A New Marina In Mississippi River Valley Proposed

In Port of La Crosse a developer is looking at buying an old, small, falling apart marina on the Black River located on French Island, WI. It's located in a small bay area called Catgut Slough. It's also known as Richmond Bay. It's an ideal habitat area for otters, loons, ducks, and paddlefish. If you don't know what a paddlefish is hit the link it will give you a brief explanation. The existing marina is an 8 acre marina the proposed $1.2 million project is for a marina upgrade to 40 boat slips and a remodel of an existing old diner that would be a nice restaurant and bar. Some of the local residents that live in the area and along the bay are arguing against the marina saying it will disturb the local habitat and bring in pollution from wild boaters. Being life-long boaters we disagree with the assumption of boaters not caring about the habitat and respecting thy neighbor, but like everything there are some exceptions.. We grew up here and have fished and boated this area for over 30 years and we believe this new marina would help the local economic area and provide more boating opportunities. The developer has been in the marina industry for over 30 years and is listening to all the residents concerns and has made adjustments to his plans to accommodate them so there isn't a lot of boat traffic deep in the bay where the residents live. The DNR has 30 days to make a decision and then either side can appeal it within 30 days.  So far the DNR is saying that the developer has gone above and beyond to try to make sure the marina will be nice looking and will cater to the people who respect the river and will come in and enjoy it peacefully and respectfully. The developer also plans to follow specific management practices to become a certified Wisconsin Clean Marina, with sanitation systems to prevent dumping and circulators to mix the waters and add oxygen.
There are concerns about the alcohol and noise but that has been left up to the local municipality to decide and they won't make a decision until after the DNR has made their decision.
We will try to follow this story and let you know what happens.
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