Cohasset business owner asked to fix harbor wall or face fines

COHASSET, Mass. — A South Shore staple is falling into the sea, and if the business owner doesn’t come up with a solution to stop it by Monday he could face stiff fines.

A portion of the Olde Salt House’s patio crumbled into Cohasset Harbor this past summer. Owner Gerd Ordelheide put up a rock wall to stop further collapse, but the town’s conservation commission that was merely a Band-Aid for the real problem.

“This is one of the most beautiful harbors in new England if not the world,” Conservation Commission vice chairman Jack Creighton said. “The harbor needs to be protected and we need to do it now.”

Creighton said he believes the repairs were not a permanent solution. He pointed out what he calls proof of on-going erosion and an imminent threat to Cohasset Harbor.

“All this collapsed into the harbor and if you want to destroy a harbor you just allow stuff like that to collapse into it,” he said. “When you start disturbing all this, what you create is siltation -- you stir it up this is a very fragile harbor.”

Anything that impacts the working harbor of full-time lobstermen, Creighton says the conservation commission has jurisdiction over.

They’ve given Ordelheide until Monday to present an engineering study and a preliminary plan.

“We need it done the harbor needs to be protected and we need to do it now,” Creighton said.

Ordelheide told Boston 25 News reporter Drew Karedes that he isn’t even sure that this is his problem to fix.

“It’s not clear. Is it my wall, or is it a town wall or state wall?” he said.

Ordelheide denied the conservation commissions claims that he’s repeatedly ignored their invitations to discuss this deteriorating seawall.

He said he’s already lost out on a whole lot of money because of his patio’s closure this past summer and says he’s feeling a bit salty about the thought of having to shell out more for the seawall.

“The repairs we did are more solid than the wall before,” he said.

Ordelheide, who just bought the restaurant in 2016, said he intends to respond to the town’s notice by the end of the week and he’s hoping to avoid that possible penalty of $300 dollars a day.

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