The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

STARBUCK -- Jim McArthur's reuben sandwich junkies will be happy to hear that the restaurant at the Lyon's Ferry Marina will have an earlier than usual opening this year.

McArthur said an early opening will go a long way to alleviate his wintertime blues, which have been worse than ever this year. This is partly because he is recuperating from total knee replacement surgery, but also because there has been considerable damage to the moorages and walkways at the marina due to winter ice accumulation in the bay.

"The Snake River was frozen from shore to shore with ice a foot thick in places," McArthur said. "It started getting colder and colder and colder. We could hear the boards cracking and popping. We walked the docks multiple times throughout the day checking the boats. My concern was that the ice would crush the boats. Three boats almost sank."

McArthur said that one boat was taking on water. One had a loose fitting in the engine compartment, and one developed a slow leak, all due to the ice. He said that two of his employees began chopping a channel in the ice, but they couldn't do much of anything about the ice around the moorages.

McArthur said he sprang into action and began calling around to locate some ice eaters. One of his customers brought a small ice heater in to demonstrate its use.

"We saw how well it worked, and I called a company in the Midwest on Wednesday and ordered ten of them," he said. "We began using them on Saturday, and within three days we were ice free."

But McArthur's worries weren't over. During the week the Army Corp of Engineers will normally raise or lower the water level, and McArthur thought that fluctuating water levels would cause additional problems with freezing. However, the Corps didn't raise or lower the water level, until the danger of more ice had passed.

Port of Columbia Manager Jennie Dickinson looked the situation over on Tuesday last week.

Courtesy Photo

Bubbles are evidence of a submerged ice eater in action.

"The docks have steel frame under the wood boards. The frame is twisted, bent, and broken," Dickinson told the Port commissioners. "The floatation is moved all over the place – the walkways and moorages. The roofs of the moorages are damaged, and conduit is ripped off the walls. It will take a work barge with the capacity to take the pressure off the floatation, slip under it, and move it around."

Dickinson has filed a claim with the Port's insurance company, and McArthur has appointments with several contractors this week to assess the situation and provide cost estimates.

McArthur said the marina will open on Feb. 14, with limited hours on Wednesday through Sunday. The Snake River Grill will open for all those "Reuben junkies" on February 21.