COOS BAY - It's not often the residents of the Charleston Marina make the trek into town to talk with port commissioners.

They live in boats.

Some don't have cars.

But Thursday night they came all the way to Coos Bay City Hall.

One rode his bike. Others carpooled.

One by one they stood up to implore port commissioners not to impose a live-aboard fee.

“Some of the fishermen had to sell their homes or give up their homes to save their boats,” scolded Genevieve Bailey, a self-described representative for commercial fishermen. She suggested some fishermen are stuck living on their boats since they couldn't fish salmon and make money last season.

It's not that boat owners can park a vessel in Charleston for free now. They do pay monthly or annual moorage rates. To tie up a little boat up to 20 feet long, it can cost $587 annually. For a 75-footer, it costs $1,775 a year. However, no one who lives on a boat in the marina is paying an extra fee. The proposal is to change that, to charge those live-aboards a one-time $25 application fee and $50 a month rent.

“That's a 100-percent increase to me,” lamented six-month resident Clint Trout.

But long before the Charleston folks started to speak, port Executive Director Jeff Bishop asked the commission to table the proposed fee. He wants to research it and talk more at the port meeting scheduled June 21. But he didn't turn away the visitors, instead encouraging them to speak out.

There's been talk here and at other ports that live-aboards cost an agency money, that they use up parking. Some require extra security attention. They add to garbage bins and hike water costs. The marina residents disputed that.

“We don't put a burden on the marina. Matter of fact, I think we're an asset to the marina,” said B-Dock's Joseph Adams.

They said they know all the boat owners. They know when trouble's afoot and frequently are the ones to report problems to the port's security staff. And, the port's sole security guard can't police it all.

“When he's in the shipyard, the bad boys are in the other place,” said Al Schaefers. “The people down on the docks ... are the best security guards you have.”

And more, he said, it's the big vessels, not the live-aboards' tiny boats, that cause damage to the docks. Schaefers, who doesn't live in the marina but owns a sailboat, is a longtime member of a port advisory committee that discusses Charleston issues before they ever make it to the big meetings.

Port budgeters figure a new live-aboard fee will add about $18,000 to the agency's revenues next year, at a time it expects a $9,000 drop in overall marina revenues. Six of nine ports on the Oregon Coast allow live-aboards. All but Coos Bay and Newport charge a fee, with Bandon charging the most at $300 per month and Astoria the least at $20, according to the port.

When all was said, Commissioner Caddy McKeown asked Bishop to do a little extra research before next month's discussion. She doesn't just want a comparison of live-aboard fees, but a look at monthly and annual moorage rates at the other ports, too, to see where Charleston fits in the bigger scheme of fees.

When it came to fees, the commission did approve hikes to charges for storage units. Space renters will pay an extra $5 a month starting July, while people who store boats on port property will pay 20 cents more per foot. Washing boats now will carry an additional $50-per-hour charge for boat owners who take longer than an hour to do the work.