Panel named to determine fish shack's fate

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July 24, 2011

Panel named to determine fish shack's fate

By Nancy Gaines Correspondent The Gloucester Daily Times Sun Jul 24, 2011, 11:50 PM EDT

Gloucester has a new ad hoc committee in place.

The mission: To save a treasured fish shack that had been earmarked for demolition in Lane's Cove.

Now, city Building Inspector Bill Sanborn, Harbormaster Jim Caulkett, facilities manager Jim Hafey, city conservation agent Lisa Press and public representatives Barbara Jobe, Damon Cummings and Russell Hobbs have been by named by Mayor Carolyn Kirk to decide the shack's future.

Kirk last week tasked the so-called building committee with making make sure the structure is safe, and studying whether the city can restore or replace it.

"I want to make clear that the committee has to check back regarding demolition, which is not my first choice," said the mayor.

The city-owned shack — known to some as Morey's, but to many others as Johnson's, for Harry Johnson, an owner in the early 1900s — was condemned in late June by Sanborn for to "lack of maintenance."

Sanborn said the condition of the shack, which was once used to store nets, was so perilous, he could not even authorize repairs.

After neighborhood officials and residents protested the peremptory loss of a piece of their history, however, the city took action last week to try to find a means of preserving the structure.

City Council President Jackie Hardy, whose Ward 4 includes Lanesville and the fish shack, said the new committee's first meeting has not yet been scheduled.

She added, however, that she will seek neighborhood input once the restorative process is launched.

Correspondent Nancy Gaines is a veteran reporter and editor of national and Boston publications. She lives in Bay View.