Posted on July 21, 2025
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will be dredging Dick’s Marine through the end of the month. Although the boat harbor is federally recognized and the responsibility of USACE to dredge, the corps has not dredged Dick’s Marine since 2019 due to a lack of funding. Winona city officials have voiced some frustration with having to pick up the slack, but Director of Public Works Brian DeFrang said he is glad the project got funded this year.
Last year, the city of Winona footed the bill for dredging the entrance of Dick’s Marine after sand clogged it following the record flooding in spring 2023. The city expected the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to cover the costs, but FEMA passed the buck to USACE, which didn’t have funding for the project, ultimately leaving the city to pay for the project. City Council members questioned at that time whose responsibility it was to dredge Dick’s Marine. USACE officials confirmed it was their responsibility but noted that they can only dredge the harbor when Congress allocates funding. USACE has a dredged sand placement site immediately next to the entrance of Dick’s Marine.
USACE St. Paul District Dredging Manager Dan Cottrell said similar to how a county snow plow cannot plow city streets, USACE cannot dredge Dick’s Marine without funding even if it is dredging the nearby Mississippi River, because the expenses are paid from two different pots of money. “Even though I can have a dredge working on the nine-foot channel, right outside from Dick’s Marine, I can’t turn and put that dredge in the harbor, even though I know it needs it, because I don’t have the funds that’ll pay for that,” Cottrell said. Federal funding for USACE operations comes from Congressional appropriations, and while funds for maintaining the river’s navigation channel can be used more broadly on dredging operations or the lock and dams, Cottrell said, funding for harbors are harbor-specific.
This year, USACE did receive funding to dredge Dick’s Marine, and Cottrell said the corps expects to dredge roughly 7,400 yards of sand and sediment from the harbor. The project starts this week, and Cottrell said it should be done by the end of the month, but added that it may take longer because of the tight quarters USACE will be working in. He also estimates the project will cost $100,000 but said he won’t know for sure until the project is completed. USACE will be working in Dick’s Marine Monday through Thursday during the daylight hours. While the harbor won’t be closed, Cottrell urged people to avoid the area or use extreme caution when navigating Dick’s Marine while USACE works. USACE said dredging Dick’s Marine is important to maintain a safe depth for navigation. As the river level rises, it brings in sediment which gets left behind when the water goes back down, and can fill the harbor and boat slips. In 2023, City Council member George Borzyskowski said that there was so much sand in Dick’s Marine’s entrance after record flooding that some of the large boats could not get in or out of the harbor.
The city completed its own dredging project at Dick’s Marine in June. DeFrang said the city dredged the entrance of the harbor to help boaters enter and exit. The project cost $3,500 and was funded by revenue from the Dick’s Marine lease. “We did the entrance just recently to help make sure we get more boats, side by side, out that front; one can come in, one go out,” DeFrang said. “So we’ve recently completed that. [It] worked out really well, and the corps is going to do the rest of it. Or as much as their funding will carry them.”
