TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Work on a new state park on Lake Erie’s Middle Bass Island has been slow going in the nearly 14 years since Ohio bought the island’s landmark winery.
The state’s parks department added a marina and 20 campsites and made a few other improvements, but plans to renovate the historic Lonz Winery are just getting off the ground.
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So far, the state has spent $20 million to buy and fix up the island property and is putting an additional $6 million toward shoring up the winery.
Middle Bass residents are hoping tourists will return now that the state is again looking for a private investor to develop the winery’s historic main building.
That building has been closed since a terrace collapse there killed one person in the summer of 2000.
