Inside Lake Ray Roberts Marina And The Long Road Back

A tornado can level buildings on land, but when it tears through a marina, the damage doesn’t stack up neatly. It breaks apart, sinks, drifts, and turns recovery into a long, technical grind. We sit down with Elyse and Jason from Lake Ray Roberts Marina near Sanger, Texas, to tell the story of what happened, what it took to rebuild, and why getting “back to normal” is about more than replacing docks.

We talk through the real day-to-day of marina operations: managing slips and leases, answering customer calls, scheduling pump-outs, stocking a convenience store, and keeping the yard and docks in working shape. Because Lake Ray Roberts sits in a heavily managed environment, the rebuild also means constant coordination with partners and regulators, including Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Corps of Engineers. If you’ve ever searched for Lake Ray Roberts boat slips, marina fuel dock access, or overnight slips near Denton County, you’ll hear what services matter most and what’s changing as the marina ramps up again.

The conversation gets personal as they describe the surreal first hours after the storm, the relief of no casualties, and the wave of help from boaters, students, and the local community. We also dig into practical lessons for small business disaster planning, including new safety improvements like a storm shelter and fire suppression, plus what they’re doing to rebuild excitement through traditions like Fourth of July plans and family-friendly marina events.

You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX.  IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org

Transcript

Welcome And Marina Overview

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Welcome to the 266 Express. John Knoblett, and today we have Ixley and Jason with us from the Sanger Marina.

unknown 0:15

Hi. Hi.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Hey.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

How are y'all doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Good, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Tired. Tired. Worn out. It's good, good. So tell us about the Lake Ray Roberts Marina.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

So Lakray Roberts Marina has been there since we opened up in 1995. And ever since then, we've housed over, you know, we were full before the tornado. But we have over 500 slips, and we're currently looking to add another 200, I believe. More boat houses, and we also have our convenience store and gas stock there where we sell fuel and just, you know, boating basics there as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

All right. So for listeners that may not be familiar, we we talk a little bit about businesses in Sanger and businesses in what we call our extraterritorial jurisdiction, the ETJ. You guys, uh there's a few differences between those businesses just uh on um on how they operate and the regulations that you're under and things like that. Um tell us a little bit, because you know, we focus a lot when we talk here, we focus a lot and have in the past on businesses that are in the city proper, but really we serve a really broad community, a broad region. Tell us a little bit about what it's like uh at at the marina. What's a day in the life of the lay Ray Roberts Marina look like out there? Because not a lot of people may know.

Daily Operations And Agency Coordination

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah. I would definitely say um a lot of our day-to-day operations, especially regarding like with what we're trying to do now and like the rebuilding process really is really intermingled with um the Texas Corps of Engineers and Texas Parks and Wildlife and the State Park. Right. I would say is probably the main people that we're constantly in um communication with um in regards to that. But probably in the day of the life, um it kind of changes depending on who you're asking. Like for me, for example, you know, I work in the office, and so um right now it's mostly, you know, like taking payments, um answering customer phone calls, um, scheduling pump outs. Um and then I would also say recently I've been getting more into um, we're like go, go, go right now with the store since we're trying to get that open very, very soon. Um, and so I've recently been put a store manager. So a lot of that entails like, you know, finding vendors, you know, ice cream, you know, drinks, uh, West dealing with West Marine, uh, which is our main vendor that supplies all like the boat supplies, things like that. Right. Um, and kind of just figuring out processes for you know, reporting and things like that. What about you, Jason?

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah, um, they recently made me operations manager. Uh, so I basically see everything that goes on outside, right? Um, taking care of the docks, making customers happy, uh, taking care of the yard, just making sure the place is in shape.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Is in it's a lot of place out there.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Oh yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about shape.

Tornado Damage On The Water

SPEAKER_01 3:39

So we we know um that uh that the marina was one of the hardest hit area uh areas during uh the May tornado uh years ago. And um when we say one of the hardest hit, I I know from uh emergency management when we looked at all the devastation out um throughout you know the I-35 corridor, and then as you got out to Lake Ray Roberts, um the damage there was tremendous. You know, and when you when I first saw it, you go, hey, I wonder how they're gonna recover because you it's a lot different than other other businesses that are land-based, I guess. Yeah, uh, because you have a lot of a lot of challenges there. Can you take us back and kind of tell us uh what were you guys with the marina at that time? What was unfolding at that time for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Um yeah, it was pretty hectic. Um, I can tell you this, I'm from Kansas, so I've seen a lot of tornadoes. Right. I've seen a lot of damage, and um there was a big difference between a tornado on land and a tornado that hit the water. On land, you can just come in, get a bulldozer, and push everything into a pile.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Um on the water, everything comes out in pieces, and it's you know not an easy task. Thank God we had uh Otis dock repair. Right. They've been a big part of our recovery, and they deserve a lot of credit for where we are today for sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

And I would say for me, um, yeah, we were both with the marina at that time, and um I'm from Denton, and you know, I was born in 2002, so like I feel like I've every year we have like tornado scares, at least in Denton. Um and I had never really been in something as severe as that one. Um I was kind of used to the whole, oh yeah, there's a tornado warning, and then the next day it's yeah, it's just passed over, it was okay, it's just a little bit of rain, and you know. But I had never really been in something that caused that much damage. Um, all I can say is it was really surreal. Um, because it happened at night. Right. And it was really surreal to like be receiving photos of the store that I had was just working in being completely flattened. And I I really couldn't believe it was real, honestly. Um I really couldn't wrap my head around like my even just like small things like my chair that I was sitting in, it's like I don't even know where it is, you know. Um and so I would probably say that I just wasn't prepared for how I I didn't know what was gonna happen. Um so yeah, just going through that and going in the next day and like really not knowing what was gonna happen there for the marina was kind of hard.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah. Yeah. That first 48 hours is tough, right? Yeah. Uh we do we we say this all the time. We're we're prepared because that's part of our job, right? Uh but even with an event like that, it's hard even for us to prepare because the damage was um spread across such a large area, and you you have limited resources across the board, and that's certainly true with you guys when you uh when you go out and you so you walk out there, those first 48, and you go out in the marina, the marina that was there two days ago, mostly submerged, debris everywhere.

First Response And Community Cleanup

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Did what at what was your plan at that point?

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Um obviously making sure everybody was okay. Right. And thank God we had no casualties, uh, especially being on a holiday weekend.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

You know, at the marina we didn't um and we had you know the RV park there as well. And so, you know, all of the there were people still, you know, several people were trapped in their RVs, you know. Um so we were really grateful that nobody had, you know, gotten seriously, seriously injured. There were some injuries, of course, but um that first day after it was kind of really cool to see the community come together that first day, especially, and and several weeks after that. Um of course it's gonna be hard to maintain that on a long-term level. Right. But yeah, those first few weeks we were really grateful for you know the Sanger and Den community to come out and really like, you know, like not only our employees, but just like you know, our boaters came out and just were out there the whole day helping just you know trash clean up and you know, whatever they could. Um, because it really was devastating. Like it was some of the stuff like you couldn't even, you know, and that's why it stayed out there for so long. It was really it's kind of hard to find um time and resources to to get some of that heavier stuff, you know, stuff that's gonna take you know a lot more to clean up.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

And the regulatory environment doesn't help either sometimes. I mean, there's a lot of lot of rules on the water. Um environmental, especially. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Rebuilding Progress And Leasing Reality

SPEAKER_01 9:04

So after the event, you know we're past the tornado. You've uh you've obviously you know you're assessing the damage. Let's talk about some of the things that you've done since. Let's talk about where the marina is today and kind of how you how you've gotten here.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Yeah, so um during the tornado, the first part of boathouse one, uh, first part of boathouse two, the second part of boathouse three, and the fuel dock were all destroyed. As of right now, we have everything rebuilt. We've uh we've moved mountains. Um it's a big it's been a big mountain to move. Oh yeah. But we're we're there. Um we're so close. And um, you know, we just need to get it filled back up.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah. And how's the leasing going?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

I mean it's been so it's been kind of difficult. Um it's not too bad. We definitely have had a lot of of new leases come in, um, but we've also had a lot of people leave. So I think we just we're trying to, you know, ramp up the excitement and you know show that you know the community is it has the potential to come back. Um and a lot of our our boaters have stayed with us and we're really, really grateful to them because you know, they've maintained consistent, you know, they're you know, they're out there every weekend sometimes. And you know, they're really important to the marina community as well. Um yeah, and I just agree with Jason where it's it's really been even though it seems you know it's been two years now, um, but we also went through an ownership change through that, and so that's kind of and they took over um residential. Yeah, last September in September. So it's only been how many December like nine months. Yeah, less than that. Probably, I don't know. A few months since they took over, and they were able, you know, in September those boat houses weren't there, the gas stock wasn't there and it went up like really, really fast. Right. So um, we're really excited to, you know, because before, you know, I don't even know if I don't think Torina's ever been through, even though we're in this, you know, tornado area. It has never gone through. Like all of before the tornado, all of those boat houses were original from 1995. So I don't know how we made it that long without you know significant damage like that. Um but you know, we're back and we're wanting to get people excited for being out on the water because it is, you know, a community, it's a place where people just hang out, and um yeah, we're wanting the that for not only the marina, but Lake Ray Roberts as a whole, you know, because it is a really beautiful lake. It's a great lake. Oh, yeah, it's a great lake. It's my favorite. It's a great lake.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Oh nice. That is nice. Yeah, we uh, you know, I remember when that was not Lake Ray Roberts, that was that was just farmland and houses and everything else. So uh 200 years old tomorrow. Yeah. So

Marina Culture And Holiday Traditions

SPEAKER_01 12:13

tell us a little bit. Okay, so this is an amenity. The Lake Ray Roberts clearly is an amenity that uh is available to a lot of people. What are what are some of the your favorite stories? What's uh of uh of the people not just from the Sanger area or Denton area, but I mean I'm sure you see people from all over the country and globally at times.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yeah, I would say, you know, we have a we have a couple of high profile boaters. I won't say their names because you know, but we can't. But we have a few high profile boaters that, yeah, people who you know you wouldn't expect to be in this area, and they spend their time and they trust us with their boats. And that's really great to see. Um and they're able to spend time there and not be, you know, completely you know bombarded with you know whatever. Yeah, they're comfortable there. Um and a lot of them have been there for a really long time. Um and then I don't know, I would say what else.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

I mean, there's the 4th of July weekend has always been wonderful. Yeah. Um they you know, Boat House 9, they host a cardboard boat regatta. So yeah, so kids make boats out of cardboard. And adults. I don't know. And adults. And uh, you know, they race them and it it's pretty neat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Um so that is one of my favorite. I forgot about that. That is. It's so much fun before because I used to be like a a dock kid when I before I worked here. That's kind of how I jumped, you know. I love I loved spending time at the lake so much that I started work there. Um, but before I worked here, I was um a boater and yeah, participating in that was so much fun. Um everybody's looking at you trying to, you know, it's way harder than you in the boat sinking. In the boat sinking and the water's coming in and everybody's screaming. But um, no, yeah, that's a lot of fun. And and it's not even just the regatta. Um on Boathouse Nine, they have like a whole day of activities where it's like, you know, root beer float, hour, um, so much other stuff. I would have to look at the you know what they had. But yeah, it was a full day of fun activities just for you know Boat House Nine boaters and and the rest of the marina as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

I think uh Boathouse One, I don't know if you remember this, they had a Jimmy Buffett night. And so I mean that was that was pretty neat.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yeah. So they always have like fun stuff like that. Um I know a few all of this is pre-tornado. A few years ago they had like uh a crawfish. Well they do that every year. No, not that. Oh, at the at the restaurant when we had the restaurant. When we had the restaurant, they had like a crawfish boil night there. Um they also have a boater has a crawfish boil uh that they just had recently. Um so yeah, stuff like that. It's a lot of fun. And we're hoping to bring that back. And y the boaters have tried, but yeah, sometimes it can be difficult with like you know construction going on.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Right. Yeah. Right.

Restaurant Plans And Long-Term Vision

SPEAKER_01 15:25

But so is now you mentioned the restaurant. Uh the is are there any possible plans of the restaurant coming coming back?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Absolutely. It's definitely in their long-term plan. Um it's just gonna take a second to it's like they have all these moving parts that are like one one part sticking up over here and they gotta put it down, and so like there's still a few things, you know, it's just gonna take time, like the list of priorities. Um, but that is definitely in their in their long-term plan.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah, that's great. That's great. Now, uh as far as you know, during the recovery and during this process, the do you guys feel like you've had good community support support and good support from Denton and the county and the city of Sanger along the way?

SPEAKER_02 16:09

I mean, I would say we have. Um we've had the high schools come out and bring a busload to the kids and help clean up uh her school came out.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

I organized uh I was I'm in a student organization um at UNT, and you know, they're always looking for you know service community service events. So I had organized um a cleanup of the gas dock. I think that was last year. Yeah. Um, but in terms of like the city and stuff, it could be more difficult. I don't know if we've yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Yeah, we have. We've had support from all around. It's good. So we'll just say that.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

That's good. That's

Disaster Planning And Safety Upgrades

SPEAKER_01 16:48

good. Um now as far as business continuity. I mean, I'm sure you guys have learned a lot of lessons over the past couple of years. You have any insights as to to uh to some good things you've learned or maybe some bad things you've learned about uh business continuity or even disaster recovery?

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I would definitely say that it's it's not something that I would have thought about before, like disaster planning for a business. Um I would have, you know, that doesn't seem like, you know, I'm an I'm actually was a I just graduated with my entrepreneurship and enterprise management degree. Um so you know, they don't teach you about that kind of stuff, you know, disaster planning. Um it's more just about, you know, like you know, your margins and profits and things like that. Right. But I would definitely say, especially living in this area, that you know, disaster planning is something that should be thought about, you know, when in the case that you know something because you don't ever think it's gonna happen to you, of course. Right. But um, yeah, I definitely think that that's probably one thing that I'm gonna take with me, you know, just to think about.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, Jason, any anything that y'all done with the reconstruction that that falls kind of in line with that?

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Have y'all had to make any changes to anything to um yes, we've added some you know, fire safety um uh well it's called a standpipe system. Yeah, so fire suppression. Fire suppression, there you go. So we got that, and I mean, as far as that goes, on a marina, there's not a whole lot you can do. Uh obviously we've added a storm shelter, which is fantastic. Uh makes people feel uh safe. Yeah. Um just you gotta stay positive. Uh some days I feel like I'm you know getting two steps ahead, five back. But uh, you know, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I can't wait to break through because uh I'm ready. I've I've worked at that marina since 2008. So I want it to be back to normal.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah, that's you've seen it all. I have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

That's good. That's good.

How To Reach Us And July Plans

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Well, so we talk about the the leasing, you know, you're adding adding more docs. How do how do people find you? Where you where are you guys located on the where are you at? Where what how do they contact you by phone? Do you have social feeds? Where where do where do they find you?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Um, so we're located on the southwest side of Lake Ray Roberts. Um we are on Facebook mainly. Um our marketing person is working on getting us an Instagram as well. Right. Um but both of those would be under Lake Ray Roberts Marina. Um we're open every day from 9 to 5, so you can always call us at 940-458-7343. Um, and you can get all the information you want on you know leasing, pricing, um, overnight slips. We also have overnight slips available if you just want to spend a weekend out there. Um we have our lighthouse cove RV park where you can also spend a weekend out there. We also have long-term leasing there as well. Um, yeah, and we're really excited to open up our gas dock to have more, you know, not just for our boaters, but for you know, everybody on Lake Ray Roberts to get some fuel and you know, whatever they may need when they're out there.

unknown 20:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Good. Well, do you guys have any anything that you'd like to relay to the listeners and to the community?

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Yeah. I would say just be ready for our Fourth of July plans. We're planning an event. Um we're still working on getting all of those events um in put in place. Right. But um definitely just be on the lookout for that and keep that Saturday open if you're if you're ready for some fun.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Yeah. And I can just say, hey, we're we're back, you know, and ready to get rolling again, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

We all are.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

I I think so. I think so. Like I said, it's been an incredible journey. Like I said, I I've been on the back end because of the emergency management portion. You know, these guys next door to us. The room we're in, all these guys next door to us were were were there. Yeah uh and to see where where where it was um and uh and and where it is now because it's it's dynamically different. Uh I mean it I just cannot unless you saw it, you you can't comprehend the amount of work that has to have gone in to getting you guys back on your feet and ready to really push forward and uh and bring everybody back out to Lake Ray Roberts.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Oh, yeah. So yeah. Yeah, we're excited.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

So great work.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Thank you both for being here.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

You've been listening to the 266 Express. Uh, we thank you for listening to what's going on in our small little North Texas town.

unknown 22:03

And then we're going to do that.