Bill Reynolds, consultant for Lawson Boat & Motor, LLC, updated the County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency on the progress of the repair and restoration of the Fluvanna Avenue marina to provide recreation opportunities on the Chadakoin River and Chautauqua Lake. Photo by Mary Heyl

DUNKIRK — Imagine getting together with a few friends, renting a small pontoon boat and spending a sunny, warm afternoon traveling along the Chadakoin River into downtown Jamestown to explore the National Comedy Center.

At Tuesday’s County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency board of directors’ meeting, Bill Reynolds, consultant for Lawson Boat & Motor, LLC, described how this idea will soon become a reality in his update on a $1.6 million project that is “paramount to tourism and adding recreation to the Chadakoin River and Chautauqua Lake.”

CCIDA Business Development Manager Linda Burns provided an overview of a recent off-schedule transaction committee meeting, during which the CCIDA entered into a preliminary agreement to proceed with Lawson Boat & Motor’s application for assistance with their project. The project, “which is to repair and restore a non-working marina located on Fluvanna Avenue in the town of Ellicott in the city of Jamestown,” is well underway with $632,000 injected to date, Burns explained.

The company has requested financial assistance from sales and use tax exemption, mortgage recording tax exemption and real property tax exemption for the remaining portion of the project (approximately $1,000,35). Burns estimated the total tax savings to be $315,435 and reported that CCIDA members voted to move forward with a public hearing and scheduled a final presentation for the next board meeting on Tuesday, March 26.

“This project dovetails with the city of Jamestown’s RiverWalk and Lucy Trail, which both need to revitalize the Chadakoin River and stimulate economic development, growth and increase tourism,” Burns explained. “The plan is to establish an operation that would provide watercraft, kayaks, electric pontoons and other low-impact vessels on the Chadakoin River between Jamestown and Chautauqua Lake.”

Reynolds, who has worked with the Lawson family on past projects including Bemus Point’s Lawson Center boating museum and store, has been consulting on the project since Marlin Younker approached the Lawson family to buy their Jamestown marina four years ago. Following the real estate transfer that took place last summer, Younker and his team began work on the property, which included emptying the buildings and beginning the rehabbing process. The team has worked closely with the DEC, particularly in removing an old fuel tank. The roofs of two buildings contained asbestos, which Reynolds said was safely removed before the buildings were demolished.

“We’re going to be up and running for getting a full-service, boutique concierge service for Chautauqua Lake in the boating and marina industry,” Reynolds stated. “In addition to that, we want to include the river. We want to utilize that 3.3 miles from the dam to David Hart’s Chautauqua Harbor Hotel to create a whole new business, a whole new atmosphere, a whole new world.”

Reynolds jokingly referred to the river as the “Amazon Trail,” as the stretch of water, full of snakes, turtles, osprey, bald eagles and other wildlife, was enjoyed by just a few when Reynolds was a deputy sheriff in the 1970s. “Today, there are hundreds of people utilizing that river with kayaks, canoes and pontoons,” he pointed out.

Lawson Boat & Motor’s plan is to capitalize on the increasing popularity of the Chadakoin River and Chautauqua Lake, especially their connection to downtown attractions in Jamestown, namely the National Comedy Center. “With its location on the Chadakoin River, the Lawson Boat & Motor Company provides the perfect location — we’re exactly halfway from the Celeron hotel to the Comedy Center — to have individuals, couples and families rent watercraft and water toys to venture out onto the river and into the lake, and maybe downtown to augment what’s happening in the city.”

Reynolds listed a number of small watercraft/toys including kayaks, paddleboards, eight to 10-feet electric motor pontoon boats, stand-up boards, water bikes and more. “Guests will have the ability for a one-way river rental to a designated drop-off location or several. This will enable them to continue their exploration of the Jamestown area, the Comedy Center, breweries, and the River Walk,” he explained. Reynolds is optimistic that the plan will provide year ’round tourism for photographers, bird watchers, anglers, hunters and more, as well as nine to 10 jobs to area residents.

CCIDA CEO Mark Geise expressed enthusiasm for the plan and added that the CCIDA and the Gebbie Foundation are working with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute to conduct a survey of the bottom of the river to see what impediments may exist between the Comedy Center and McCrea Point. Geise, who has traveled by boat along the Chadakoin River and behind the National Comedy Center, recognized the opportunity for tourism. “It’s absolutely exquisite,” he said of the area. “We’re really excited about that because if we can open up the lake to traffic all the way down to the National Comedy Center and they can put in docks down there, it’s huge. We think that’s possible, and we’re very hopeful it will all come together.”