Progress! That was the feeling on Friday September 29th as we officially broke ground on the Lake
Champlain Community Sailing Center’s new accessible waterfront project. Thanks to all of you who
joined me there, it was a joyous experience that marked the beginning of the final phase of this
significant project. If you were not able to attend, you can watch the highlights from Channel 5’s
newscast here: https://www.mynbc5.com/article/lake-champlain-community-sailing-center-breaks-ground-on-waterfront-redevelopment-project/45383609.
In the past three weeks Kingsbury, our contractor, has been busy mobilizing equipment and hauling in
material to the site. We have brought in 1500 yards of gravel to make a temporary peninsula for the
crane to drive sheets and piles. The steel sheeting has been delivered and unloaded. Our dock system
has been moved to its winter home, and underwater moorings relocated.
Kingsbury’s big crane arrived this week and will begin driving piles and sheeting next week. The sheets
will form a temporary coffer dam which will be pumped dry to enable the concrete ramp to be poured
by the end of the year. Foundations for the jib cranes will be installed over the winter, and the
additional docks will be brought in this spring, allowing us to open the waterfront on May 1. The
landscaping and hard walkway to the center will be completed in the late spring.
Our capital team is continuing to fundraise to ensure we have the funds to complete the project on
time. As of early August, we were $1.4 million short of the $4.2 million needed to complete the project.
We were awarded a $600,000 challenge grant which cut our needs almost by half. In September, we
participated in the State of Vermont’s ‘Better Places’ grant program, in which the state tripled the
$20,000 that we raised to pay for the hardsurfacing of a walkway running from the Sailing Center to the
waterfront. This will make it much easier for sailors with mobility issues and smaller children pulling
boats to access the waterfront.
Since Labor Day, including the Better Places Grant, we have raised $300,000 toward the challenge grant:
just $516,000 is needed to wrap up the capital campaign. As the project begins to take shape in the
coming weeks, I hope you will join me in helping us close this gap. Stay tuned for monthly updates on
the construction progress and our funding status.
Sincerely,