Mathews supervisors agreed to move forward with a grant to help develop the East River Boat Yard last month, but it wasn’t without some trepidation. In fact, supervisor Janine Burns, who has expressed support for the project and helped identify the grant funds, abstained from voting on the measure.

The $50,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is intended to help pay for the engineering, design, permitting and construction of a public boating access facility at the site, which is at the end of Mill Lane in Bohannon.

While a conceptual design developed by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. of Williamsburg shows a number of amenities, including a fishing pier, a snack bar and a playground, the current project as outlined in DGIF’s cooperative grant agreement includes only a 10-space gravel parking lot with handicapped accessibility, a boat ramp with a courtesy pier, a fish-cleaning station, and use of Shoreline Best Management Practices (a living sho...