Silver Bay Council Approves Marina Manager, Pursues $5.3M Water Infrastructure Grants

North Shore Boat Works, LLC will take over management of Silver Bay's marina beginning in May, after the city council voted March 16 to approve a contractor agreement mirroring the terms held by the outgoing manager, ELI Yachts.

The contract, passed as Resolution 2026 #23, contains no notable changes from the previous arrangement with ELI Yachts. The transition is set for the beginning of May, giving the city roughly six weeks to complete the handoff.

The marina contract was one of several infrastructure-related actions that dominated the meeting, with the bulk of council business driven by the city administrator. On the water side, the council passed Resolution 2026 #14A, accepting a bid from electrical contractor Wescom and authorizing work on the Water Treatment Facility Upgrade and Booster Station Project. No bid amount was disclosed in council materials made public.

The council also advanced Resolution 2026 #24, a targeted update to the earlier Resolution 2025 #65 that clarifies certain costs billed by the city's engineering firm, Bolton & Menk, Inc., as construction services rather than a broader category. The reclassification is a bookkeeping adjustment tied to the ongoing infrastructure work Bolton & Menk is overseeing for Silver Bay.

A fourth resolution, 2026 #25, amends a contract within the Citywide Street program, though the full scope of that amendment was not detailed in available council materials.

The city is also pursuing an additional $5.3 million in state water infrastructure grants, according to information provided alongside the meeting summary. That figure would represent new grant funding layered on top of work already underway, though the specific state program and the projects the money would support have not been publicly confirmed. The city administrator's office has not yet released documentation specifying which grant programs are being targeted or the timeline for those applications.

Taken together, the resolutions signal Silver Bay is moving aggressively to upgrade aging water infrastructure while simultaneously stabilizing marina operations ahead of the summer boating season on Lake Superior.