GREILicKVILLE -- A once-considered marina plan is in dry-dock, but Traverse City Light & Power plans a $170,000 fix-up to its coal dock on West Grand Traverse Bay.
The project came under scrutiny from some city commissioners who weren't aware the public utility considered a marina on the site. Commissioners will discuss the plans at their meeting Monday night since the Light & Power budget needs their approval.
"Light & Power has been operating in a vacuum for a long time now and finally we and others are questioning them," Commissioner Jim Carruthers said.
But Commissioner Chris Bzdok, who joined the Light & Power board after the marina discussion, said the utility didn't do anything wrong.
"Certainly that would have been discussed at Light & Power meetings so it would have been discussed at open meetings," he said. "I don't think there was ever any intent to take any step ... to make any irretrievable commitment of resources prior to a broader-based discussion with the city."
Light & Power plans to dredge the deep-water port, install sheet pilings at the pier and remove the residue from when the dock was used to store coal for the former bayside power plant.
The dock, located on M-22 in Elmwood Township, leads out to a grassy landing closed off by a fence. The utility also owns the land at the base of the dock and the coal pile across the road.
"I don't think there's any activity to move toward a public marina, but it's only prudent to investigate all the possibilities, and that's one of the possibilities that came into view," board Chairwoman Linda Johnson said.
The utility board looked at conceptual drawings for a marina about a year ago but was skeptical about the project's payback, she said.
Instead the utility will make some improvements to clean up the area and increase public safety, which fits with Elmwood Township's plan to rehabilitate the shoreline.
"We want to be part of the solution of what the best use of that waterfront is," Johnson said, adding that the work may improve public access to the property.
Other possibilities include a connecting trail though the site and a public restroom, said Klaus Heinert, a landscape architect with Gosling Czubak Engineering who's working on plans for Elmwood Township's shoreline.
Township Supervisor Derith Smith said she'd like to see a restroom there.
"We're just trying to facilitate connections, both on the water side and across the road," she said. "It's in everyone's best interest."
The utility agreed in 2003 to allow the Maritime Heritage Alliance to dock two tall ships on the site. The nonprofit group's board of directors includes a representative from the Light & Power board.
"We'd love to see something happen there," said Mark Thompson, executive director of the alliance. "If it did come together that it was improved and dredged and made more user-friendly, it'd certainly be a great thing for us in carrying out our mission."
Johnson said the utility wants to preserve the dock as a port of refuge.
"There's no other port around from Ludington to Cheboygan that can accept products and vessels like we can, and for us to not maintain it is short-sighted," she said.
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