Funding to dredge between lake, bay is on the way
Irondequoit business owner Kevin Klee has a friend with a 37-foot sailboat who won't attempt to maneuver through the only channel that connects Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay.
"He got stuck once," Klee said.
Irondequoit resident Vic Ciaccia said he has a friend with a 42-foot boat who got so "stuck" on silt built up in the channel that it took four hours to get unstuck. Damage to the bottom of the boat was extensive, he said.
Ciaccia said the silt and sand buildup in the channel, at the end of Culver Road in Irondequoit and the end of Lake Road in Webster, is so bad that he'd call it a matter of emergency.
Federal funds are coming to the rescue.
Congressman Jim Walsh, R, Syracuse, whose district includes all or parts of Webster and Irondequoit, was in Rochester last week to announce almost $1.6 million in federal funding for a portion of a new Monroe County Public Safety Crime Lab.
He also said that his requests in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill include $394,000 in the Army Corps of Engineers' operation and maintenance budget, to provide critical maintenance dredging in the entrance channel of Irondequoit Bay.
The Army Corps plans to award the contract by April 1 and work will begin July 1, officials said.
It's maintenance that's overdue, Ciaccia said Tuesday. "Just yesterday, I called the corps ... I'd say the channel right now is seven-eighths plugged with silt and sand."
Klee, who owns the Vic and Irv's stand on "hot dog row" in Irondequoit and has become a vocal spokesman for what he calls a long-term solution to the seasonal bridge over the channel, wonders why the bridge even opens to boaters when access through the water is so difficult.
"If they don't dredge, why even bother to open the bridge," he asked. "We need to find a solution that accommodates boaters, tourists, businesses, drivers - everyone."
The seasonal span is currently open only five months a year to drivers. The remainder of the year, the bridge rests on the Irondequoit shore, so the channel can be open to boaters.
The bay is, after all, a harbor of refuge, from storms in the lake, Ciaccia said - but it's no refuge if boats can't get through.
He said he thinks the dredging needs to be done every five to 10 years.
"It all depends on rainfall and how much silt and sand the water brings with it when it flows north from Empire," Ciaccia said.
Linda Quinlan can be reached at (585) 394-0770, Ext. 350, or at lquinlan@mpnewspapers.com.