Funds unavailable for Ontonagon harbor dredging

By JAN TUCKER

jantuck@jamadots.com

Ontonagon - A sand bar, which prevented a ship from unloading material at the Ontonagon dock June 4, has cost the Ontonagon Economic Development Corporation fees and neither the state or federal government seems eager to help the situation, EDC members learned Wednesday.

The ship, the Michipicolen - loaded with materials for road construction jobs - was one of four ships expected to unload on the EDC Dock, but after four tries was unable to break through a sandbar 50 feet out into Lake Superior near the entrance to the Ontonagon Harbor.

Pat Tucker, owner of the old Ontonagon papermill and a EDC member, and EDC President Sue Preiss described their efforts to rectify the situation. Tucker said the lake is not the responsibility of the state, but both the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the state of Michigan were approached for help.

"The Corps of Engineers said they have no emergency funds, but would "look" at the issue for next year," Tucker explained.

Tucker continued that under a recreation grant, the village of Ontonagon has acquired funds for dredging the marina which will occur in the next couple of weeks. Tucker contacted the company to determine if they could remove the sand bar.

"The corps said it costs $50,000 just to mobilize the dredging operations and although we could save them $50,000 if the river dredging company did the sand bar, the Corps said 'it would violate their bidding procedures."

He said dredging of the harbor costs about $200,000.

It was the recent Sustainable Harbor study in which numerous state agencies spent months, many thousands of dollars and public meetings to inform the public how to use the harbor, which got Tucker and others to work hard to bring commodity shipments back to Ontonagon, Preiss said.

"It's hard to sustain a harbor if you cannot get boats into it," Tucker added.

The EDC would have realized nearly $24,000 for its operations, if the four ships could have docked and unloaded.

Preiss said 23 emails were sent to Michigan federal and state officials and those who ran the sustainable harbor program. Most did not respond. Senator Gary Peters sent a representative to meet with the group, and both State senator Tom Casperson and representative Scott Dianda responded.

"The bottom line is all groups said they have no money," Tucker added.

Looking ahead, Tucker said the shipping company is still interested in using the Ontonagon Harbor next year, but the harbor is not in the Corps budget for next year. "The agencies said they are looking at other options and will back to us, but no one got back," he said.

"We will continue to look and be the squeaky wheel, but they have no plan in place," Preiss said.