Clear Lake council approves new dock for sea wall

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council this week approved the purchase of a lighted, floating dock that will be installed at the Sea Wall at the end of Main Avenue. The dock will be manufactured by Pier Genius of Woden, a company owned by Jesse King of Clear Lake, to replace a fixed post-and-plank dock system.

Parks and Recreation Director Randy Miller says the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board has had replacing this dock on their radar for a number of years due to safety concerns.  “The heavy usage of that dock, it’s a very popular area. A lot of people use that as a gateway from the water to enjoy concerts, events, go downtown, and just the stress that is put on that dock from boats tying up to it, it’s shown in the past, especially the last three or four years, it needs repairs constantly, planks need to be replaced. The Park Board wanted me to look into options that would make it safer but still offer the same accessibility that we have today.”

Miller says the new dock is another improvement the city is making to the downtown lakefront area.  “I think this is going to be a really unique project for Clear Lake. You’ve got an opportunity to add on to some of the improvements that we’ve made in the last five, ten years down there, from the sea wall improvement projects, the splash pad, and now I think aesthetically this dock is going to look fantastic quite simply. With the lighted bumper option that we are proposing, I think it’s also going to offer people that are not familiar with the lake that might be out in a lake at night and don’t really know where they are at to see this area and instantly be able to tell what they’re looking at.”

King says this new dock will be able to handle heavy traffic loads, including when people head out on the dock to watch the fireworks on the 4th of July.  “A very good point, that gives me heart palpitations when I see that. I would estimate the current one has between six and ten pounds per square foot load capability with the post-and-plank, this one is going to be designed with 40, and that’s pretty conservative. Essentially you’ll be able to stand as many 300 pound individuals on there as tight as you can and it won’t sink or fail, it’s very robust. Because of the heavy wind action, we are utilizing some heavier-duty connections, the dock should be very stable up to about 65-70 miles an hour wind like we had last year.”

The council unanimously approved the new dock at a cost of $94,200.