Winnipesaukee Forum - View Single Post - NH Marine Patrol funding, or lack there of

ossipeeboater · 07-25-2006, 09:10 AM

I agree the pay is light but Marine Patrol is always going to be a part time job because the real season is less than 4 months and 80% of that traffic is on 12 weekends plus the 4th of July so we're really talking 20-30 busy days where more patrolling is needed. That's going to limit who can and will take the job to people starting out, retired or if they addressed the pay maybe they could run local police and state police details out on the lake. That's what is done in many other states where instead of running a separate marine patrol they have county sherrifs and local police who in addition to their regular 40 hour job work details at the lake along with the seasonal officers hired to work full time on the lake similar to our marine patrol. I'm sure for many police officers if you pay them detail rate($30/hr) they would rather make it cruising winni for 6-8 hours than standing at a construction site when it's 90 out. Laconia gets details from all over the state for the 9 days of bike week, certainly at a good rate of pay the Marine Patrol probably can do the same for the 30 busy days of the NH boating season.

The money shouldn't come out of the general fund but I don't think for most of us who puts $50-100 a weekend in gas in our boats a $25 raise in registration fees would be that objectionable and at 100,000 boats that 2.5 million should be more than enough to buy and operate some new MP boats and pay detail rate to the officers you could get to work them while also paying the existing 85 MP's at a better rate of pay.

07-25-2006, 09:10 AM	#10
ossipeeboater Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 157 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	I agree the pay is light but Marine Patrol is always going to be a part time job because the real season is less than 4 months and 80% of that traffic is on 12 weekends plus the 4th of July so we're really talking 20-30 busy days where more patrolling is needed. That's going to limit who can and will take the job to people starting out, retired or if they addressed the pay maybe they could run local police and state police details out on the lake. That's what is done in many other states where instead of running a separate marine patrol they have county sherrifs and local police who in addition to their regular 40 hour job work details at the lake along with the seasonal officers hired to work full time on the lake similar to our marine patrol. I'm sure for many police officers if you pay them detail rate($30/hr) they would rather make it cruising winni for 6-8 hours than standing at a construction site when it's 90 out. Laconia gets details from all over the state for the 9 days of bike week, certainly at a good rate of pay the Marine Patrol probably can do the same for the 30 busy days of the NH boating season. The money shouldn't come out of the general fund but I don't think for most of us who puts $50-100 a weekend in gas in our boats a $25 raise in registration fees would be that objectionable and at 100,000 boats that 2.5 million should be more than enough to buy and operate some new MP boats and pay detail rate to the officers you could get to work them while also paying the existing 85 MP's at a better rate of pay.