Posted on June 13, 2017
By Carol Thompson, Record Eagle.com
Leland Harbor was granted federal funds for dredging despite the township’s recent declaration it would now dredge on its own.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allocated $500,000 of a $16.5 million bonus it received from Congress to scrape Leland Harbor’s shoals clean of sediment, according to a June 6 release.
The announcement came just weeks after Leland Harbormaster Russell Dzuba and others finished dredging about 25,000 cubic yards of sediment from the port.
Dzuba considered the funding to be “blow-back” for the township’s decision to quit relying on the Army Corps. for dredging, not an indication federal cash will always be available for Leland.
“We’ll play the game with them,” Dzuba said. “If they want to come in and do our dredging that’s fine, but we’ll always be ready to do our own.”
Leland Township purchased a dredge early this year after raising more than $275,000 through a highly publicized fundraising campaign. The township combined the fundraised money with about $300,000 from the Harbor Commission to purchase the $500,000 dredge.
“What we’ve done is said ‘OK, look, we’re done waiting for you folks,’” Dzuba said, referring to Congress’ waffling about funding for Great Lakes harbor dredging. “This harbor is important to the community and we cannot, we cannot let the harbor close because you guys can’t make up your mind.”
Army Corps. Project Manager Melissa Bosman said engineers recently started designing their plans for dredging Leland Harbor, which they intend to do next spring. She said a survey completed in early June showed a need for more work even after the township’s efforts.
“That money will still go to dredge that harbor,” she said.
Army Corps. dredging contractors typically collect about 17,000 cubic yards of sediment, Bosman said.
Leland’s was one of three Great Lakes harbors to receive dredging funds from the Army Corps.’ recent influx of cash. Bosman declined to say whether boaters in other communities might feel overlooked.
Dzuba said the township likely would not apply for the contract to dredge its harbor for the Army Corps.
He credited the local dredging efforts with Leland’s busy and profitable early summer season. He said the 61-slip harbor would have been unusable if it hadn’t been dredged this year. Sediment had collected in the harbor since 2014, the last time a dredge slurped up sand.
“You could walk across a channel that should have been 12 feet deep,” he said.
The irony of the timing of the June announcement was not lost on Dzuba. He said Leland residents didn’t want to wait for federal funding anymore.
“(Great Lakes harbormasters) have been unified about getting funding for this, and finally someone (used) a Q-Tip and cleaned out their ears and they heard us,” Dzuba said. “It’s unfortunate that at the time they allocated the money they didn’t realize we were already done with our project.”
Source: Record Eagle
