03/11/2007

Special to the Record-Eagle/Kevin Johnston
The Crooked Lake entrance to the Crooked River Lock in Alanson.

Locals await lock repairs

Mechanical work needed at Crooked Lake site

By CRAIG McCOOL

cmccool@record-eagle.com

ALANSON — A lock connecting Crooked and Pickerel lakes to the rest of the northern Michigan's Inland Waterway needs repair and locals are pushing for a fix soon, before spring arrives.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state Department of Natural Resources are coordinating to determine the extent of maintenance needed for the 40-year-old clam shell lock at the far eastern edge of Crooked Lake, said Bill Boik, DNR waterways planning unit supervisor.

The lock remained open through last season but experienced a host of "mechanical issues … a lot of little, cumulative problems,” Boik said, declining to be more specific. The DNR requested the Corps send an engineer from Sault Ste. Marie, but no inspection date is set.

Meanwhile, with spring and another boating season just around the corner, Dudley Marvin and other Pickerel-Crooked Lakes Association board members are frustrated.

"We're hoping that somebody's going to get a fire lit under them and get moving on this thing,” he said.

Near the mouth of the Crooked River, the lock serves multiple functions, regulating water levels in both Crooked and Pickerel lakes and connecting them to the rest of the busy Inland Waterway, which flows through Burt and Mullett lakes before emptying into Lake Huron at Cheboygan.

About 10,000 boaters use the lock each year, Marvin said.

"We're concerned about the tourism” if the lock doesn't open, he said. "For the life of me, I can't understand why the DNR doesn't just hire someone who knows what they're doing to come” for an initial inspection.

The Corps owns the lock, which is operated by the state at a cost of about $30,000 a year, Boik said. The feds contribute $7,000 as part of the lease agreement, and the rest of operational costs come from the DNR waterways budget.

Wayne Schloop, chief of operations for the Corps' Detroit district, said the agency plans to send a technical expert sometime next month.

"Most of our people who are experts on locks are in the Sault, fully engaged in winter repairs,” he said. "We're certainly aware that there's interest and we're going to try to do everything we can to support the state on this.”

A few years ago, the state began charging boaters to use it, $4 one way or $30 for a season pass. That money goes into the general state waterways fund, Boik said, though it's not specifically allocated for the lock operation.

Any repair beyond simple day-to-day maintenance is a federal responsibility, he said.

"This is a Corps facility. We look to the Corps to do those large capital improvements,” Boik said. "They tell us they don't have money specifically allocated to do this. I don't know what their resources are.”