Dodge Park marina to get lock system/more docking space

[eomaha]

Dodge Park Marina grant helps toward dock facilities

A solution to the low water level that last summer forced the closure of Omaha's N.P. Dodge Park Marina for nearly three weeks jolted city parks personnel like an unexpected thunderbolt Thursday.

"Is this a joke?" sputtered Larry Foster, acting parks director. "John Niksick, who runs the marina, is off today. He will have a heart attack. He will have to have oxygen. And I'm absolutely flabbergasted. Christmas came early."

Foster was giddy after learning from a World-Herald reporter that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had approved a grant of $930,692 to help the marina provide docking facilities for up to 40 transient boats.

"Yes, it does add boat slips for transients, which right now isn't available," Foster said. "But the other part of the project is that it constructs a system of locks at the marina. Boaters who want to go in or out of the marina will go into a holding area. The water level in that holding area will be raised for those entering the marina or lowered for those who want to go onto the river.

"People will come from all over the Midwest to see how this system works. A lot of engineering is yet to be done, though."

Although the grant is substantial, more funds are needed to complete the project. Foster was unable to find the application for the grant and did not immediately know how much more money is needed to complete the locks system.

"It wasn't approved last year, and we thought that was the end of it," Foster said. "We wished it good health and moved on. We forgot about it. How come we got it now after it was turned down?"

Gene Zuerlein, assistant chief of the fisheries division for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said he and W. Don Nelson, who is on the staff of U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, helped write the grant proposal last year.

The Fish and Wildlife Service had money to fund only one project last year, then the agency ended its Boating Infrastructure Grants program after three years.

"They had quite a few projects left," Zuerlein said. "Congress then authorized additional funding. The Fish and Wildlife Service re-evaluated the priority projects from around the country and funded four of them, including N.P. Dodge Park Marina."

The grant will be given to the commission, which will funnel the funds to the City of Omaha.

The lock system will allow water in the marina area to be higher than that of the Missouri River.

After the river's water level dropped last August, the city constructed an earthen dam that kept the water level in the marina high enough to keep its floating docks from settling into the mud.

More than 300 boaters, who pay between $400 and $1,600 a year to rent slips, were unable to access the river from the marina until after Labor Day because of the dam.

"This will be fascinating," Foster said of the project. "It's a unique opportunity to try to save recreation boating during a time when we're doing different things with the river. Can the two coexist? I think this lock system should enable us to do this.

"Had this lock system been in place last year, the boaters would have been able to continue to boat and enjoy their recreation without interruption."