On May 3, the Oak Harbor City Council unanimously approved the purchase of a new lagoon dock that will be installed in Windjammer Park. The lagoon is a man-made feature of Windjammer Park that allows children to safely play in salt water. It has a tide gate that allows seawater to go in and out.

Last year, the city council approved the acceptance of a $50,000 T-Mobile grant to replace the old dock. The city council staff will use $4,446.09 from the Windjammer Park improvements project to cover the additional cost.

On March 30, staff solicited bids from a total of 91 vendors and received four on April 13. The installation of the dock will be done by Evans Marine Solutions, whose bid was significantly lower than the other three. This is because it will be a prefabricated dock, as opposed to a custom-fabricated one.

The project was originally planned to be completed by Memorial Day weekend. Now city council staff is working to schedule the project after Labor Day so there is no interference of summer activities at the Windjammer Park lagoon. It will likely begin in six months, depending on when the materials can be delivered. A diagram of the new dock was shown. It will have railings, something that the old dock lacks. It will have high quality materials and will be certified to meet or exceed all current safety standards.

The new lagoon dock is part of a larger project to make improvements to Windjammer Park. City council has received 686 electronic responses through the Windjammer Park public input process. They are currently collecting printed responses and expect a total of over 700.