Mayor rolls out new concept for FM Marina

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld rolled out a new conceptualization of the what a group of stakeholders envisions for the city's marina.

And if things come together as planned, part of the concept could be in place as early as April 2022.

When Mohrfeld was elected mayor in 2020, the first order of business was a revamped budget process that included workshops before approving the budget.

Prior to that, budgets were presented by City Manager David Varley and then approved by the City Council at a following meeting.

In 2020, part of that workshop turned into a request from the City Council to have Mohrfeld dig into where to go with the Marina.

Council woman Rebecca Bowker pressed for the city to take advantage of the resources the marina could provide.

Mohrfeld wouldn't speak to the details of the project because Fort Madison City Council hadn't seen the video presentation he had made to Rotary on Tuesday, but said he won't make apologies for wanting a 5-star marina in Fort Madison.

"The long and short of that meeting with the council last year was to do nothing and turn it into a volleyball court, or do something," Mohrfeld said.

"The council clearly said they didn't want to walk away from the marina. We didn't know what that meant, but they charged me with seeing what the options were."

Mohrfeld took potential investors and stakeholders on a tour of marinas in around Iowa including Dubuque, Clinton and Camanche. He then followed up by assembling a group of other stakeholders to starting formalizing a concept.

The work of that group and the vision were included in a 3-minute video that is available below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKMp_mk_Yzc&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1b1p_Ugxe2AYmuzdjQqiHuPSo50-4h-apcyAB4MctlcXiYXTEzuELmw00

Funding for the project could come from public and private sources, both profit and non-profit entities, and could involve a variety of relationships.

The next step is to roll the video and new concepts to the City Council and get direction on where to go.

city council, concept, fort madison, marina, news, Pen City Current, vision

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