Oxford Boathouse showing its age, needs repairs

LAKE RIDGE, Va. — About 400 people per year, from five high schools and an adult rowing club use Prince William County’s only boathouse.

The Oxford Boathouse at Lake Ridge Park sits on the Occoquan River, and at 30 years old is showing signs of age. The roof — already replaced twice in the building’s lifetime — is again showing signs of wear.

The building was never built to code and is supported by concrete footers, and the electric lines inside that provide power to the boathouse do not conform to building codes, either.

“The building was never permitted to code because there wasn’t any code back then for boathouses, so it’s kind of a catch-22,” explained Patricia Williams, of the Prince William Crew Association, which operates Oxford Boathouse.

Willams and others from the crew association — which rents the building from the Prince William County Government for $10 a year and is responsible for maintaining it — asked the county leaders for $300,000 to bring the building up to code and to fix roof damage.

The building is safe and not in danger of falling, explained Williams. But it is heavily used, and soon to be used by a sixth high school rowing team from Colgan Sr. High School.

The high school teams pay a fee to use the boathouse, and so do adult rowers. There’s also racks for rent where rowers can store their boats after taking them out of the Occoquan.

“As high schools grow, and as more schools want to come in, we”re going to have to see how many students we’re going to allow per high school,” she added.

Occoquan District Supervisor Ruth Anderson toured the boathouse and agreed with Williams — it needs help. And so do many other county-owned buildings like it, she added.

The Board of Supervisors on Wednesday is expected to approve its fiscal 2018 budget and with it a new $8 million fund, viewed as seed money, to address similar problems at other county-owned buildings.

Up until now when something needed to be fixed the managers at these small county-owned but privately maintained buildings simply put in a work request to have the repair done.

“It’s been kind of a random approach,” said Anderson.

About 15 years ago the crew association enclosed the building with vinyl siding and enlarged it by a tiny fraction.

“The building needs a lot of work,” said Anderson. “If we have to spend that much, should we consider starting fresh? But we took a look at it, and I believe the building is worth saving, and a new building would cost so much more.”

Oxford Boathouse means a lot to Jennifer Tillman, whose three daughters used the facility when they were students on the Woodbridge Senior High School Crew Team. After they had graduated, she joined the adult row team and continued to use the facility.

Comparing it to other scholastic sports, she and other rowers call the stretch of water along the Occoquan River near the boathouse the rowers’ playing field. In 2013, Prince William County approved millions to install new turf fields and lighting at several county middle schools.

“Now I’m like, OK, now it’s time to put a little money into this field,” said Tallman.