‘Boat museum’ owners had other plans

• Cousins family talks about their difficult road in seeing an appropriate development on their Spit property

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

Bob Cousins believes tourists coming to Homer like to see the busy artifacts of a sea-faring village, the antique boats, the fisherman’s torn shirt and the implements of his dangerous trade.
“That’s why tourists come here,” Cousins said on Monday. “They don’t come here to see a place that looks more like Miami. They don’t come here to see condos off the end of the Spit or neatly stacked fishing equipment. They come here to see the survival business of real fishermen.”
Bob and Judy Cousins are the owners of three acres on the Homer Spit where numerous antique boats rest in uneasy tranquility alongside a scenic walking trail. They are being asked by the City of Homer to identify scrap metal on the property in an effort to clean up the area. And while they feel they have reasons to mistrust the city, the Cousins say they are working with the Homer Planning Office.
Director Rick Abboud said his office is looking community wide for opportunities to get rid of scrap metals, and he has made the request of several property owners.
The Cousins bought the property on the Homer Spit in 1993, originally planning to use it as the site for an open-air restaurant. The Homer Planning Commission denied them a permit to start a restaurant there in 1994. They were also denied a permit to start a campground.
Eventually – since city ordinance allowed it – they put in a boat museum.
“I had collected a few boats and had them over at the boatyard,” Bob Cousins explained. “Then, people just started giving me boats. The City of Homer even donated one.”
Many of the boats are more than 100 years old and depict their distinct eras in mariner history. The oldest boat, the Virginis, is a 1917 wooden boat. Another boat, the Altair, was a Kachemak Bay salmon high-liner in better times. A Seldovia-built sailboat is among the collection, along with a few double-ender Bristol Bay dories.
“I’ve been collecting them a long time,” Cousins said. “The tourists just love ‘em. I see them come all the time to get their pictures taken in front of the boats.”
 
Growing up on the Spit
Perhaps the most fascinating and tourist-attracting boat on the property, however, is the Cousins’ houseboat. A World War II troop transporter that also served as a crabber and a tender in its day, it has served as the family home for several years.
Inside, hardwood flooring upstairs and neatly hewn wood walls outline the living quarters. Downstairs, an enclosed deck forms a working-storage area, and plenty of room for the Cousins’ six children to grow up.
However, few of the Cousins’ plans for the property really ever worked out, as conflicts with the government went beyond getting turned down for a restaurant permit.
“It’s a horror story, really,” Cousins said. “It’s been a good exercise in bad government.”
According to Cousins, when the city extended the water-sewer line down the Homer Spit, it needed an easement to pass through the Cousin’s property. In a trade, the city offered them a free water and sewer hook up.
“Only, they wouldn’t hook us up. They went right past us and hooked up everyone else after turning us down,” Cousins said, referring to the Fishing Hole and its public bathrooms.
Cousins also alleged that, when the State Department of Transportation started building the Spit Trail, it rearranged driveways he had built into his property. And the couple says they were not consulted when DOT reworked the Cousins’ driveways to best take advantage of the trail.
The Cousins maintain that even the famous scenic walking trail cuts across their land, as does the road. The proof is spelled out on the deed outlining the property, which was part of an old homestead on the Spit that remained after the 1964 Earthquake when much of the Spit sank.
The Cousins were also allegedly denied electricity. However, Bob said when he really pressed the matter, power was hooked up as a health and sanitation matter.
As the years went by, the Cousins said they couldn’t do what they wanted with their property, but they also couldn’t live there comfortably either. They said they felt the worst part was how the town treated their children.
The Cousins children, often noted in past newspaper articles for excelling at various sports and academic pursuits, were allegedly bullied at school.
“You know their parents had to be planting ideas in their kids’ heads for them to be acting that way to other children,” Bob Cousins said.
Justice Cousins, now 24 and enrolled at the University of Maine where he won a scholarship to the School of Agricultural and Economics, agreed that at least two of his siblings had it especially hard.
About five years ago, Bob’s mother broke her shoulder, so the Cousins moved to Maine for part of the year to help her out.
“I put them in Maine schools, and they didn’t have any problems there,” Bob said.
Nevertheless, the Cousins said there is a good element to Homer as well. In 2002, a November storm rushed in a 28-foot tide that floated the family’s house boat some 50 feet closer to the road. Some 150 people came to help clean up after the flood.
“After the storm, this (houseboat) was on its side for about six weeks, and all these other boats were pushed up by the trail,” Judy Cousins said. “We’re still recovering from that; still picking up stuff that floated up.”
When the town turned out to help clean up, the gesture meant a lot to the Cousins. Someone brought out trays of sandwiches to the crew; another person brought his bulldozer in to fix the roads. The houseboat was put upright by a friend.
What bothers the Cousins is what they call the “hypocrisy” of rule-making on the Spit. Though they are in an spot zoned as “marine industrial,” they were not allowed to set up a campground. Yet, they could do little more than watch as even the city established one down the Spit. The Homer Hockey Rink is built down the way, yet is not marine commercial or marine industrial in keeping with the rest of the Spit.
“The biggest problem on my property is that I don’t have water and sewer hooked up,” Cousins said. “We were hit over and over again with Homer disparities.”
The Cousins have retained their Alaska residency and want to eventually return to Homer. For this extended-stay home, they are working with Code Enforcer Dotti Harness-Foster on the idea of hauling out 100,000 pounds of scrap to a dealer.
“I feel there have been some changes in the (city) administration,” Cousins said. “Dotti is the first one who ever helped us. It’s great to have someone to talk to who you don’t feel like she’s going to stab you in the back. She’s a breath of fresh air.”
Each summer, the Cousins clean up their property a little more.
“I think we’re getting there,” Bob said. “We’re making good progress.”
They also would like to see the city grant them marine commercial status so they could one day operate a business. As the city looks at a comprehensive plan for the Homer Spit, he would like to see the marine environment be the priority.
“We shouldn’t just turn this into Disney Spit, we need to make it available to tourism for the marine environment,” Cousins said. “This is really not a place for a skating rink.”

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Posted by Newsroom on Sep 9th, 2009 and filed under Headline News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.