After months of planning and site work, the Cullman County Commission finally has clipped the ribbon on Smith Lake Park’s newest amenity: a six-lane boat ramp and recreational area that significantly expands access to the park’s launch-friendly shoreline.

Dozens of local officials, anglers and boaters showed up at the park for a chilly ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning, with close to a dozen more lining up their trucks and trailers to be among the first to put the new boating facility through its paces.

The new parking lot adds more than 150 new spaces, as well as a six-lane concrete launch slab that extends 40 feet into the water. The county commission signed off on the project last August, with much of the labor performed through cost-saving in-kind county services.

Kim Striker, a former professional-circuit angler, said it’s hard to underestimate what a difference the new facility will make for the park’s positioning as a potential host for major tournaments.

“This is awesome. I was so excited about it that I closed my business down this morning just to come here,” she said. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this. I’ve aggravated [county commissioners] for a long, long time about getting a ramp down here.

“Me and my husband both are avid anglers — that’s actually how we met. And I begged and begged, for years, to try to get tournaments here, but it really wasn’t a good location for a boat launch, and there wasn’t enough parking. But now — this is huge. It’s like the second or third biggest boat ramp at a public park in the whole state now.”

County Commission Chairman Kenneth Walker said the new area is just the first phase in a long-range project that will add even more parking and services. Phase two will include a second parking area, alongside two new pavilions and a bridge spanning the water inlet to connect the current boat launch area with the phase two site.

“For a long time, we haven’t been able to host any events that would bring out a lot of people all at once,” said Walker. “If you tried to host a tournament with what we had, you’d get 300 boats trying to launch from only a couple of ramps, and you just can’t do it. You’d have to wait in line for, like, three hours.

“Now, it’s a different story. It really is big, how much this adds to what we had before.”

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 145.