BY SCOTT SULLIVAN EDITOR
Imagine a Douglas Point Pleasant Marina with close to 30 boat strips plus expanded parking south of Washington Street and southwest of the Blue Star Bridge.
Consultant Edgewater Resources Monday presented city council a plan (see above) and $3,375,272 total cost estimate based on community input gathered during public meetings on what the new public marina and existing adjacent Veterans Park could become.
Projected big-ticket items include $355,524 to build a boardwalk over water, $345,000 for shoreline protection under and along the bridge, $328,620 for a marina dockage system and $256,000 for marina electrical.
Work is scalable and could be budgeted over a course of years.
The city, with help from a $1,001,400 Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant and required $220,000 match of its own, bought the 1-acre, 14-slip private marina at 201 S. Washington St. in March last year from Max Matteson and Bud Baty for $880,000.
The property also included a house, guesthouse, pool house and 500 feet of Kalamazoo Lake frontage just south and east of the Blue Star Bridge.
Site transformation since then has been ongoing, with council budgeting $130,000 in fiscal year 2021-22 for improvements including ADA restrooms and sidewalks, pool demolition (now visibly underway), ground restoration and dock repairs.
The city last August hired St. Joseph marine engineering/consulting firm Edgewater for $25,000 to create a vision and management plan going forward.
It sees Point Pleasant as a key acquisition element in its Waterfront Master Plan developed in 2016, a document that also inspired the Wade’s Bayou municipal marina project, also ongoing.
Stay tuned.