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Saylorville renters prepare to escalate battle over rising prices at deteriorating marina
POLK COUNTY, Iowa — For houseboat owners at Saylorville Lake, it’s a real pickle.
“Pay a lot of money or pay a lot of money,” laughed Matt Drewis, who keeps his houseboat at the Saylorville Marina.
Pay thousands to leave your boat on land, or thousands more to use the deteriorating marina.
“The amenities are s—,” said Andy Knauss, another marina customer. “There’s no other way to put it. The service sucks.”
The last time we spoke, Drewis, Knauss, and their group of disgruntled Marina renters had contacted the Army Corps of Engineers, who leased the marina to its current owner, Suntex.
The Army Corps told the group they’d have an answer by April 3.
“We sent them emails yesterday,” Drewis said, “we’ve gotten no response from them.”
The owners have decided to proceed with their boating season (they don’t really have a choice), and contact their politicians.
“A lot of state politicians aren’t able to help you because it’s a federal issue with the Army Corps,” Knauss explained. “So you have to get your federal politicians involved.”
This happened before, 20 years ago. Leonard Boswell, Tom Harkin, and Chuck Grassley pressed the Corps and made a difference.
“Without congressional help and the senators it wouldn’t have gotten it done then,” remembered Carla Wallace, another boat owner associated with the group.
Wallace says she’s confident this approach will work again. The Army Corps will eventually enforce its contract with Suntex and prices will fall.
“I think anytime the people band together — we tend to forget that we are taxpayers and that we actually own this lake and once we hold them responsible I think they’ll step up and do the right thing.”
But if that doesn’t work, the group is prepared to escalate.
“We’ve got hundreds of people behind us that are in the same boat,” Knauss promised. “We will file a class-action lawsuit and do it that way and take it into litigation. They’ve kicked a hornet’s nest.”
The group urges any Saylorville Marina renters (or renters at the Lake Red Rock Marina—it’s also owned by Suntex) to join its Facebook group called “Suntex Customers Call to Action—Saylorville, Red Rock.”
Suntex Corporation is based in Texas and owns marinas across the country. Representatives told WHO 13 they believe Suntex’s prices at Saylorville were fair. The Army Corps of Engineers has declined to comment on the story.
Continue Reading at WHO13.com here