The Lake County commissioners have approved Lakeshore Improvement Project funds for a handicapped-accessible canoe and kayak launch in Eastlake.
The roughly $27,000 project will build an ADA accessible launch along with a dock and a ramp at Erie Road Park. The Lake County Ohio Port and Economic Development Authority will work with Metal Craft, an EZ Dock distributor.
According to a memo from Lake County Administrator Jason Boyd, Metal Craft will either order and incorporate an EZ dock or build an equivalent dock that meets the same standards at the site. Boyd said Metal Craft has already conducted field assessments at Erie Road Park.
There is a canoe and kayak rental business near where the ramp will be installed, LCOPEDA Coastal management Director Peter Zahirsky said.
“I can tell you I’ve taken my own kayak down to this park on weekends a number of time and in summertime that place is packed full,” he said. “The canoe and kayak rental business is really going strong.”
Lakeshore Improvement Projects are funded through an increase in the county’s bed tax that was approved last year. In April, Lake County commissioners voted to increase the county’s bed tax to 5 percent from 3 percent with all of the additional funds — an estimated $500,000 annually — going toward lakefront projects.
The lakefront projects are helmed by Lake County’s port authority, but the commissioners get the final say on what projects are funded.
Boyd said the port authority considers this a priority project for 2018.
The creation of an ADA-accessible launch is part of a Erie Road Park master plan developed with public input by Eastlake and the city’s port authority in 2013. This is one thing that can be done to move those plans along, Zahirsky said.
He added it’s not the only investment going into the park right now. The Chagrin River Watershed Partners received a $50,000 grant from the Cleveland Foundation for the installation of permeable pavement and streamside planting along Corporation Creek in the park.
The Chagrin River Watershed Partners also recently helped the city with an application to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Nature Works program to install a natural playground.
Kimberly Brewster, senior project manager for the Chagrin River Watershed Partners, said that $42,000 grant has been awarded and they are assisting the city with the implementation of the project this year.
“These improvements will help leverage the other components of the masterplan,” Brewster said.
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