Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette The Houghton County Marina building recently received upgrades, making the bathrooms and showers ADA compliant, as well as a new roof.

Editor’s note: This is the latest in our series on the future of several properties owned by Houghton County.

HOUGHTON – The Houghton County Marina is one of five properties the County-Held Properties Committee is studying to determine value and whether it would be beneficial to sell.

While some county residents have suggested some of the properties should be soldto fund a new jail,

Committee member and Commissioner Trustee Glenn Anderson said he has no interest in selling any of the county-owned properties. In discussing the marina, Anderson said is not sure the county would even break even if it was sold.

Anderson said the Waterways Commission of the Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) has funded substantial capital toward the marinas since the early 1960s. If the facility was sold, that money would have to be paid back.

“So if that property ever was sold,” he said, “we would have to pay off all the grants that were were funded by the DNR.”

The grants go back so far, Anderson said, the DNR does not have a current list.

Recently, he said, the county received $468,500 in grants from the last two grant cycles.

Anderson said he estimates that the county would have to pay back between $2.5 to $3 million dollars should the county sell the marina.

Additionally, he said, anyone purchasing the facility would have to abide by the DNR’s rates from transient and summer rentals for the next 20 years.

Considering the circumstances, Anderson said, his guess is the value of the property is equal to or less than the commitment the county would have to pay. “So that one might cost us money to get rid of,” he said.

On the plus side, with the marina’s cashflow, the facility does not cost the taxpayers anything.

The county does occasionally invest capital in the facility. This year, all-season windows were installed in the area of the marina, said Anderson, “where people can hang out so that sail boaters that come in (from) the weather or boaters that come in bad weather have a place to get out of the weather.”

There are several factors to consider in determining whether the county would profit from selling the marina.

“So as we were just talking, as we talked before,” Anderson said, “if the property was sold, and we actually could get the money to pay off all of the state grants going the back to the 1960s, and if somebody were to buy that and would honor the 20-year commitment of rent, I guess that wouldn’t be necessarily bad for the county – if you could find an investor that would pay that kind of money.”