Boat violators at Crescent Bar to be fined

EPHRATA — Boat owners who leave their boats overnight in the day-use marina at Crescent Bar will have the boat impounded and will have to pay a fine, beginning next week.

Shannon Lowry, the PUD’s public lands and recreation manager, gave an update on Crescent Bar and its summer recreation season at the regular commission meeting Tuesday.

The marina has room for 22 boats, 10 of which are leased to commercial vendors, Lowry said.

The marina is open from dawn to dusk, Lowry said, and any boats moored there are supposed to be moved by dark.

Utility district recreation managers left notices for violators, Lowry said, but that didn’t stop the violations. “Since we’ve opened the marina in June, we’ve had 68 violation letters put on boats. A good 4 to 10 per weekend that violate the rules,” she said.

“It’s clearly marked on the gangway that that is a day use facility, and that it’s dawn to dusk.”

Utility district managers discussed possible solutions with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, she commented. “There are no companies locally that will actually tow boats, and we’re not willing to handle those boats ourselves.” Past practice was to unhook the boat and move it, but “we don’t want the liability of doing that,” she explained.

Sheriff’s deputies and PUD security officials recommended, “and we’re going to implement it, a strategy where we would cable a boat.”

The boat would remain in place, but would be locked and couldn’t be moved. Owners would have to pay an impound fee to get the cable and lock removed. That will begin next week, she said.

The PUD was having similar troubles with parking at the boat launch, Lowry said, where people were parking cars in the spaces reserved for vehicles with boat trailers.

Letters didn’t stop it, so cars were towed.

Utility district officials will be thinking about ways to alleviate the boat-parking problem in the future, she said, since the park is popular and probably will get more popular as all the recreation facilities are finished.

"Overall, it's been a pretty good summer" at Crescent Bar, she said. Construction of the new campground and other facilities caused some problems at the golf course, disrupting its irrigation system. The company managing the golf course dealt with that by using an alternate method to water it, she said.

The expanded recreation facilities include a new campground in a new location, new swimming beaches, picnic areas and parking lots. New and improved walking trails are being built on and off the island.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.