Lawton City Council approves new lease agreement for Sunken Bridge Yacht Club

Another long-term lessee has the right to remain on the shores of a City of Lawton lake.

But it’s going to cost them more and they will eventually lose their campgrounds.

The new agreement with Sunken Bridge Yacht Club is the latest in a series of changes city administrators are making at lakes Lawtonka and Ellsworth as City of Lawton officials plan to upgrade amenities in recreation areas while ensuring lake users pay a large part of the cost.

Here, the agreement with Sunken Bridge is similar to one approved in April with Lawton Boat Club. Both entities — located north of School House Slough on Lawtonka — are decades-long tenants who want to keep leasing their spaces. Both will, but new lease agreements are increasing their annual payments so that lease fee better reflects the fair market value of the space they are using.

For the members of Sunken Bridge Yacht Club, that means gradually increasing the fee they pay over the next three years: $2,500 for 2025, $4,000 for 2026 and $6,000 for 2027 (this year’s fee will be $1,313.09, a pro-rated amount for the months between May 1 and Dec. 31). That new lease also reflects the city’s intent to absorb Sunken Bridge’s campgrounds into the School House Slough campgrounds when the lease expires in 2027.

And it addresses an issue city officials and some council members have criticized: deteriorating sailboats that have been on the Lawtonka shoreline for years without moving, proven by the fact they do not have current permits. The new agreement specifies all vessels on the premises must display current permits.

Sunken Bridge Yacht Club members aren’t in agreement on the terms of the new lease.

Jimmy Smith, who has been a member for more than 24 years, explained why vessels are left on the shore: it takes an hour to erect the masts, which is why many boat owners prefer to leave them up. He said the location on Lawtonka is important for those who sail because it provides direct access to deep open water, something other cove areas do not.

But he doesn’t like the proposal to remove the campgrounds from the club’s control. Neither does club member Tiffany Schaefer, who has a family tie to the club (her great-uncle helped establish the yacht club 50 years ago).

“We’d like to bid that,” she said of the idea of keeping the campgrounds, adding that she was speaking for herself and not the club as a whole.

The agreement with Sunken Bridge is part of a series of decisions the council has made in recent weeks as they look at those who have leases to operate recreational amenities at Lawtonka and Ellsworth.

In April, the council voted to increase the lease fee that Lawton Boat Club pays for its acreage on Lawtonka. Under a three-year phased-in plan, the fee would go from $50,000 in year one to $104,000 in year five, a cost that better reflects its market value, city officials said.

Also in April, the council/Lawton Water Authority agreed to buy the amenities Steve and Sandra Perry have added to Ellsworth’s Ralph’s Resort concession area. The Perry family has operated the concession for decades, but Steve Perry said the couple is ready to retire when their lease expires at year’s end. The city has begun seeking requests from those who might want to operate the concession area.

The council also approved a new concession agreement for operation of the general store and fueling system at School House Slough with Juan Rodriguez, while also deciding it would not renew the agreement with the Minnow Marina concessionaire when that lease expires in June.