Saturday, May 28, was the start of a three-day weekend and the unofficial kickoff of the summer season, and it brought a sigh of relief to the marina operator and business owners in Vallecito.
Their marina was officially open.
Last year, the operator of Vallecito Marina abruptly left, leaving Vallecito residents and businesses looking at a reservoir with no boats to rent or slips for local boat owners.
The Vallecito Conservation and Sporting Association, a local fishing and outdoors group, decided to step up and operate the marina, no small task for a nonprofit group. Volunteers worked hard to get the facility open by the Fourth of July last year. This year, they’re celebrating that it opened at the start of the summer season.
“It’s Vallecito’s marina,” said Jim Schank, a member of the VCSA, owner of Rocky Mountain General Store and one of the drivers in getting the marina open.
The group hosted a grand opening last week that attracted a few hundred customers and onlookers, and the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for the group.
Four Corner River Sports and San Juan Marine & Sports brought boats and watercraft to check out.
Also displaying a new boat were representatives of the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office. They are the new owners of a 25-foot Coast Guard defender craft from Port Aransas, Texas.
The agency bought the boat using drug seizure funds, said Sheriff Sean Smith. Valued at $184,000 in 2006, the Sheriff’s Office purchased it for $40,000.
The boat will be kept at the Sheriff’s Office so it can be deployed to McPhee, Lemon, Vallecito and the Colorado side of Navajo Reservoir. It also could be used in Archuleta County, which had four drownings last year.
The Sheriff’s Office also wants to purchase another, smaller craft that could be stationed at Vallecito for faster deployment, Smith said.
