Wednesday, February 24th, 2016
Celina boat docks being built
Structures to replace old ones removed for walkway work
By William Kincaid
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
As Celina's walkway project is largely complete, the city will install 22 boats docks this spring along West Bank Road. The city is replacing the docks it removed before walkway construction began.
CELINA - Shinn Brothers is building new boat docks to replace those taken out before the construction of the walkway, which stretches from Monroe Road to U.S. 127.
"The goal is to have them up before Memorial Day," city safety service director Tom Hitchcock told the newspaper.
In 2006, city officials signed a 25-year lease agreement with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the construction of the walkway that stipulated the city own and maintain all docks, mayor Jeff Hazel said.
The city is required to install 22 docks after it removed that many from north of the spillway before construction began several years ago.
Shinn Brothers, the sole bidder, was awarded a $114,900 contract by the city's board of control - Hazel, Hitchcock and city auditor Betty Strawn - to build floating docks. The project's cost will be paid with the $1.285 million from the state capital budget bill awarded to Celina in 2014 to develop three softball fields at Westview Park and to complete the walkway.
Working with ODNR, the city established dock specifications for Shinn Brothers to follow, Hazel said.
"We wanted to make sure the specs are what (ODNR) approved of because it is their lake, and they look at the water ... the hydraulic pressures and they want to make sure whatever's built is going to be appropriate," Hazel said.
Hitchcock said Shinn is constructing three large docks, two with eight slips each and one with six slips.
"Each finger (or slip) counts as a dock," Hitchcock added.
All three docks will be installed near the city's breakwater on West Bank Road at the end of Sugar Street, Hitchcock said.
The city will own the docks, Hazel said.
"Because the city has to own the docks. They cannot be privately owned. That's a requirement from the state," Hazel said. "And we have to lease them because we have to pay the state for the slip and each side of the dock is a slip, anywhere a dock can go."
Property owners who had a dock removed before the walkway construction will have first chance to lease it, Hazel stressed. The process will begin this spring.
"We can't imagine anybody from the (general) public is going to really rent them unless they have a house out there because there's nowhere to park," Hitchcock added.
Annual dock fees will be about $300 a slip. Proceeds help pay for the maintenance and eventual replacement of docks, Hazel has said.
