I printed all of the comments made in the other thread about Freeport and Bridge Bait and took them down to the owners yesterday. When we came in from fishing I found that nearly everyone there had read the posts and nearly all had comments. After hearing their side of the story, and owning two businesses of my own, I tend to side with them. The seasonal nature of their business, major storm damages, labor costs, bait costs, improvement costs, beaurocratic delays, EPA and COE delays and many other factors make it tough on a small business such as theirs.
When asked about the boats that tie up for long periods it was mentioned that they would have no business at all if they started running people off because they were tied up too long. Run off 10 people and they will tell 100 people not to go there. The incident will be blown way out of proportion and by the time it gets to the forums it will resemble nothing that actually happened. I remember the same thing happening to Beach Bait and their ramp awhile back. They were already having a hard time financially and then the ramp incident virtually killed them.
Eric made some very keen points. Someone with deep pockets and business sense, good community relations, great insurance and the ability to survive half the year on peanuts could do a lot of good down there. However, inside of ten minutes of opening they would be blasted for charging too much, being inattentive, not enough parking, etc, etc.