'Need To Get It Done': City Urges Dredging Of Bender Park Harbor

OAK CREEK, WI — The City of Oak Creek is urging Milwaukee County to dredge out the harbor at the Bender Park Boat launch after it has become filled with sand.

A resolution adopted at Tuesday's meeting says in certain parts of the boat launch harbor entrance "there is less than 12 inches of water," making it necessary to "dredge the harbor in order to make it safe and usable by the boating public."

"This goes on in numerous years," Oak Creek Mayor Dan Buciwicz said in Tuesday's meeting, "the sand builds up, it becomes an unsafe boater situation. Not just to get out, but more importantly to get back in."

The harbor serves as one of the only safe places for refuge from Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Racine.

The issue with it becoming filled in with sand has cropped up in the past, and the last time the county dredged the area was in 2013 after the Oak Creek Common Council issued a similar resolution to Tuesday's, according to city documents.

"We are receiving numerous complaints and of course, this is county-owned land," Buciwicz said.

4th District Alderman Mike Toman said in the meeting he has been in touch with county officials about resolving the issue.

"There is a permanent fix in the works in the county budget, but not the immediate county budget," Toman said. He added the design of the harbor entrance would have to be totally changed, but it's not going to get done soon so dredging is needed.

"The combination of bank-level dropping now and other sand washing in has pretty much closed it off for boaters," Toman added, "we need to get it done."

Patch reached out to County Supervisors Patti Logsdon and Steven Shea for comment. This article will be updated when we hear back.