Lake James homeowners face long wait for dock repairs

The good news for property owners on Lake James is that the water will be safe for swimmers and boaters heading into the spring and summer.

The bad news is it may be a while before some of those folks can fully enjoy their docks.

Hurricane Helene, with its epic flooding and destructive winds, caused major damage to nearly every dock on the lake last September. Dock construction and repair is a specialized industry, and only a handful of companies can do it.

As a result, there’s a substantial backlog.

That fact irritates homeowners like Lauren Van Riper, who addressed the Burke Board of Commissioners at its February meeting, detailing her frustrations.

“It’s impossible to find a contractor,” Van Riper said. “I called 19 installers. Nine don’t work on the lake. Three have full voicemails. You can’t even leave them a message. Three have visited and I have only gotten two quotes in four months.”

Responding to a request from Van Riper, the board voted to extend its waiver of the county’s $75 permit fee for storm-related repairs through the end of 2025.

That will help, but there’s still the matter of finding someone to do the work, and that may be the case for some time to come.

“It’s been a madhouse,” said Todd Bennick, whose company, Bennick Grading and Excavation, also installs and repairs docks. “Between the docks and the shoreline, there is a couple of years worth of work before everything gets tucked back into bed.

“There are other companies that do it, too, and they’re all in agreement: It’s a mess.”

Bennick said dock work is more involved than basic construction, for obvious reasons.

“It’s not like pulling up to a house with some wood in the back of the truck,” he said. “It’s a much more complicated process when you’re working over water.”

Add supply chain disruptions into the mix, and things get ever more difficult.

Insurance companies are another obstacle, Bennick said. Some of them are hesitant to pay off claims. He told of one client whose dock was blown into the shoreline by the wind and sustained heavy damage.

The insurance adjuster told the man the damage wasn’t covered because it was caused by wind and not flooding.

“I feel sorry for these guys,” Bennick said. “But yeah, there’s a lot of work, a lot of rebuilding going on. All these trees have failed and twisted up and broken, and when you have older, weaker docks — some of them out there are 40 or 50 years old — this was just the last straw that finally wiped them out.”