Perhaps no one has seen the growth and maturity of Geist Reservoir like 25-year Marina Director Kent Duckwall. Hired by the Shorewood Corporation in 1982, Duckwall was brought in to “clean up” Geist and attract more lot sales in the fledgling Masthead development.

“I was a competitor to Shorewood (now Marina Limited Partnership) at Red Bridge Park in Cicero,” Duckwall recalls. “Shorewood liked what I did there and asked me if I’d come to Geist.”

When Duckwall arrived, he was greeted by deteriorating docks, no retail buildings and some unhappy bikers living in houseboats. He spent the winter of 1982 and early 1983 mapping out a plan to clean up the marina, build new dock slips and make the Geist Marina a destination for boaters.

Duckwall went on to build 60 boat slips, a new boat launch and a lakefront office building and restaurant, which is now home to the Geist Marina Dock Construction offices. Neighborhood Patrol was one of their first tenants. Launch fees were a meager $6 during the week and $8 on weekends.

“My wife Brenda and I opened the Ketch Restaurant and ran it at a loss for two years. We just wanted to get people to come to the marina. It was good for the marina business and good for the development business.”

Once some homes were built in Masthead, Rick Albrecht — the owner of Rick’s Cafe American Restaurant downtown — wanted to open a lakefront restaurant at the marina. Duckwall closed the Ketch to make room for Rick’s Dockside Cafe, which opened in 1985. Development thrived, as did Rick’s cafe.

In the early 1990s, the Marina Limited Partnership built the Blue Herron, which is now Bella Vita Ristorante. Not many years later, the retail center was built, and the marina parking area was complete.

“We’ve always been limited in our growth by the amount of parking we have,” Duckwall said. “When we moved the public launch to Olio Road, that freed up our parking to slip customers, which helped a lot.”

Over the years, Duckwall has either witnessed or created a lot of good boating stories.

“Most of the funny ones involve me falling into the lake, but I find the other ones funnier,” chuckled Duckwall.

One of his earliest memorable stories occurred in the summer of 1984.

“We had been doing a lot of watering to get grass to grow. We had a hole in our fuel tank underground and didn’t know it, so the ground water filled our fuel tank with water. One Saturday morning, we must have filled 30 to 40 boats with water instead of gasoline. People would pull away from the docks and get to the bridge and then stall.”

Back then, the Geist Marina did not have a mechanic. Duckwall called on bait shop owner Vance — just south of the marina on Fall Creek Road — for help.

“I called Vance and said, ‘This is our fault; we are to blame, but I need you to do whatever it takes to get these boats running again,’” Duckwall said. “It was a nightmare.”

Another story involves local real estate broker Chris Schulhoff.

“We had a boat fire one time that destroyed 9 or 10 boats. Chris (Schulhoff) worked for me at the time, and he always had a video camera with him. He went and grabbed his camera to capture the fire on one of those big VHS cameras. He wasn’t worried about the boats, he was more worried about recording the fire and selling the footage to a local news station.”

Fast forward to today: Duckwall is focusing this year on another “clean up” effort at the Geist Marina.

“The marina has gotten old, and we’re going to revisit the clean-up stages like we did before.”

This summer, the brown, wooden building which housed the likes of Neighborhood Patrol and Rick’s Dockside will be torn down. A new building at the Olio Road ramp will house Paul Deaton and the Geist Marina Dock Construction offices. A new restroom facility was just finished near the ramp, and an outdoor shower was installed.

“With the blue-green algae scare last year, we thought it would be a good idea to install a public shower so people could rinse off after they get out of the lake.”

Launch fees have also gone up this year, from $11 during the week to $12, and from $27 on weekends and holidays to $28. Boat slips are still available at the Geist Marina for the 2008 boating season; visit www.MarinaLimited.com or call 317-849-8455 for more information.

Shorewood and the Geist Marina have always been involved in the community, and this year the projects just get bigger. April’s launch of the Indy SurviveOars Dragon Boat Racing Team and May’s inaugural Geist Half Marathon & 5K are two large events that will showcase the marina and the Geist Reservoir community.

“We want these things to continue,” Duckwall said. “We’re just happy to be a part of them.”

The Geist Marina has evolved into the centerpiece of a great Geist community, thanks in large part to Kent Duckwall. His stewardship of the Geist Marina has given all of us a place we can proudly call our own.

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