Work continues on renovated harbor with boats moving in

Boats are starting to move into the newly configured municipal boat harbor in La Crosse, though there is still work to do there.

Xcel Energy needs to connect the power to the docks. A bid on water connections gets opened today. And there is still a wait on bids for someone to put in and haul out boats, along with a pump out service.

But, it’s coming along nicely for May 1, says parks superintendent Jay Odegaard.

“There’s obviously a few things that, in an ideal world, we would have changed, but this is a complicated situation,” he said. “I’m personally happy with where we’re at.”

The harbor has gone through a major renovation with completely new docks just since last fall when the former operator’s lease was revoked.

At this point, the city will not operate a gas dock at the harbor and a store will not be open there. 

No plans for a restaurant or bar, either.

“If a private investor wanted to come and put up something, I think we would be more than willing to talk with them,” Odegaard said. “The city obviously has no intention of putting up a bar or restaurant — anything along those lines.”

Restrooms and showers may yet get built at the harbor this year.  But some demolition is still needed.

“The current buildings down there have all been condemned and we are starting removal of those this week,” Odegaard said. “The hazmat material we found in there will be removed Wednesday, and we’ll start the full demo after that.”

After revoking the lease of the former operator last fall, crews didn’t clear out old docks from the harbor until December with the expectation it would be operational again by this spring.