Ozark lease revision to add 100- slip marina

OZARK — Ozark aldermen have decided to amend the city’s riverfront lease with the Army Corps of Engineers to accommodate construction of a 100- slip marina on the south shore of the Arkansas River.

The amended lease for nearly 2 acres and water space extending 375 feet into the river will add a sublease with Justin Gentry, the operator of Spadra Marina in Clarksville.

Gentry told aldermen before their vote at a special meeting Monday night, attended by about 75 residents, that the marina could cost about $ 1.8 million to build.

The Ozark City Council took the vote after receiving an April 27 letter from Randy Hathaway, Corps of Engineers deputy engineer, granting the city’s request to sublease the land for the marina.

Hathaway, of the Little Rock District, conditioned the approval on the city following 10 stipulations, one of them requiring Gentry to provide at least $ 1 million in liability insurance in case the business fails.

In that case, Hathaway said at Monday’s meeting, the city would be responsible for the cost of restoring the property to its original condition.

“The city of Ozark, when they sign the lease, they are responsible for everything that happens out there,” Hathaway said.

In voting to pursue the marina project, the aldermen included a requirement proposed by Alderman Rex Anderson that Gentry provide a minimum of $ 3 million in liability insurance to protect the city if the dock breaks loose and causes damage to the dam or the power plant downstream.

Gentry said after the meeting that he didn’t see any hurdles in reaching an agreement with the city.

The plan is to build the marina on the city- leased land just east of the bridge spanning the Arkansas River. Gentry said the first phase will consist of a dock for 56 boat slips, two cabins, a bait shop and parking lot.

He obtained approval for a $ 1.2 million U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant, administered through the state, for construction of the slips. He said Monday that he must provide a 25 percent match of about $ 300,000 for the grant, plus some additional money to pay for the initial phase.

As many as two phases in the next two or three years would add about 50 slips and as many as five cabins, he said.

Some residents of the unincorporated Webb City, where the marina will be built, oppose the project, saying it will generate traffic and noise in the neighborhood. Their children and grandchildren can now play in the streets but will be in danger from traffic once the marina opens, they said.

Other conditions in Hathaway’s April 27 letter said the city must build two full- service campsites for Aux Arc Park, which is next to the marina site and will lose the two campsites to the project.

The Corps of Engineers also will not allow alcohol sales as part of the marina operation unless it is associated with a restaurant. Even then, only beer and wine could be served.

“I don’t need alcohol sales in a park,” said Miles Johnson, natural resources manager for the Corps of Engineers’ Russellville District. “I don’t need alcohol sales on the water. That’s a watersafety issue.”

Gentry said he does not plan to open a restaurant.

Hathaway said that with the Corps of Engineers’ limited recreation budget, paying for amending the lease will have to come from the next fiscal year’s budget, which begins Oct. 1.

It then will take about two months to finalize the amended lease and approve the dock construction designs. He said it may be the beginning of December before construction could begin.

Gentry had told officials earlier that he hoped to begin construction around Oct. 1. He said his builder, MariCorpUS of Shell Knob, Mo., told him that once construction on the marina begins, it would take about a month to complete.

Approving the city’s request to move forward on the project is a reversal of the position Hathaway took in a March 30 letter to Ozark Mayor T. R. McNutt in which he denied a request for the marina.

In that letter, he wrote that the feasibility study, environmental assessment and business plan submitted by the city did not provide a convincing argument that a marina near Ozark would be viable.