Oconto County will use $74,500 in boat launch fees, plus grant funding and a donation, to pay for improvements at three boat docks.
The most costly of the three projects, totalling $85,000, will create approximately 15 parking spaces at the Chute Pond boat landing.
A second project, at $50,000, will bring a fish cleaning station and related infrastructure to North Bay Shore County Park.
The final improvement, at $26,900, is the purchase of a handicapped-accessible fishing dock for the Machickanee boat landing.
All three gained County Board approval Thursday.
Robert Skalitzky, head of the Oconto County Forestry, Parks and Recreation Department, said the new Chute Pond parking area in the town of Mountain will be a big improvement over the half-dozen parking spaces now available.
“When we get busy weekends, the area by the boat landing is very congested and unsafe with all the people using it,” he said.
He said trucks and boat trailers now are parked on the road near the park, causing congestion as people come to fish, camp and use the beach.
The Forestry, Parks and Recreation Committee determined the cost of the parking lot based on a quote from the highway department. The parking lot will be laid when the department has time available and will be located behind a pavilion.
Half of the $85,000 expense is expected to be covered by a grant from the Wisconsin Waterways Commission. In order to apply for the grant, the County Board was required to pass a resolution supporting the project. The remaining $42,500 will be funded by fees collected at county boat landings.
According to information provided by the finance department, the boat launch account has a balance of $141,149.
The account will also be tapped to pay $25,000 for half of the fish cleaning station at North Bay Shore County Park, located in the town of Little River, with the remaining $25,000 expected to come from a Wisconsin Waterways Commission grant.
In addition to paying for a fish cleaning station, the money will be used for electrical hook-up at the station, plus a well and holding tank.
“We’ve been thinking of putting in a fish cleaning station for a while,” Skalitzky said. He said the station will be installed in the summer or fall.
According to Skalitzky, people have been cleaning fish at the park and putting the remains in the trash bin by the campground, which draws complaints about the odor.
The final boat landing project, placement of a fishing pier at the Machickanee Boat Landing in Stiles, will be funded by a $5,000 donation from the Machickanee Flowage Advancement Association, a $7,440 grant already issued by the Department of Natural Resources, plus an anticipated, additional $7,500 grant from the DNR. The remaining $7,000 will be taken from the boat launch fund.
The Forest, Parks and Recreation Committee reviewed fishing pier bids from five companies and recommended the purchase of a composite plastic pier from Port-A-Pier, of Brussels. The pier has a steel frame and will be built in one, solid piece to make it easy to move into and out of the water. It is scheduled to be installed in the spring.
It was the third time the committee bid out the project, because of the many options the committee considered.
“We wanted to make sure we got it right. We wanted to make sure we were putting a fishing pier out there people would actually use,” Skalitzky said.
“This is a totally handicapped-accessible fishing pier. That’s why we have those stations where they can rest their hands and their equipment, low enough for wheelchairs,” said Supervisor Greg Sekela, chairman of the Forest, Parks and Recreation Committee.
A diagram of the T-shaped pier shows a 36-foot gangway leading to an 8- by 20-foot fishing area with three fishing stations. The railing around the fishing stations is 26 to 30 inches high, which is low enough to accommodate people fishing from their wheelchairs.
Sekela said the committee is working to make the whole park handicapped accessible.
Before approving the fishing pier resolution, the County Board agreed to adopt a Machickanee boat landing lease agreement with Oconto Electric Cooperative. A 30-year lease, signed in 1983, expired in 2013 and was not renewed, an oversight Skalitzky noticed when preparing a grant application.
The lease allows the county to use the grassy area at the boat landing for parking and recreational use. According to terms of the lease, the county agreed to extend the lease another 30 years, for a sum of $1 annually, to be paid July 1 of each year.
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