LAKEPORT, Calif. – A drenching late spring rain greeted community leaders and residents as they gathered Thursday evening to celebrate the new docks at Library Park.
Lakeport had been hit by a downpour earlier in the day, with more rain returning and continuing steadily through the brief ceremony to mark the installation of the new docks, which took place at the end of April.
Mayor Martin Scheel, standing in the park gazebo along with the band the LC Diamonds, greeted the several dozen people – and a few ducks – who gathered for the event.
Scheel thanked city leaders and residents, the Lakeport Main Street Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the Lakeport Rotary, the latter having donated $10,000 toward the dock project.
He then led the group over to the entrance to the docks, where he wielded the big pair of ceremonial scissors and cut the ribbon before it got too soggy.
“This has been a long time coming,” Scheel told Lake County News of the docks project after the ribbon-cutting.
Scheel said the city already is getting positive feedback about the new aluminum docks, which replaced wooden docks that had been estimated to be about 30 years old and needed to be regularly rebuilt by city Public Works staff.
The Lakeport City Council had kept money for the docks in its capital expenditures budget, and last fall settled on The Dock Factory and Supply Co., based in Lakeport, as the supplier.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said at a council meeting earlier this month that the council had considered the new dock installation a top priority for this fiscal year.
The purchase order the council approved unanimously in January totaled $226,336.43 for more than 300 feet of dock, along with a new swim ladder, gangway and pile guides.
The city is hoping that the new docks will help reattract visitors and events that had chosen not to visit Library Park because of the old docks' condition and concerns about damage to boats.
The new docks are in place in time for what city leaders are hoping will be a busy summer.
As Scheel pointed out on Thursday, Clear Lake is higher than it was at this time last year, and the city is hoping to draw visitors who will find that the lake has plenty of water for summer water sports, in contrast to other lakes and reservoirs with lagging levels around the rest of Northern California.
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