City provides updates on marina repairs
Published 1:30 am Friday, January 30, 2026
City officials discussed windstorm-related repairs and the city’s future dredging project at their first meeting with marina tenants in a while.
Harbormaster Alyce Henry said at the Jan. 16 meeting that Oak Harbor is still awaiting permits needed to address damage sustained by the marina during a windstorm in December. North F dock sustained the brunt of the damage.
Henry said in an email on Wednesday that a necessary Salish Sea Nearshore Programmatic Permit “could possibly be in hand by next week.” That permit requires the ecological impacts of projects conducted in the Puget Sound nearshore to be offset.
An expedited permit from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is currently being processed, along with a Hydraulic Project Approval permit, allowing “an extension of work to continue through mid-March.”
Additionally, Henry said shoreline exemption permits are needed as well. The city continues to hold conversations with its contractor, American Construction, the marine engineering firm Moffat and Nichol and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, she said.
As of Jan. 23, American Construction’s “fine-tuning detailing” is estimated to cost about $440,000, Henry said. Once permits are received, she explained, repairs should start around Feb. 23 and finish about 15 days later.
There are no updates on the marina dredging project — and there have not been since December, Henry said in her email — but the harbormaster briefed marina tenants on the matter regardless. During the meeting, Henry explained that obtaining a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NOAA Fisheries, which the city submitted for in June, is holding up the process.
According to the city of Oak Harbor’s website, the dredging project will “restore the ability to navigate in the water where depths are reduced to sedimentation.” Several areas were missed the last time the marina was dredged, in 2011.
