BY PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
RYE – After facing widespread criticism in August over its engineering plans to change the outlay of retail in Rye Harbor, the Pease Development Authority voted Thursday to direct staff to stand down on work for a proposed retail platform.
Brad Cook, chair of the Pease Development Authority Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council, said there had been a groundswell of opposition to the PDA plan to spend $1 million on the platform project.
He said that money should be added to other federal ARPA funds to improve the Portsmouth Fish Pier Building, and that should be made a priority of the Division of Ports and Harbors and the Pease Development Authority.
The PDA board unanimously voted Thursday to stop funding the engineering study for the Rye Harbor Raised Retail Platform, he said.
A spokesman for the PDA confirmed that was the position of the board following Thursday’s meeting.
It was a busy business day as usual Friday in the harbor where people lined up to buy lobster rolls and get tickets for excursion vessels.
Residents and business owners in Rye Harbor attended a PDA meeting Aug. 8 and called for more transparency to build what some call a “raised strip mall” in the harbor.
The plan had been floated as an idea to help make the harbor area more resilient to rising sea levels, particularly after back-to-back storms in January which found much of the area under several feet of water.
Gov. Chris Sununu said he supported the project along with the one at Peirce Island in Portsmouth using federal post-COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act relief funds.
Steve Duprey, chairman of the Pease Development Authority board, told the packed meeting Aug. 8 that “The harbor is not self-sustaining,” noting it is losing $250,000 a year and is facing serious environmental issues with rising tides.
He said the question is how to make it more economically and environmentally sustainable.
The engineering plan floated for the Rye Harbor at 1870 Ocean Boulevard, on US Route 1A was to develop an elevated set of 12 units for retail which is directly connected to the harbor, either for boat cruises, or the sale of fish.
Cook, a long-time Rye Harbor supporter, previously told InDepthNH.org he believes Geno Marconi, who is head of the harbors, and is now on leave for unknown reasons, opposed the Rye Harbor plan of the PDA and is being politically silenced. A link to that story is here: https://indepthnh.org/2024/08/07/friend-says-gov-chris-sununu-behind-effort-to-force-geno-marconi-to-resign/
Marconi was placed on administrative leave in April and his wife, state Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, was placed on paid administrative leave July 26 with no reason given.
Attorney General John Formella has convened a grand jury investigation into Geno Marconi that is continuing to subpoena people, some more than once.
Marconi’s wife, Justice Hantz Marconi, had already recused herself from any cases involving the Attorney General’s Office when she was placed on paid administrative leave.
The leaves involving Geno Marconi and Justice Hantz-Marconi have been shrouded in secrecy.
Reporter Nancy West contributed to this report.
