Lawton Boat Club will keep its lease on Lawtonka, but at a higher price

The City of Lawton will allow Lawton Boat Club to keep its leased shoreline area on Lake Lawtonka, but it’s going to cost the club seven times more than its existing $7,000 annual payment.

The decision by the Lawton Water Authority (a function of the City Council) came Monday as authority members also accepted a recommendation for a three-year, phased-in increase to the lease fee paid by the nearby Sunken Bridge Yacht Club, and a third recommendation to end its lease with Lake Ellsworth’s Minnow Marina when that agreement expires June 30.

The actions come as city staff continues to weigh options for the recreation areas on Lakes Lawtonka and Ellsworth, where it has been the practice to hire concessionaires to operate areas with amenities. In addition to city concessionaires, two boat clubs have decades-long leases on land north of the School House Slough concession on Lawtonka’s east shore.

Authority members had been asked to accept a recommendation from the Council Fee Committee to let Lawton Boat Club’s lease end when it expires June 30, ending a relationship the club and the City of Lawton have had for 71 years.

But, Max Sasseen provided an argument in the boat club’s favor, saying members met Sunday and agreed to a new five-year lease plan that would pay $50,000 to the City of Lawton in year one (the 2024-2025 year), then increase the annual payment 20 percent a year for the next four years. Sasseen said the net result would be about $104,000 a year for year five, a fee boat club members agree is closer to the fair market value of the area they lease.

Sasseen said club members also agreed to increase community access to their area (something they already do) while retaining responsibility for maintenance and improvements that must be done to the area.

“We handle it ourselves,” he said, of the club’s long-standing policy.

Sasseen said the boat club has had a long relationship with the City of Lawton, starting when the area was essentially just open lake shore, and members want that to continue. Longtime member Michael McClelland agreed the club needs to give more back to the community, noting, for example, the club already allows community entities such as Boy Scouts and various military groups to use the newly-built pavilion without charge. That will continue on a larger scale, he said.

McClelland said the boat club has taken good care of the area, noting that in addition to the pavilion, the club built a boat ramp “at no cost to the city.”

“We’re good stewards of what you have given us,” he said.

Forty-year member Bill Ramsey said the boat club has brought other improvements to the area. He said the club has been protective of the shoreline, with members taking on a project to add rocks along the shore as erosion control.

Deputy City Manager Dewayne Burk said city staff was comfortable with any action the council wanted. He said while the staff’s proposal would have brought revenue from that concession area to $96,000 in three years, the city also would have to absorb maintenance and operation costs that Lawton Boat Club now handles. The staff proposal had been to absorb the Lawton Boat Club camping areas into those the city now operates at School House Slough.