Robert T. Kenney, chairman of The Boston Harbor Association, makes opening remarks at TBHA’s annual meeting last week. The event was held at North Coast Seafoods’ new headquarters in Boston’s Marine Industrial Park.

Joseph F. Fallon was a no-show – not that there’s anything wrong with that – last week as the developer and 11 others were elected to inaugural terms on the board of trustees at The Boston Harbor Association’s annual meeting. Hosted by North Coast Seafoods at its new headquarters in the city’s Marine Industrial Park, the program also included tributes to harbor businessman Arthur Lane and other activists credited with championing the group’s namesake waterway.

Fallon, who last summer acquired the prominent Fan Pier harbor parcel that is permitted for 3 million square feet of development, was traveling and unavailable for comment, although TBHA members spoken with did not seem overly slighted by his absence. There were plenty of high-powered names on hand to fill the gap, including fellow Seaport District developer Young K. Park, also elected to the board for the first time. Park’s Berkeley Investments became a major landowner in the district in late 2004 after purchasing nearly 20 properties totaling 1 million square feet of space from the Boston Wharf Co. for $97 million.

Artery Business Committee chief Richard A. Dimino was named 2006 president of TBHA during the event, which was also attended by Massachusetts Port Authority officials Lowell Richards and Deborah Hadden, Boston Freight Terminals owner Neil Fitzpatrick and Chelsea City Councilor Leo Robinson. All four were tabbed for board seats, joined by Peter Welsh of Suffolk Construction Co., Darnell Williams of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, Pinck & Co. President Jennifer Pinck, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation official Joseph Orfant and James Hunt from the city of Boston’s Division of Energy and Environmental Services.

Along with those new members, attorney Astrid Glynn and Massachusetts Water Resources Authority official Marianne Connolly were elected to a second term on the 40-member board.

‘The Same Mistakes’
In launching last week’s meeting, TBHA Chairman Robert T. Kenney recounted Executive Director Vivien Li’s three-month sabbatical granted to her and other leaders of nonprofit organizations last summer. The sojourn prompted board members to assess the future of TBHA at a time when the issues driving its existence are heightened by the completion of the Central Artery/Third Harbor project and a sharp increase in harbor-front development. In lauding Li’s success elevating the 33-year-old TBHA as a major voice on harbor matters, Kenney said the strategic planning process identified a need to add a deputy director to assist in the expanded scope of the organization. That post should be filled soon, he said.

Given the complexities facing Boston Harbor, Kenney reminded TBHA members of their own value as well. “We will continue to look forward to your ideas and thoughts and support,” he said to the audience of nearly 50 people. Donations, fund-raisers and voluntary efforts helped TBHA emerge fiscally sound in 2005, ending with a surplus of $37,000 to put the group “in excellent financial condition,” according to the treasurer’s report.

During her presentation, Li indicated that her thoughts were never far from Boston Harbor even as the sabbatical took her to such distant lands as Africa and China. The spirit of TBHA members was rife in many Third World communities she toured, Li said, while the trek also offered the chance to see how ports are regarded – and utilized – on an international scale. Li said she was especially impressed by the public access to the waterfront in Shanghai, explaining that activities begin early in the morning with tai chi classes and even ballroom dancing before giving way to tens of thousands of workers and visitors.

“Who knows, maybe we might someday see ballroom dancing along the Rose Kennedy Greenway,” Li suggested, referring to the parkland planned where the Central Artery once stood. Li also praised China for promoting the working port through billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements. Unfortunately, she said, environmental controls are not as big of a focus. “They are sadly making the same mistakes we made in the middle of the 20th century,” Li said.

Before culminating the annual meeting with a slideshow presentation of the Boston Harbor Islands by Sherman “Pat” Morss Jr., several individuals and organizations were honored for advancing the TBHA mission of “a clean, alive and accessible Boston Harbor,” headlined by Lane, a TBHA founder and shipping agent whose relationship with the harbor dates back to the 1920s. The Peabody & Lane stalwart was unable to attend last Tuesday’s program, during which he received the TBHA’s William M. Bulger Award “in recognition of more than six decades of effective promotion of Boston Harbor.”

Lane “has become synonymous with the working port in Boston,” said award presenter Richard Meyer, executive director of the Boston Shipping Association, who praised the honoree’s unending work to ensure that maritime-related companies are not gentrified into extinction to make way for the glitzy housing, hotels and office space envisioned for many waterfront parcels. “Boston is here because of the port” has been among Lane’s most strident observations, noted Meyer, adding, “that’s a message [Lane] has been delivering to developers for many years.”

Also feted by TBHA was the Boston Water and Sewer Commission for strides made in cleaning up Boston Harbor, as well as the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the Central Artery project team. Maligned by many for problems incurred by the $14.6 billion Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project, the MTA deserves credit for adding thousands of acres of new parkland as a result of the project, TBHA officials explained in saluting the undertaking. MTA Chairman Matthew J. Amorello and officials Mike Lewis and Fred Yalouris each received the Gov. Francis W. Sargent Award “for long-term commitment and diligence in working on behalf of Boston Harbor.”

A program that was begun in the early 1990s to encourage use of Boston Harbor beaches was also recognized via the Lydia Goodhue Award to Samantha Overton Russell and DCR official Orfant. The “Back to the Beaches” effort has yielded new signage and other initiatives to promote harbor beaches, noted TBHA board member Marianne Connolly in announcing the selections. Russell praised TBHA and Li for pushing the concept at the outset, while Orfant cited DCR staff for its work on the cause. “This has really been a team effort, and I accept this award on behalf of all my colleagues at the [DCR],” said Orfant, adding that Wollaston Beach in Quincy will be attended to this year, followed by Winthrop Beach across the harbor.