Dear Mr. Frey,

This is such a great story. I had to reprint it in the blog so that we could share some of Andy's trials and tribulations! And it's also kind of funny!

from Andrew Mattingly andym0097@gmail.com
to mayor@dunkirktoday.com

cc jdagostino@observertoday.com,
gsnyder@observertoday.com
bcc debramattingly@gmail.com

date Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 7:09 PM
subject Dunkirk City Employees?

Dear Mr Frey,

I am writing you to inform you of a recent experience I had while docked at your Municipal Pier.

I became aware of the pier in Dunkirk as a result of my use of a web based software, called "Active Captain" (https://activecaptain.com/terms.php) Active Captain lists your municipal pier as a "Free" pier. While en route to Buffalo, on 8/29/2011, we decided to stop and take advantage of this "Free" pier. We stopped, went into town and had a nice dinner and some Ice Cream and retired for the night, aboard our 44' sailboat. Good experience, at this point.

Following our night on the pier we were about to cast off, about 8:00 AM, on 8/30/2011, when we were approached by a very rough looking tattooed man, who looked like a vagrant. He said he worked for the city and he wanted me to pay him $10 for staying the previous night. He could not produce any ID so I told him to bug off. He left, cursing me and in a few minutes another, portly looking, man came to the boat to dun us for the $10. He claimed to be the Harbor Master. We asked to see some ID, which he also failed to produce .
He left. As we were leaving, we were once again cursed by the original visitor.

There is nothing on the pier indicating to check in anywhere or anything about any charges. If I owe you the money, please let me know? I am surely not going to try and beat anyone out of $10, while on my $400,000 yacht. I believe these were 2 panhandlers trying to take advantage of transients.

I thought you should be made aware what is taking place in your city.
Any questions, please feel free to call or write

Andrew Mattingly