(Orleans)– Improvements to a boat ramp and public dock at Ainsworth Beach on the south side of Big Spirit Lake have been completed just in time for Walleye Weekend. The improvements were dedicated today (Tues.) in a ceremony with representatives the Dickinson County Conservation Board, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Spirit Lake Protective Association and others in attendance.
The Dickinson County Conservation Board oversaw the project. Director Lee Sorenson says raising the funds and designing the project were no small undertakings…
“We actually wrote a WRAC which is a Water Recreational Access Grant to the DNR and that kind of kicked our funding off, and that was approved at $70,000. And the Spirit Lake Protective Association donated another $10,000 to the project; the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club donated $2,000 towards the project, and then Diamond Concrete also donated $7,800 for the concrete work. Our Conservation Foundation of Dickinson County donated $5,000 and the Conservation Board donated $7,000. So there were multiple partners that came together on this one project.”
The Dickinson County Conservation board had previously maintained Ainsworth Beach through a management agreement with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Frank Rickerl is the Superintendent of State Parks for the DNR, which is once again maintaining Ainsworth Beach…
“On December 31st at midnight we took back management of the Ainsworth Beach at Orleans from the county. They had managed it for 50 years and they, with other things they’ve picked up in that 50 years they just thought it was time to turn it back to us, which we’re in the process of getting it to more like a state park area.”
Sorenson says the project was in the planning stages the past three or four years. He adds some special design elements were incorporated into the dock to help it withstand heavy wave action which is common on Big Spirit Lake.
(Photo: Representatives of the Spirit Lake Protective Association, Iowa DNR, Dickinson County Conservation Board, Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, and others are shown on the new boat ramps with the new public dock in the background, at Ainsworth Beach in Orleans)
