North East Township Supervisors Issue Update on Marina Authority Progress

The following is a statement from North East Township regarding the North East Marina:

The Township Supervisors have been working in concert with the Borough, the Fish and Boat Commission, our state elected officials and community members in exploring the best process to ensure continued operation of the North East Marina.

Lake Erie, and North East Township specifically, offer truly world class fishing and recreational opportunities, and our residents and visitors deserve world class facilities, including a marina.

We had a productive conversation with the Fish and Boat Commission, Rep. Banta, Senator Laughlin and the Borough last week.

At that meeting it was decided that the best way to move forward was to obtain a feasibility study and business plan to help us understand what we are facing by creating an authority that would operate a marina.

We have a $2M annual budget at the Township, and it is our understanding that the Fish and Boat Commission has been spending nearly that much each year with moving the sand from the west side of the marina to the east side of the marina to comply with federal permitting obligations as well as to dredge the sand from the marina to allow boats to dock there.

We are committed to making sure that, when an authority is formed to take over the Marina, that it has the best possible chance of being successful. We believe that having a business plan first, to ensure that we are not unnecessarily burdening the Township taxpayers, is a prudent step to take.

We understand that the Borough wants to form an authority to do this due diligence for it, and the Supervisors have decided that they want to do the due diligence before the authority is formed.

The Township has been moving swiftly since our last meeting. We have identified funding opportunities to pay for the study, and as recently as today, we have discussed with Senator Laughlin the idea of solving the engineering issues at the Marina before it is transferred. This would eliminate much of the required expenditures to deal with sand accumulation. Senator Laughlin is committed to exploring this, and is working to secure a meeting with the appropriate federal and state officials so that we can learn what options exist.

We will continue to work to support any effort that will benefit the Township and the Borough and will be happy to share any information we learn while doing our due diligence.

Respectfully,

Fredrick “Fritzer” Shunk
North East Township Supervisor, Chairman