The Winnetka Park Board is expected to make a decision May 9 about whether the Lloyd Park boat ramp will open this season.

Low water levels and sand accumulation have park directors considering closing the ramp to boaters this summer. The April 18 storm that left much of Chicagoland flooded presented a sliver of hope for Lloyd Park boaters.

The lake water rose 11 inches after the storm, according to Jon Shabica, the coastal engineer working with Winnetka and other municipalities along the North Shore.

It may not be enough. There’s a bed of pebbly sand at the base of ramp, instead of the required three feet of water.

The park board will decide whether to open the ramp to all boaters, non-motorized boaters or none. At the heart of the issue is whether to invest in dredging that may only provide temporary relief to sand accumulation, said Terry Schwartz, executive director of the Winnetka Park District.

“The board has to make a decision about what kind of risk to take relevant to a do over,” Schwartz said, speaking to the possibility that any dredging effort could be undermined by the wrong kind of storm.

The April 18 storm also helped out Lloyd Park by moving some sand away from the shore. But there’s still a significant accumulation outside of the ramp and a large sandbar just to the south, Schwartz said. Sand accumulation compounds the issue of the low water levels.

“The real problem is what’s below the water,” Schwartz said.

The park district, working with Shabica & Associates, would need to take a three-pronged approach to address the sand issue, he said. First, the district would have to create a “pothole” at Tower Beach for sand to accumulate. Currently, sand migrates south from a small strip of privately-owned land between the water treatment plant and Tower Beach, he said, and accumulates at Lloyd Park.

Early conversations with the private land owners are underway, Schwartz said. To build the pothole, the park district would also need village approval, as a portion of Tower Beach is owned by the village.

Secondly, the park district would need to level the sand accumulated at Lloyd Park, and then, finally, dredge out into the lake, effectively creating a channel for boats. Schwartz said he didn’t yet know how far out in the lake it would need to dredge — or how much the combined measures would cost — but that more information would be available at the May 9 meeting.

The park district typically dredges once a year, in early April, to the tune of about $25,000 to $30,000, he said. Beyond the cost-benefit analysis, the park board will also have to consider the safety of boaters, as well as the many kayakers and stand-up paddle boarders who also use Lloyd Park, he said.

As for the water level, Schwartz said it’s unlikely to rise any more from now until the end of July.

A group of fishermen at the recent park board meeting, hoping for good news, left early and disappointed. Many of them launch from Evanston, which is also dealing with low water and sand accumulation issues.

They were also disgruntled by a rise in launch fees. If there is power boating in Winnetka this year, non-residents can expect to see a fee hike of almost 54 percent — from $650 to $1,000 — for unlimited use of the launch. Residents would see an increase of $75, from $325 to $400.

The increase is meant to stay competitive with other nearby boat launch facilities and to offset the operating costs for the park district, Schwartz said.

Wally Ross, 81, of Skokie, said he’s been launching from Lloyd Park for 10 years. His friend, Mike Gelfand, of Chicago, typically launches from Evanston. Both men were disappointed at the prospect of rising fees and low water levels, but said they’d find a way to keep fishing.

“If we’re breathing, we’re fishing,” Gelfand said, and they laughed.

It ended more than two years of debate over who should manage the 300-slip basin that sits between the Baha’i temple and Lake Michigan. The harbor association has been in charge for 75 years but was criticized during the bidding for poor upkeep and exclusivity — claims it consistently denied.

As the votes were called out, Sabine Herber, executive director for the association, slowly raised her hand to her mouth and held it there for a long moment. She was soon hugging supporters in the lobby.

“It was a big relief,” Herber said, adding that she had been flooded with calls and emails from people hoping the harbor would stay as it is. “I feel like I’ve been carrying them along with me throughout this journey.”

Not everyone was happy. Fritz Duda, president of Wilmette Harbor Management, which had submitted a higher bid than the association for the lease, said political clout won the day.

“In the typical Chicago tradition, certain commissioners were leaned on to vote a certain way,” he said after the vote. “I think we had an honest vote at the last meeting. We’re disappointed.”

Commissioner Michael Alvarez said he changed his mind after sitting down with water district staff after the previous vote and examining the applications in detail. It was clear that the association was the only financially responsible bidder, he said.

He denied Duda’s assertion that he was swayed by political pressures.

“To call it ‘Chicago politics’ sounds like sour grapes to me,” Alvarez said.

The association had bid $68,501 per year to lease the harbor from the water district. Wilmette Harbor Management and CenterPointe Yacht Services had each bid $70,000 per year but had been called “financially nonresponsive” in their bid documents by district staff.

Duda and his associates have been critical of the bidding process, saying they were not given specific information on why their group was deemed nonresponsive until it was too late.

Alvarez declined to say exactly what was missing from Wilmette Harbor Management’s application. Asked why there wasn’t a more careful examination before the last vote, Alvarez said he didn’t know and acknowledged there was room for improvement.

“The board acted at the last board meeting in a way in which we evaluated the information that we had the time to take a look at, because of the voluminous things coming in,” he said.