Avalon staff will come back to the City Council in the near future with information comparing the impact of cruise ships during the winter and summer seasons.
The Avalon city website puts the population of Avalon “around 4,000.”
According to the Avalon Department’s November activity report, eight cruise ships brought 21,436 individuals to Avalon in the month of December.
During the last council meeting of the year on Dec. 17, 2019, following a lengthy session on the Avalon community’s input on the cruise ship issue, City Manager Denise Radde summarized the information the council members wanted from staff:
• a discussion of the incentive to bring cruise ships to the Island and the possible removal of the incentive.
In October 2019, Harbor Master J.J. Poindexter said that the wharfage fees for cruise ship passengers from January to September brought in $722,590 in revenue to the city government.
According to an October 2019 staff report to the council, an ordinance adopted by the council in March 2017 a cruise line that sends a second ship to Avalon 50 or more times a year will be paid 50% of the wharfage fees collected for that second ship.
Some Avalon residents have questioned the need for the incentive.
According to the October report
• Wharfage fees charged to cruise ships and the possible increase of those fees.
The October 2019 staff report said cruise ship wharfage fees account for 10% of the the operating revenue of Avalon’s Harbor Fund.