Sail away! Bedford's boat rental program launches

BEDFORD, N.Y. - Afloat less than a month, Bedford’s fledgling fishing-boat rentals are getting an enthusiastic reception from local anglers and prompting town officials to talk of enlarging the venture.

The pilot program, launched in late June, offers Bedford residents the opportunity to rent one of two town-owned rowboats for four hours of fishing on the Muscoot Reservoir. “It’s really been a win-win for us, for residents, and we hope to expand it,” a town official said.

Lisa Burke, Supervisor Ellen Calves’ chief of staff, cautioned that the program, undertaken in partnership with the reservoir’s owner—New York City—is still in its testing stage. “It’s a pilot from both parties’ perspective,” she said in an interview last week. “But we’re excited, they’re excited, residents seem thrilled about it.”

By last week, the town was reporting at least 10 rentals, a few tweaks to the signup process and no major problems.

For now, Bedford’s rowboat fleet plies the Muscoot waters on a Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule. Both boats—the 12-footer can carry three anglers, the 14-footer holds up to four—are stored on the reservoir’s shoreline and rent for $25 for four hours of fishing.

As a major contributor to Gotham’s municipal water supply, the reservoir is governed by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which sets the rules.

Any resident 16 and older can rent a boat online through the town website, bedfordny.gov. A prospective renter must have a state fishing license (available on the state website, ny.gov, for as little as $5 for a one-day permit) and a free DEP access permit (available online at nyc.gov).

This summer’s trial run of the program is a real-world test of the largely self-operating rental system. After registering on the town website, a participant will receive instructions for accessing life jackets and oars from their storage locker (they can’t be kept on the shoreline where the boats are locked up, per DEP rules). They will also get directions to the launch site and information on unlocking their rental boat. At the reservoir, the resident picks up the boat and, at the end of the rental period, reverses the process.

“It’s a little bit of an honor system to take out the boat and return it,” Burke said. “Nobody’s standing there to say, ‘Did you lock it up properly?’”

Town officials are watching to see how the program shakes out. The results could impact any future expansion prospects. While the town is “very hopeful” of increasing the number of available boats, Burke said, it hinges in part on showing DEP “that we are good stewards of the program and there is not a lot of hassle from their perspective.”

Although Calves announced the program in May and launched it in June, her goal of broadening access to Muscoot was far from an overnight undertaking, Burke said. “It’s something that Ellen’s been working on [with DEP] for a couple of years.”