Boatyard Owner Steamed over BP Decon Site

BP claims to hire local people to help with the clean up and put the people back to work that have been out of work because of the disaster. It's not true in the case of an Orange Beach businessman who says not only have they not put him to work they are now in direct competition with him and if that's not bad enough they are just down the street from him.
Boggy Point in Orange Beach is now the first BP boat decontamination site in Alabama. "We can clean boats, vehicles, equipment. Anything that gets dirty," says Deputy Director for decontamination Fred Patterson.
Boats come in oiled and are steamed cleaned right on the spot. Four boats can be cleaned at one time, the facility is environmentally friendly and uses technology developed during the Exxon-Valdez disaster. But just down the street, about 600 yards, another business does the exact same thing and can't get BP to put them to work.
John Fitzgerald of Saunders Yachtworks has been in business in Orange Beach for 14 years. Cleaning boats, among other things, is his buisness. "We're a full service boat yard. We clean boats, we service boats, we do mechanical service, all of the below line service when the boats come up out of the water."
He has 38 employees and is trying to hang on but the new boat wash station is making a difficult situation almost unbearable. "To find out yesterday that they are unveiling this new facility across the water and up the road from us is really unconscionable."
He has jumped through all the BP hoops and is an approved BP service provider but can't get anyone to listen, until today when he confronted Patterson at a demonstration of the boat cleaning facility. "Why didn't all that happen before all this money got spent," asked Fitzgerald, "all these people working setting this up. All this money on the ground and I got a place right down there I can point to that is empty. There's nobody there, No boats to lift. I've got a pad, containment HAZMAT training I don't understand. There are all local people working over there trying to have local jobs and we got all these people from all over. How much money did this thing cost and I don't see a boat here yet." He got the same answer he has heard a lot over the last two months. "I can't answer that question but, I will find out and get back with you though," promised Patterson.