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Gellatly appointed marina manager

Former Point Roberts fire chief David Gellatly has been chosen to replace Bruce Gustafson as manager of the Point Roberts Marina and marina owners are taking the change of leadership as an opportunity to revamp the way the marina is run.

“It was a situation where, for Bruce, leaving was good for him and for us it’s a good time to look at where we’re going from here,” said Lorraine Taki, vice-president of Intco Investments, the holding company that owns the Marina.

Gustafson, who owns two gas stations in Point Roberts, resigned to take a marketing and business development job with an automotive service business closer to his home in Bellingham. After 19 years with the Point Roberts marina, Gustafson said there’s a lot about the job he’ll miss. “There were some fun things about the job and some good friends,” he said.

Taki and company principals Ernest and Kane Hui spent a week in Point Roberts in mid-January reviewing marina operations and interviewing over a dozen candidates for the manager’s position. “We began our process when we were first notified Bruce was leaving in early January,” Taki said. “I had phone interviews with people from Alaska, from Oregon.”

Ultimately they chose a local candidate because they were looking for a resident manager with the community, Taki said. “He’s proven himself a strong manager and the fact that he lives here was a strong asset. He understands the community and Point Roberts is a special and unique place.”

Gellatly has been the executive administrator of Mobile Exchange in Blaine for six years and was the volunteer chief of the Point Roberts fire department prior to the department’s move to a full-time chief. Like Gustafson, a strong reason for the change was to avoid the unpredictable commute across two borders. “I’m looking forward to working in the community in which I live,” he said.

Building closer community ties – with marina tenants first but also the larger Point Roberts society – will be a priority for the new management.

Responses to a survey of marina tenants in fall 2001 sent a strong message, Taki said. “We had an overwhelming response,” she said. “Out of about 800 tenants we had 400 responses, many with detailed responses. The tenants are very interested in their marina.”

Survey responses made it clear marina tenants wanted more than just a place to park their boats. “There hasn’t been the attention to customer service, to the socail side of boating,” Taki said. “We have this wonderful marina club that’s really under-utilized. You can be a member but do you really want to go up there alone?”

Taki said the owners wanted to see the marina more actively involved in building a dynamic boating community.

Taki also said the marina should work with other local groups and interests to build opportunities on the Point. “There’s so much potential here, so much we could really do as a community,” she said. “It’s really a jewel in the rough.”.

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