Put-in-Bay Gazette Announcement!

TRANSIT CANAL APPROVED!

Construction of Transit Canal to be Completed in 2022.

It’s official! The long-discussed and debated “transit canal” transversing the east-side lawn at Perry’s Monument will become a reality in 2022. Planners from the Village of Put-in-Bay, the National Park System, Homeland Security, the Put-in-Bay Port Authority, the Ohio Highway Department and Army Corps of Engineers recently approved $8 million in funding for the project. Construction will start at the end of the 2021 season and will coincide with the construction of the $30,000,000 seawall rebuilding project at the Monument.

Funding for the project will come from federal grants, low-interest loans and matching funds. The federal government will fund most of the project with a grant transferring funds out of the Clean Lake Erie Initiative (CLEI). The CLEI had leftover funds originally earmarked for the removal of algae blooms in the Western Basin of Lake Erie. Matching funds will come from a variety of sources which will be named once bids for the project are opened and the exact price is known.

To date, The South Bass Island Chamber of Commerce, the Senior Center, the Property Owners Group, the Safe Island Task Forces, the Kelly's Island Chamber of Commerce, the PIB Township Commissioners, Recuse Marina on Marblehead, the International Ferryboat League, the Lake Erie Fishermen’s Association and the Lake Erie Boater’s Alliance have all signaled their approval of the monumental project.

Although the project will technically split South Bass Island into two separate islands, the benefits far outweigh the cons, of which there are none.

Read the full article in the April issue of the Put-in-Bay Gazette, hitting newsstands today! The completed issue is also available online at www.putinbay.news with subscription (only $15 per year).

Happy April Fool's Day