"A lot of people fish along the edge of the lake and the pathway is barely wide enough and their poles and lines are basically kind of cutting off people walking around the lake." John Mallen, a consultant engineer for the City of Marysville, said that to KCRA in early September while standing on Gazebo Island.
That sentence explains most of the Ellis Lake project better than any rendering could. The work set to begin this fall isn't a lakewide makeover. It goes after one problem along the lake's busiest edge. The B Street side and the north end along 14th Street are where people walking a loop and people casting a line have been sharing a strip of pavement that Mallen says is too narrow, with a "cross slope [that] is way too steep for even just day to day walking around the lake." Nearly everything else in the scope supports that fix.
What gets rebuilt, segment by segment
Public Works Director Jeramy Chapdelaine laid out the route for the Appeal-Democrat. The lakeside path along B Street, which is also Highway 70, gets replaced and widened "from a little above 9th Street north to 14th Street." From there, "the path will continue around the north end of the lake along 14th Street toward C Street." The new surface will combine concrete sidewalk with a "precast concrete boardwalk" built to Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
| Location | What the project does there |
|---|---|
| B Street / Hwy 70 side, just above 9th St. to 14th St. | Path replaced and widened for shared walking and biking, with wider fishing areas and benches near them |
| North end along 14th St. toward C St. | Path continues around the top of the lake |
| Gazebo Island, end of 12th St. | Pedestrian bridge replaced, accessible path to the gazebo rebuilt, island landscaping |
| West side near 11th and D streets | New play area |
| Throughout | Lighting, trash cans, art features, some tree removal |
The bridge and island details also come from Chapdelaine, who described "replacing the pedestrian bridge that connects to Gazebo Island at the end of 12th Street, along with the accessible path leading to the gazebo." The city's environmental filing describes the same package in planning language: widened north and east paths running from 14th to 9th Street, a west-side play area near 11th Street, an accessible bridge to the event island, and fishing pads, benches, signs, receptacles and public art.
That filing also says the project would not change the lake's continued use or capacity. Read alongside Mallen's quote, the intent is clear. The fishing stays. It gets its own pads, so lines stop crossing the walking lane.
Why fishing shapes the design
Most park renovations that start with a path widening are about accessibility, and this one is too. At Ellis Lake, though, the design has to deal with a second group of users who stand still at the water's edge for long stretches, and that's harder to solve than adding wheelchair room.
Fishing is woven into the lake's civic history. The Appeal-Democrat has covered the Jim Watson Youth Fishing Derby at Ellis Lake, an event built around kids fishing plus a free breakfast. The same paper's reporting on this project describes residents using the site for fishing and for jogging and biking. It also describes a volunteer group that picks up discarded line and tackle and responds when waterfowl get tangled.
Several items in the scope speak to that. Dedicated fishing pads keep anglers in one spot, and new benches near them do the same. New receptacles give used line and bait containers somewhere to go. Caltrans' grant listing adds lighting and a bioswale to the list of funded features.
Who is paying, and how the money moves
The funding explains why the project covers these edges and stops there.
Marysville won $2,906,000 through Caltrans' Clean California Local Grant Program, in the second round of local awards. Chapdelaine puts the overall budget at about $3.82 million, with roughly $918,000 coming from the city. The construction contract itself went to TJR Resources, Inc., at about $2.98 million, according to the Territorial Dispatch. The Dispatch also reported that the council set aside $1.2 million in general funds back in July 2025 to cover costs above the grant, and that the grant reaches the city as a reimbursement through Caltrans. Reimbursement means the city fronts the money and gets paid back. That's one reason a grant-funded city project tends to move in carefully sized pieces.
The council approved the contract unanimously on September 1. Mayor Chris Branscum called it "a big step" and said, "I think it's going to light up a lot of people in the city."
Mallen described the money logic plainly to KCRA: "You got to start with what you can afford through grants and other opportunities. And this is the first phase of this."
What "first phase" does and doesn't promise
Ideas from the city's earlier master-planning process still come up in conversations about Ellis Lake. The Appeal-Democrat's coverage of that process listed a stage, lake-facing dining, fishing piers, a kayak and paddleboard launch, restrooms, lighting and a splash pad as possible concepts for the wider lake area. Lighting made it into this round. The rest has no adopted schedule, scope or funding in anything published so far.
So the honest description of phase one is a rebuilt east and north edge, a new bridge, and a new west-side play area. Anything beyond that would need its own funding.
The construction year, in practical terms
Groundbreaking. A community calendar lists the Ellis Lake Walking Path Groundbreaking Ceremony for Friday, October 16, 2026, at 11 a.m. on Ellis Lake Island. City staff had told the council in early September that groundbreaking could come in late September or early October.
Duration. Both KCRA and the Territorial Dispatch report that construction should take about a year. The city's bid notice gives the contractor 125 working days. Working days count actual construction days, which is why a 125-day contract can stretch across a full calendar year. If work starts this month and runs about a year, the reported timeline points to completion around fall 2027. The city's environmental study, written in January, originally pictured work starting in spring 2026, so that schedule has already slipped.
Where crews will be. The environmental study expects weekday daytime work, with equipment staged in nearby public parking, mainly along 14th Street and C Street. Construction traffic is expected to use SR 70, 10th Street, E 12th Street and B Street.
Walking during construction. No published detour map exists yet. Here is what the contract specifications require when a sidewalk closes:
- A temporary accessible alternate pedestrian route
- Channelizing devices or barricades to mark it
- Notice to the city and affected property owners at least 24 hours before the closure
Since the work is concentrated on the B Street side and the 14th Street end, the west side along D Street is where the new play area goes in near 11th Street. It's outside the main path rebuild, though the published materials don't say whether any stretch of the loop stays fully untouched the whole time. Anyone who walks the full circuit every morning should expect the east-side segment to change as work moves along.
Where the improvements land first
The project's own boundaries are 9th, 14th, B and D streets. Within that box, the money goes to the edge along Highway 70, the north end, and the bridge out to the gazebo. Those are the parts of the lake where Mallen described the most crowding between walkers and anglers.
People who park on 14th or C to start a walk will see crews and staged equipment before anyone else does. People who fish from the B Street bank will see their spots reshaped into designated pads. The west side will get a play area near 11th and D that didn't exist before.
If you live near Ellis Lake and want to talk through how a year of construction on 14th, C or B Street fits your own plans, Taylor Zapata follows these Marysville projects closely and is happy to walk through what's been published so far. Let's Connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
