Plan for La Crosse’s municipal boat harbor approved

New design plan unanimously approved 

Users of La Crosse’s municipal boat harbor are happier with the park board now than they have been for some time.

Boat owners applauded the board Wednesday, after it unanimously approved a new design, which would include 185 boat slips.

Those owners had complained of being left out of the planning process, but neighborhood spokesman Dennis Smalley took part in recent meetings with city staffers to come up with the new plan. 

Boat owners filled the board meeting. They worked with the city on a new design aimed at guaranteeing boat slips to people, who have used the municipal boat harbor in recent years.

“This was a design that we feel very confident with that will suit the people that are currently … were currently in the marina,” La Crosse parks rec. staffer Jay Odegaard said. 

Odegaard and some boat owners met within the last couple of weeks to work out problems with the new harbor design.

“The dock plan, I believe, is the best we can do using the design parameters that we were given,” Smalley said.

Smalley says the most recent meetings on a harbor plan were a ‘really good process.’

Just two weeks ago, boat owners criticized the park department for drawing up harbor designs without getting more advice from the harbor tenants.