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LH boat dock coming this year

LOCK HAVEN — The city is ordering a boat dock.

Donations and grants have reached a high enough level that the city has tapped Power 10 Boat Docks of Middleburg to provide and install a public boat dock near Corman Amphitheatre.

Drawings of the 60-foot dock are expected within a few weeks, and the dock is to be constructed in four to six weeks.

City Planner Maria Boileau gave the good news during city council’s meeting Monday evening.

The dock will cost $32,952 and the installation $5,798, for a total of $38,750.

The city will provide the four concrete pads needed for the dock to be placed in the river, a value of $2,600.

Power 10 has already been given a deposit of $16,476 toward the work, Boileau said.

The company is in the state CO-STARS program, which offers good prices to municipalities.

The dock will be placed between Veterans Bridge at Jay Street and the floating stage, where boaters can tie up, use the amphitheatre steps to reach the street, then walk to downtown restaurants, stores, the movie theater, the Heisey Museum and other points of interest.

Stella A’s is one of the restaurants near the boat dock site. That restaurant, owner Louis Anastos, and Anastos Auto Sales are all working to secure the remaining funds needed for the dock from private donations, with help from Julie Brennan, tourism/chamber director of the Clinton County Economic Partnership.

Right now, five grants have been awarded totaling $30,750. These are a state Keystone Communities grant of $14,250; three $5,000 grants which are from Clinton County tourism funds, Lumber Heritage/PA Wilds Center and the Clinton County Community Foundation; and a Walmart Foundation grant of $1,500.

Donations of $4,255 have come from Woodlands Bank and First National Bank, giving $1,500 each; Sons of Italy giving $500; Pizza King (also near the boat dock site) giving $300; The Express giving $250; Steve Linn giving $105; and Lock Haven Mayor William E. Baney III giving $100.

Council Vice President Stephen L. Stevenson thanked Woodlands Bank as the most recent donor, as well as all who gave toward the project.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said, referring to preliminary drawings from 2009 of a potential dock on the Lock Haven side of the river.

The dock will belong to the city, which will install it in the river for each boating season and remove it for winter storage.

NEW GARAGE

When the dock does arrive, it will be in sections, which can be stored at the city’s garage at Walnut and East Park streets, according to City Manager Gregory J. Wilson.

But that garage will not belong to the city forever.

A date is almost in sight for moving the public works department to the new garage on Second Avenue which the city bought from PennDOT in 2013.

Since the purchase, the city has slowly and methodically upgraded the new site, with the goal of housing some offices, including the police department, there.

The city is now accepting bids for the removal of four underground fuel tanks at its new garage on Second Avenue (the former PennDOT garage). The contract for that work is to be awarded July 16, Wilson reported.

About six weeks after that work is completed, the public works, parks and levee crews will operate out of the Second Avenue garage, Wilson announced Monday.

This tank project and other remaining work at Second Avenue can be completed with the funds the city has borrowed to renovate the building to meet its needs, Wilson said.

However, more funds will have to be borrowed to provide a storage area for road salt, he said. This should cost about $200,000.

The city stores as much salt as it can to take care of its roads, as well as for Keystone Central School District and Lock Haven University, he said. With the limited size of the current salt storage area and the difficulty of getting more salt in winter sometimes, the city has been forced to cut off KCSD and LHU more than once, he said.

The Second Avenue garage is to have a larger storage area which would be better all around, he told council.

Council also talked about the old garage, which will be appraised and eventually put up for sale. Proceeds from the sale will be put toward the borrowing for the new garage.

POLICE OFFICER FIRED

The city police force will need three officers soon.

One of the vacancies is from the firing of Patrolman First Class Bryan Burger. Council voted to remove him from the force Monday.

Burger was the subject of “progressive discipline within the department” before his removal from employment, according to Wilson. The reasons fall under a section of the city’s civil service rules that governs “inefficiency, neglect, intemperance, disobedience of orders or unbecoming conduct.”

The former officer has the right to appeal the decision to the city’s Civil Service Commission.

The police force had one vacancy before this action. Acting Chief of Police Kristin Smith said a third opening is expected soon, when an officer moves out of the area.

The city will start advertising for candidates and begin a new round of testing. The written and physical exams are scheduled for July 28, Smith said.

OTHER MATTERS

The city had $74,064 left over from the 2016 Community Development Block Grant, which mainly funded street paving projects. Council voted to redirect the money to the Housing Rehabilitation Program which helps low-income single-family home owners.

Council also approved two detours for road work.

One is necessary for a PennDOT contractor to work on the first Island Bridge from June 25 to Nov. 14.

The other will take traffic away from the section of East Walnut Street to be re-constructed in conjunction with the SEDA-COG railroad crossing work and the construction of the new access road to First Quality. The detour is planned for July 5 to Aug. 17 and almost all the roads it uses are state roads, Wilson said, except Hanna Street which the city accepted through PennDOT’s turn-back program.

Once the East Walnut Street work is completed, the city will look to pave both East Walnut and Hanna streets, he said.

Big Woods Bible Church was granted the use of Hoberman Playground on Friday, Aug. 10 from 6 to 10 p.m. for a free family dinner and a movie.

Mayor Baney brought up two river recreation topics.

He asked about the city beach, which has been closed since last Wednesday due to a high level of fecal coliform found in the water. Wilson said the water is being tested daily and the beach can be re-opened once the level of bacteria in the river is pronounced safe again.

The mayor also talked about buoys that are yet to be installed in the river and the condition of the chains for the floating stage which appear to be rusty. Stevenson said the chains are in good shape and it is not unusual for them to get rusty looking.

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