The Lone Star Lodge and Marina owners and staff celebrated the grand opening of a project more than a decade in the making on April 11.
The marina, owned by Ross Garrett and Karen Hutcherson, will have 500 slips at buildout and has its first 88 open for rentals as well as a ship store and boat fuel station.
Although Lone Star is not the owners' first marina, it has been plagued with challenges over the course of the 11 years it has taken to open.
One of the biggest obstacles to overcome came in the form of the May 25 tornadoes that ripped back the roof of the ship store and damaged the marina just as it was set to open in 2024.
'It's been a team effort,' Garrett said. '… We're grateful and blessed all at the same time. It's been a battle to get to this point, and we've still got a long way to go. … But I am grateful and thankful that the Lord helped, because I think he did.'
The Garrett and Karen worked together in insurance in 1998, and 'wanted something more fun than insurance,' Karen said.
The solution? Investing in marinas. Karen's daughter, Rani Hutcherson, grew up going to the marinas and at 18 started working in them.
Now, Rani serves as the marina manager at Lone Star.
'I've seen the struggle this place has had for just everything,' she said. 'The tornado we got hit by last year, and just the fact that we're now here and open is just amazing.'
They couldn't give up, Garrett said.
'When you dig a hole real, real deep and you're trying to get something, you can't just stop, because then you can't get out,' he said.
He said Ray Roberts Lake State Park Superintendent Robbie Merritt and Tim McAllister of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, among others, have been crucial to help move the process along.
Rani is grateful and excited to see the project moving forward, with additional slips already under construction.
'We'll be at about 170, probably,' she said. 'Now, we've just got to get them full.'
Garrett spoke of how crucial the staff has been throughout the entire process, especially Jennifer and Marvin Ishmael.
'[Jennifer] considers the lodge almost like her personal home,' Garrett said. '… And Marvin is literally my right-hand guy, very dedicated.'
Jennifer, the general manager who like her husband treats the facility as her home, said she, too, is grateful to have the long-term goals become a reality.
'Seeing it go from a very small little dock with a little dock shop to a massive marina is wonderful,' she said.
Pilot Point Chamber of Commerce Vice President Tracy Glover, who was part of the ribbon cutting celebration on April 11, said she is impressed with the work the Lone Star family has put into the marina.
'Less than a year ago, this lodge suffered catastrophic loss in a devastating tornado,' Glover said. '… As we stand here at this Lone Star Lodge and Marina today, we are overjoyed at the success of the rebuild, the beauty of it, the grandeur, what it means for this community, what it means for this lake. And we know this business is going to be wildly successful.'
