MICHIGAN CITY – A year after asking U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly for financial help to clean out the upper harbor at Washington Park, dredging will begin this week, a bit earlier than officials expected.
“I was surprised,” Michigan City Port Authority Board President Jim Jaksa said Monday. “Boaters were always asking me when they were going to dredge that channel and I always had to tell them we didn’t know.
“It’s the federal government that’s in charge.”
Michigan City Harbormaster Tim Frame said Monday a dredging company hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had begun bringing dredging equipment to Michigan City.
He said the plan is to dredge the outer harbor which consists of the channel from the lighthouse to a spot near the U.S. Coast Guard station. Currently the majority of the harbor is between 12 and 14 feet deep, Frame said, save for a ridge about halfway through that shallows the water to about 6 feet.