Middle Bass Islanders Met with ODNR on Aug. 12

Middle Bass Islanders Met with ODNR on Aug. 12

to Discuss the state Park Marina Plans

Middle Bass Island representatives from Burgundy Bay, the Middle Bass Island Yacht Club, and the rest of the island attended a Aug. 12 meeting at Put-in-Bay with ODNR's Dan West and several other ODNR officials. We are delighted that the dialog between ODNR and islanders is improving, and the plans that ODNR discussed are summarized below:

	ODNR is committed to developing a traditional state park on Middle Bass Island with a larger and improved marina with a blend of transient and seasonal docks, boat launch ramp, campground, picnic areas, hiking trails, interpretive areas, fishing access, etc.
	The marina and campground development project is currently under review by the US Army Corps of Engineers (404 permit), the Ohio EPA (401 permit), US Fish & Wildlife Service (Environmental Assessment), and ODNR Office of Coastal Management (Coastal Consistency Determination and Shore Structure Permit).
	The funded portion of the project consists of a 360 boat slip marina basin, docks for 180 transient boat slips, boat launch ramp, a 60 unit full service campground, water & wastewater facilities, some public restrooms, day use facilities, staff housing, and other infrastructure improvements.
	Current funding is only for 180 transient boat slips (transient due to a funding grant stipulation), but ODNR intends to have approximately 360 boat slips available when the marina opens for the 2009 season using new capital funds or private sector involvement or both.
	The unfunded portion of this project includes the additional docks, marina support buildings, and permanent restroom/shower facilities.
	Assuming approval of all permits by 7/06, construction documents will be completed and the project advertised for bids late in '06. Construction on the marina entrance channel will begin 7/07, the marina basin 9/07.
	The existing marina basin will close for construction starting 9/07 and remain closed for the 2008 season. The marina and campground will re-open spring of 2009.
	Unfunded future improvements may include improvements to existing historic structures within the park (winery, mansion), other day-use improvements (educational interpretive exhibits, boardwalks, nature trails, and wildlife viewing structures).
	ODNR has formed a working group with local constituents to address the issues of emergency dockage (fire, police, ems), seasonal dockage needs while the marina is closed, water and wastewater concerns, and coordination with the port authority, Ottawa County, Put-In-Bay Township, Middle Bass Island Yacht Club, Island residents, and adjacent businesses and landowners. As part of our mitigation plan to offset the impact to approximately 9 acres of wetlands for the marina/campground project, ODNR has proposed a 39 acre high quality wetland restoration project at Middle Harbor plus preserve or enhance 13 acres of wetlands on Middle Bass Island.
	Other benefits of this project include: safe harbor for boaters during storm events, improved marina basin water quality, and improved wildlife habitat for the Lake Erie Water Snake, small mouth bass, and other aquatic species.

State Park Plans Threaten Threaten Island Way of Life, Defy Common Sense

On July 7, the Cleveland Plain Dealer contained an article with the title “Middle Bass Island state park already popular”. Unfortunately, the article did not state that it is only popular with visitors. Islanders are unhappy and and more than a little upset with ODNR’s plans for the state park. On July 5, the same day that Dan West, Chief, State Parks, ODNR met with reporters on Middle Bass to say what a great place it is and how islanders have no objections to the park plans, he had earlier met with a few islanders who expressed their concern and dismay.

ODNR plans to shut down the marina for 1-2 years while expanding it, and that may cost some jobs. Some islanders depend on the state park marina for their boat that takes them to work on Put-in-Bay. There is no ferry service that meets their requirements. Can you imagine a private marina that would not find any way to expand its docks without shutting down completely for 2 years? Even rebuilding the enter Middle Bass main dock, a much smaller dock, in the past year, never required it to be completely shut down.

But the shutdown is just a minor inconvenience compared to the long-term plans, which still do not have a firm commitment to seasonal docks for islanders.

How would you feel if the only public road connecting your village to the next largest town were controlled by the state and access was increasingly limited. Well, that’s what the situation will be much of the time on Middle Bass Island if the state does not provide seasonal slips for residents. By taking over Roesch’s marina on the island without replacing the seasonal slips there, the state would be keeping islanders from having a boat in the water to go to jobs on Put-in-Bay, visits friends and relatives on other islands, and even just go grocery shopping or to the hardware store on Put-in-Bay during the off-season. The ability to put a boat in the water for one or two days at a time, using a ramp at the state park, does not meet the needs of islanders who have a greater actual need than most people on the mainland to have a boat in the water.

Except for the State Park marina, there is no other real marina on Middle Bass Island except for the one at Burgundy Bay, and that one is available only to residents of that private community. So Middle Bass Island may become the only significantly inhabited island in the country in which most residents can’t keep boats in the water.

Those of us who come up early in the spring and stay late in the fall need a boat to get to Put-in-Bay, because the inter-island ferry, the Sonny-S, runs only three months a year and very limited hours during those months..

And the granting of seasonal slips to the Middle Bass Island Yacht Club, the vast majority of whose members are not islanders, is fine, but giving the yacht club priority over the real needs of islanders is absolutely astounding and incomprehensible, at least in the eyes of islanders. We have nothing against the yacht club and a good number of islanders including myself are members, but it is totally unreasonable, unfair and unacceptable to assure the yacht club of their future slips and not to give the same assurance to islanders. At this point nothing has been made public by ODNR, but several reliable sources have indicated that ODNR has made a commitment to the yacht club but not to the islanders.

By taking over Roesch’s marina, the state is closing the only significant marina available to islanders for boats they need to have in the water. If the islanders don’t get seasonal slips, the state is essentially taking away a right the islanders have had for over 100 years.

Also, the State Park marina has traditionally been full, for all practical purposes, only during the three holiday weekends each year, i.e., Memorial Day, the 4^th of July and Labor Day. During the week the marina is empty, and outside of the three peak summer months the marina is empty. So the only argument against giving islanders seasonal slips is really just to provide extra capacity three weekends a year.

Last but not least, private boats on Middle Bass have frequently and regularly assisted in fire and EMS emergencies (mostly but not exclusively in the off season) when official boats were not available, to get people and equipment from Middle Bass to Put-in-Bay and vice-versa. And just recently, in spring 2005, a private boat on Middle Bass was the only boat available to take EMS personnel (Middle Bass EMS, because Put-in-Bay EMS was not available), to a serious accident on North Bass Island.

To be fair, Dan West On July 5, Dan West, ODNR’s chief of state parks, indicated to us that ODNR does understand that islanders need seasonal slips, and that many other state parks do provide seasonal slips. He also explained that the allocation system for slips does not need to be by lottery. So what’s the problem? Well, we got the feeling that the major holdup, as usual, may just be the budget. The full expansion of the new marina, with enough slips for to allocate some to islanders, may be far off. The currently planned first phase of the expansion is being financed to a great extent by a roughly million dollar federal grant to provide more transient slips for boats over 40 feet in length.

So islanders will be losing jobs and boat slips to make more space for the very rich, who will just use the marina as the Put-in-Bay overflow marina that it often is on weekends. The slips will be mostly empty 320-350 days of the year.

Middle Bass islander boat slips are practically all under 25 feet. Islanders need inter-island runabouts and small fishing boats, not weekend cruisers. A handful or less need slightly larger all-weather boats.

Question to Dan West and ODNR: Is it really impossibly difficult to do things right and not hurt the Middle Bass islanders?

Also see the August 12 follow-up to this editorial.

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