Tentative approval given for $8M sheriff’s boathouse
Officials say project is long overdue, should take one year to complete
An $8.4-million contract to build a new Macomb County Sheriff’s boathouse, docks and seawall along Lake St. Clair was given preliminary approval Tuesday by a county Board of Commissioners committee.
The Internal Services Committee voted 12-1 to OK’d the contract with Rockford Construction in Detroit to perform the long-awaited project at the end of South River Road at Lake St. Clair in Harrison Township. Final approval is expected at the April 28 full board meeting.
Multiple commissioners and Lynn Arnott-Bryks, director of county Facilities and Operations, said the project is long overdue. The Sheriff’s Marine Division has been operating for decades from a facility that includes a main building with a garage, boat wells, docks and seawalls that are in dire need of replacement.
Board Chairman Don Brown of Washington said county officials have been discussing upgrades to the facility for years and only providing “Band Aid” repairs during that time. He called the building a “glorified shed” and the facility’s “rickety docks” … “an embarrassment.” Upgrades to the facility were overlooked in favor of millions of dollars in repairs to the jail over the decades.
“That place is falling down,” Brown said. “It’s too small for the staff. It’s too small for victims who sometimes have to be taken out of there.
“This boathouse, like our jail, has been repaired numerous times. The boathouse, because there had been so many repairs at the jail, was overlooked. That is the reason it has fallen into such a state of disrepair.”
The facility is located adjacent to the Harley Ensign Memorial Boating Access Site, part of a dual peninsula that divides Campau and Belvidere bays.
The garage, common areas and work areas have flooded in recent years due to high water levels. One thousand sandbags were stacked along the shore two to three years ago to try to stop that from happening.
The Marine Division patrols 85-square mile of Lake St. Clair, the one-mile international border with Canada, 30 miles of shoreline, the Clinton River, the Salt River and Black Creek. Lake St. Clair during the summer busy season can resemble Interstate 94 at rush hour.
Commissioner Mai Xiong of Warren, who cast the lone no vote, questioned whether the county could have lakeshore communities contribute to the cost and seek a state grant to help pay for the new facility. She said she was “hesitant” to vote for a project “that doesn’t benefit all of the residents.”
But commissioners said residents of lakeshore communities aren’t the only ones who frequent Lake St. Clair. People from all over the region converge on the lake during the boating season.
“Hundreds of thousands of boaters are on the lake,” Brown said. “Lake St. Clair is probably the busiest water course in the state year after year. Everyone from Southeastern Michigan uses that lake.
“(The Marine Division) serves everybody in the whole region and our county. It is clearly a service that the county rightfully supports fully. We don’t need to ask anyone else for support because it’s our responsibility as first responders to look after that lake in partnership with other agencies, with the (U.S.) Coast Guard mainly.
“We’re going to get a modern facility there that can accommodate professionals that work out there as well as take care of the public that may have to come in there.”
Other commissioners noted the economic boost that boating provides, and the county must provide a critical, first-responder service to accommodate it.
“You’re talking about life and death,” Commissioner Barbara Zinner of Harrison Township said. “You’re talking about situations where people are on the water. When they patrol and take care of these situations, you need them.”
Kent Jackson of Rockford Construction says in documents provided to the county the project, once formally approved, will take about one year to complete, with the first phase to be done over about a month this spring. It will be paused during the few months of the busy boating season when the boat ramp and marine deputies will be busy, although Rockford will be preparing for phase two, which will start immediately after Labor Day, he said.
Phase two will include relocating docks, installing new docks, completing the seawall and demolishing the existing building and the four current boat wells, Jackson said.
Phase three will consist of construction of a new 12,516-square-foot building and five new boat wells that would be large enough to hold all of the division’s watercraft, he said.
The project will be paid with capital improvements funds. The cost is $600,000 higher than was budgeted due to the rise in costs of supplies and labor that have skyrocketed and continue to rise since the COVID-19 pandemic began, officials said.
Arnott-Bryks said the work is complicated by several factors, which added some cost. Truck loads will be restricted due to the weight-limit of a bridge to access the area, and some materials will be transported via barge, she said. There is limited storage at the site, and Rockford workers will have to perform extra environmental and safety precautions and contend with windy conditions, she said
Rockford was the lowest among five bidders and scored the best in the other factors that are considered, Arnott-Bryks said.
Rockford officials provided details of some of the 70 projects valued at over $100 million it has completed in the past five years. It is currently constructing a facility with similar site attributes, the Pentwater Yacht Club in northern Michigan, and completed a water-shore project, the Harbor Hotel, in New Buffalo.