Marina Committee

Minutes of the June 18th, 2025 Meeting of the Marina Committee – Approved 1 MARINA COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES 2 Wednesday June 18th, 2025 3 (Approved) 4 5 Agenda Item No. 1. The June 18th, 2025 meeting of the Marina Committee was called to order 6 by White at 4:00 P.M. 7 8 Present: Brigid White, Pat Duffy, Kevin Grant, Patrice Champeau 9 10 Absent: Chad Kodanko 11 12 Staff: Marina Manager - Dave Lienau, Assistant Manager - Sam Jordan, Village Administrator - 13 Julie Schmelzer 14 15 Others: Merih Bayerli, Marley Inksetter, Nick Dokolas, John Blossom 16 17 Agenda Item No. 2. Approval of the Agenda 18 19 A motion was made by Grant, seconded by Duffy that the Agenda for the June 18th, 2025 meeting of the 20 Marina Committee be approved as presented. Motion carried – All ayes. 21 22 Agenda Item No. 3. Approval of the Minutes 23 24 A motion was made by Duffy seconded by Grant that the minutes of the May 14th, 2025 meeting of the 25 Marina Committee be amended and approved by the committee. Motion carried – All ayes. 26 27 Agenda Item No. 4. Comments, correspondence, and concerns from the public 28 29 No correspondence was received for this meeting. White asked if anyone would like to make a 30 public comment, and no one responded. 31 32 Agenda Item No. 5. Discussion/Action Items 33 34 a) Boathouse Project 35 36 Schmelzer summarized the status of the boathouse project, noting that the development 37 agreement is currently being assessed by the village’s legal counsel. Schmelzer highlighted 38 some specific clauses in the operational agreement including that the waterfront museum will 39 be open to the public no later than June 1st of 2027, and that the second floor of the boathouse is 40 to be open to the public and not exclusively used by a single party. The Historical Society will 41 also be responsible for its own utility costs, which will be metered separately. The committee 42 discussed the specific uses of the second story, with Grant hoping that the marina will retain 43 some claim to use the space and that it will not be an exclusive space for members of the Marina 44 Club. Blossom and White clarified that the Historical Society’s Marina Club would just want to 45 use it as a meeting room. Schmelzer followed, listing further responsibilities that the historical 46 society will have regarding maintenance of the boathouse building, staffing of the museum, and 47 regulation of the museum’s hours. The committee addressed the annual $6,000 “payment in lieu  Minutes of the June 18th, 2025 Meeting of the Marina Committee - Approved 1 of taxes” that the marina will be absolved of paying now that the boathouse his being leased by 2 the Historical Society. Blossom voiced assent to removing $6,000 from the Historical Society’s 3 yearly bill given that the boathouse project is allowing the marina to stop paying that amount 4 from its annual budget. Grant and Duffy voiced hesitation to the idea of crediting the $6,000 to 5 the historical society’s bill, given that the marina would be able to cover that cost if it were a 6 rental operation. Schmelzer highlighted multiple options that she is looking into to help cover 7 the lease fee to the boathouse through grants and reimbursement funds. 8 9 The committee came to consensus that Schmelzer will draft an operational agreement, have the village 10 attorney review it, and bring it back to committee for approval. 11 12 b) Water Levels & Dock Changes 13 14 Lienau summarized the status of the dock-lowering and modification projects with Pier & 15 Waterfront Solutions to accommodate the lowering water levels in the marina. This includes 16 repairing and fabricating ramps and steps for B-Dock and J-Dock as well as lowering all the 17 fixed piers on A-Dock. Lienau foresees that marina staff will potentially need to cancel some 18 reservations in the coming weeks if the piers are not lowered on A-Dock by then. Lienau added 19 that the marina staff will first warn boaters of challenging water levels and dock heights and try 20 to move them around to more adequate docks before cancelling any reservations. Lienau voiced 21 confidence that the marina’s projects are a priority for Pier and Waterfront Solutions to 22 complete amongst their many county-wide projects. 23 24 c) Construction Projects 25 26 Lienau summarized current and completed construction projects throughout the marina. 27 Lienau noted that the refabrication of the three older A-Dock piers will be pushed off to the fall 28 given that the contractors did not have enough time to complete it this season. 29 30 d) Parking Update – Long Term Parking Lot 31 32 Lienau reminded the committee of the recent changes to the marina parking, including the 33 removal of the long-term marina parking lot and the stenciling of over fifty permit required 34 spaces in the short-term lot across the street from the marina. Lienau noted that since these 35 changes have been made, marina staff have discovered how the parking lots have previously 36 been used. Staff are finding that short-term rentals and hotels are directing their visitors to use 37 the marina short-term lot as a place to hold their trailer during the duration of their stay at the 38 hotel. Lienau noted that use of the parking lot and launch passes for just parking and not for 39 boat launch parking specifically, would be frowned upon by the DNR given that they helped 40 fund the marina’s launch operation. Lienau also added that individuals have been using the 41 seasonal launch pass as a season-long parking permit, without respecting the 48-hour time limit 42 of the lot. Jordan added that marina management is currently working with spectrum to add a 43 camera in the short-term marina parking lot to help regulate parking better. 44 45 e) Robomow Test Trial 46 47 Lienau noted that the automatic lawnmower being trialed by the marina is leaving at the end of  Minutes of the June 18th, 2025 Meeting of the Marina Committee - Approved 1 the month, but both the marina staff and the public have been impressed with its performance. 2 3 f) Pump-Out Update 4 5 Lienau summarized the current state of the pump-out service throughout the marina, noting 6 that the system works on A, B and C-Dock but the port at D-Dock still does not have a strong 7 enough vacuum to properly service boats. Lienau clarified that the lack of vacuum at the end of 8 D-Dock is likely due to the large amount of head height and distance away from the pump. 9 Crane Engineering is currently looking into ways to fix this, which may include installing a 10 booster pump to the current pump. In the meantime, marina staff are using the end of A-Dock 11 to have vessels tie-up to and receive pump-outs there. Duffy inquired if the pump-out service 12 will ever become available at J-Dock, to which Lienau responded that this will likely be done 13 when the cement boardwalk project begins. 14 15 g) Review of Financials 16 17 Lienau noted that the marina has around $985,000 in unencumbered dollars in the marina fund. 18 Lienau summarized changes in the CIP to cover the boardwalk project that was pushed to 2026. 19 Jordan also added that management is looking into changing the schedule of fees in 2026 to 20 ensure that the marina is not losing money on sales tax for store sales items such as launch 21 passes. 22 23 h) Current State of Marina 24 25 Lienau noted that reservations continue to be made, with some cancellations due to June 26 weather. The most recent budget report approximates the marina revenue at about $787,000, but 27 Lienau noted the actual year-to-date number is $805,000, which is ahead of current projections. 28 29 i) New Building Update 30 31 Lienau noted that marina management has met with a new architect and then summarized the 32 next steps towards designing the new building. Lienau estimates that the drawings will likely 33 be completed and hopefully approved in the fall so that ground can be broken as soon as late 34 fall of 2025. Lienau assured the committee that the marina has funds in the budget to start this 35 process in the fall if a contractor is ready to do so. 36 37 Agenda Item No. 6. Matters to be placed on a future agenda or referred to a committee, 38 official, or employee 39 40 It was the consensus of the committee that that following items be included on a future marina committee 41 meeting agenda: 42 - Boathouse Operating Agreement to Julie Schmelzer, Village Administrator 43 - 2026 Marina Budget at next Marina Committee Meeting 44 45 The next meeting of the Marina Committee is scheduled for July 16th, 2025 at 4:00 P.M. at the Sister Bay 46 Fire Station & via zoom. 47 48 Adjournment: A motion was made by Duffy, seconded by Grant to adjourn the June 18th, 2025 meeting  Minutes of the June 18th, 2025 Meeting of the Marina Committee - Approved 1 of the Marina Committee at 6:15 P.M. Motion carried – All ayes. 2 3 Respectfully submitted, 4 5 Samuel Jordan 6 Assistant Marina Manager