtown, just steps away. Along the riverfront path, benches welcome spectators to take in the view.
Bristol appears poised for great things to happen. And they are.
The day that I was in Bristol, Bill Perry was in Duluth, Minn., accepting an award for the day dock project on behalf of the town at the States Organization for Boating Access Conference. Perry is a grant specialist for the Service’s Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, which administers the boating infrastructure grant funding.
“The waterfront docks in Bristol Borough are a great example of how these projects can benefit both boaters and local communities,” said Perry, who nominated the town for the SOBA award. “They have provided a beautiful gateway for boaters on the Delaware River to access the historic downtown.”
That’s exactly what the project planners envisioned. “Our town has always enjoyed having a waterfront, but there was never a way for visitors to get to the town from the water,” said Borough Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe. “We thought: We have this beautiful river; we need to use it to bring people into our community.”
That vision has become a reality. DiGuiseppe explained that the town holds a number of annual events — including an Italian Day, Celtic Heritage Day, a Puerto Rican Festival, an African-American Day, and a Doo Wop concert — and the docks have expanded capacity for, and interest in, these events. The Doo Wop concert attracts about 15,000 people, most of whom are shuttled in on buses from a parking lot on the outskirts of town. But during this year’s show, DiGuiseppe said every boat slip was taken, and people were anchored off of other boats.
But boaters don’t need special events to lure them to town. They just need nice weather. The next nearest public docks that are within walking distance of downtown restaurants and shops are 14 nautical miles north at Trenton, N.J., and 19 nautical miles south at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. Bristol serves as an ideal midway destination for the many transient boaters that travel this section of the tidal Delaware, and DiGuiseppe said business owners have reported an increase in sales that they attribute to foot traffic from boaters looking to stretch their legs or grab a meal.
“The docks were full over Columbus Day weekend, and one local restaurant owner told me that he tripled his typical Sunday business,” he said.
Although the day docks are helping to generate more public interest in Bristol Borough, the town already had a good reputation for its focus on community revitalization. In 2017, just days before the project was complete, Bristol Borough was named the №1 Small Town in America by the Deluxe Corporation.
That community spirit made it possible to execute what Scott Bollinger, Statewide Public Access Program Manager for Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, called, “The project that wasn’t meant to be, but got done anyway.”
He explained that the town ran into a number of issues with the day dock project, ranging from concerns about lighting on the pier interfering with shipping lanes on the Delaware, to delays in construction to accommodate the spawning season for shad. When the original grant project was in jeopardy because of the unforeseen challenges, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission worked with the Bristol Borough officials and the Service to secure a different boating infrastructure grant to cover additional costs.
“They did a phenomenal job,” Bollinger said, adding, “One of our engineers went out to inspect the project after completion, and his words were: It’s the premier boating facility in the state.”
That’s good for the larger watershed community as well. “Since we have been running the grant program, there have been very few proposals for projects along the Delaware River,” Bollinger said. “The Delaware is a big system, and the more public access the better.”
Bristol has set the stage, and the bar.
