Clear Lake council approves dock design for Surf District project

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council last night approved a dock proposal for the Beach Drive dock that will be part of the Surf District Destination Iowa project.

The council recently approved a change in the project to make a slight alteration to the waterfront connection portion of the project between the lake and the Surf Ballroom. The  council had originally proposed to utilize the properties straight across the street from the ballroom’s front entry with a visitation-type dock being placed there similar to the one at the Sea Wall. That dock will now be moved to Beach Drive, which runs into the lake on the west side of the Three Stars Plaza.

City Engineer Matt Steding says after some study done on the dock, the “post-and-plank” design will be the best overall in regards to cost and how it fits in with the rest of the project.  “Looking at this overall post-and-plank dock design, I think this is going to add some real creative aspects to the area down there. We’re going to get some potential nice detail that we can add to this dock, some nautical rope design even potentially to really spruce things up along with the potential other design alternatives that we have for the area down there.”

City Administrator Scott Flory says some grant funding obtained by the group that runs the Surf Ballroom will help pay for this portion of the project.  “The non-profit recently had received some grant funding for the lake access component of the project and they’ve offered to essentially buy this portion of the project for the city with some of those grant funds for this project. It was very generous on their part. Again, it I think it ultimately is a very good collaborative process and I think leading to a better conclusion than where we were at initially.”

The council approved the proposal from Woodford Lumber for a post-and-plank dock in the amount of $9825.