Mold Remediation in Muskegon, MI

MUSKEGON, MI - Dockers Fish House has served locals and visitors along the Muskegon Lake shoreline for nearly two decades.

But come May 2026, the restaurant will reopen as BoDocks Marina Bar & Grill under Harris Hospitality.

Related: A Muskegon waterfront destination, Dockers Fish House has been sold

The restaurant group plans to revamp the space known for live music and seafood to make it more appealing to boaters, local families and tourists.

Here are four key changes coming to the beloved waterfront eatery next year.

To become BoDocks, Dockers will undergo a renovation that mimics its sister restaurant’s open and airy atmosphere.

BoDocks will feature a pergola roof structure that opens and closes automatically according to the weather, replacing the traditional dining and bar area.

Fred Scharmer, co-owner of Harris Hospitality, said all windows visible to customers will be replaced with garage doors.

The renovation, which began six weeks ago, will see most of the walls removed to make way for the retractable roof.

“If you were to walk into the restaurant now, it’s kind of segregated with walls — just the way things were done years ago," Scharmer told MLive this week. “But after the renovation, it will be one open space. Very airy and open and extremely casual.”

BoDocks will have quite a bit more space for locals and tourists to dock their boats before heading into the restaurant and bar for a quick meal or a drink.

“We are going to get more room, so that will be helpful for all those people who come a long way on their boat,” Scharmer said.

The waterfront spot overlooks the Harbour Towne Marina, off the channel between Muskegon Lake and Lake Michigan, meaning visitors don’t have to use roadways to reach it.

Related: Beloved Muskegon Lake seafood restaurant to reopen as BoDocks in 2026

Scharmer said Dockers’ costs were a bit elevated compared to those of its sister restaurant, The Deck.

As a result, tourists and local families opted for places with lower prices instead of dining at Dockers.

“We want to try to control that a little bit, so we’re more family-friendly, and hopefully, they’ll visit more often,” Scharmer said.

He assures customers that many of the same seafood menu items will remain, but they will be more feasible for locals and tourists.

The plan for BoDocks is that it will be a lot quieter than The Deck, allowing patrons to order dinner without a loud atmosphere.

“We will have entertainment, but more focused on local solo — maybe two or three-piece bands,” Scharmer said. “Not quite the music venue that The Deck is.”

He told MLive that sometimes, The Deck is just a bit too loud for those who just want to enjoy a quiet evening.

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MUSKEGON, MI - Whippi Dip Northside, 1326 Holton Road, started welcoming customers back in 2021 after being closed for several summers.

Muskegon couple Ken and Angie Sutton became the new owners after providing food concessions at local events for 18 years.

The Suttons decided to reopen the ice cream shop at the tail end of the summer season during the COVID-19 pandemic to begin learning how to run the business.

And it’s been smooth sailing ever since. For the 2025 spring and summer season, Whippi Dip opened on Thursday, March 13, with half off all ice cream.

Popular flavors include soft-serve classics like cherry, orange and strawberry Dole Whip, and hard-serve options such as Superman, Michigan Pothole, Blue Moon, cake batter, mint chip, cookies and cream and strawberry cheesecake.

Whippi Dip also released a new flavor for Almond Joy lovers. It features coconut ice cream kissed with chocolate truffles and a thick blanket of fudge.

The North Muskegon ice cream shop also offers savory items, including crispy chicken and sirloin sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, chili cheese fries, sloppy joes and more.

Prices vary, ranging from around $1.50 for kids’ soft serve cones to $7.75 for large specialty sundaes and around $4-$6 for handhelds and carnival food options.

Angie Sutton said the “best part” about running Whippi Dip Northside, founded in 1992, is hearing from longtime customers.

“People come up and say, ‘I’m so glad. This was a part of my childhood,‘” Angie Sutton told MLive. “It’s a feeling they get when they come here.”

The Whippi Dip North Muskegon is open daily from 3 to 8 p.m. Visit its Facebook page for menu updates.

Would you like MLive to consider featuring your favorite restaurant in Michigan’s Best Local Eats? Send the details, including business name, address and best menu item, to Skyla Jewell-Hammie at sjewell-hammie@mlive.com.

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MUSKEGON, MI - A beloved West Michigan waterfront restaurant has officially changed its name and ownership.

For nearly two decades, Dockers Fish House has served locals and visitors along the Muskegon Lake shoreline.

But come spring 2026, the restaurant will reopen as BoDocks Marina Bar & Grill under Harris Hospitality.

Fred Scharmer, co-owner of Harris Hospitality, said the ownership transfer began about six weeks ago. The restaurant group also owns The Deck, Pints & Quarts and Harris Catering.

Related: A Muskegon waterfront destination, Dockers Fish House has been sold

“Since we do want to make the concepts more appealing to the masses, it was best to walk away from the name along with the renovation,” Scharmer said. “It’s not quite as dramatic as a start-over, but it’s pretty close.”

He told MLive that he and his wife Michelle Harris, along with Andrew Harris and Jennifer Harris, initially bought the property about 18 years ago, before establishing Harris Hospitality in 2018.

Over the years, Dockers went through various owners within the Harris family.

Now, the restaurant group plans to revamp the space known for live music and seafood to make it more appealing for boaters, local families and tourists.

“Dockers was a little bit elevated as far as costs go compared to The Deck,” Scharmer said. “We want to try to control that a little bit, so we’re more family-friendly, and hopefully, they’ll visit more often.”

BoDocks is expected to open to the public next May. This year, it will undergo a renovation that mimics its sister restaurant’s beachy and casual atmosphere.

Instead of a traditional dining and bar area, BoDocks will feature a pergola roof structure that opens and closes automatically according to the weather.

Scharmer said all windows visible to customers will be replaced with garage doors, allowing for a more open and airy concept.

There will also be more room for boaters to actually dock their boat and stop in for a drink or a meal.

“It’s certainly going to be a lot quieter than The Deck,” Scharmer said. “If you’re going to dinner, you might want to select BoDocks and then go to The Deck for the entertainment. It’s going to be exciting, just a lot of fun.”

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MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI - A Fruitport Township elementary school serving nearly 300 students will remain closed this week for repairs, after a severe Sunday storm ripped the roof off and caused other damage.

The gymnasium roof was blown off Beach Elementary, located at 2741 Heights Ravenna Road in Fruitport, on Sunday, March 30. It damaged the gym, which also serves as the school’s cafeteria.

“There was a significant windstorm that ripped across the building,” Fruitport Community Schools Superintendent Jason Kennedy said Monday. “This is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.”

The school is expected to be closed the remainder of the week, Kennedy said. Students in the district already had a short week due to Spring Break beginning Thursday, April 3. The gym will be closed for repairs for the rest of the school year.

RELATED: Severe winds rip roof off Michigan school gymnasium

Winds reached up to 95 miles per hour across parts of the state, prompting both thunderstorm and tornado warnings in several communities.

The top layer of the roof of the school’s gymnasium was swiftly ripped off in the wind, exposing the inside to pouring rain. Kennedy said there were two inches of standing water in some parts of the gym.

A large pine tree fell next to a playground, and a shed full of playground equipment blew apart and scattered around the property.

Additionally, a set of bleachers was lifted up and tossed over a fence into the baseball field, and the scoreboard was blown across the field.

Staff worked quickly to get crews on site within an hour of the damage occurring, Kennedy said. The roof was covered up to prevent any further damage, but both the roof and gym floor were deemed a “total loss.”

“We’re in the process right now of working with insurance-approved contractors to do the work in tearing up the gym floor, replacing the gym floor, and then also replacing the roof above the gym,” Kennedy said.

The roof is somewhere between 20 and 23 years old, staff said, with a typical life expectancy of 25 to 30 years.

The floor, however, is the original wood that was installed in 1960.

“You can start to see boards that are popping up, that are lifting, that are warping,” Kennedy said.

The significant water damage makes way for potential mold and air quality concerns.

Contractors were using a machine Monday to extract the water from underneath the floor.

The gym is not only used for physical education classes, but doubles as the school’s cafeteria, serving breakfast and lunch to nearly 300 students every weekday. The gym is also used for community youth basketball leagues.

“We’re having to start to get creative with plans for serving meals to students, which likely means we have to start looking at breakfast and lunch in the classrooms,” Kennedy said, adding that they will need to ensure there is enough staff to still allow employees to have a lunch break. “(We’re) hopeful that weather will begin to cooperate with us so that we can take advantage of getting kids outside for gym class.”

The state fire marshal and building code inspector were on their way Monday morning “to ensure that the building infrastructure is safe for students and staff to occupy the building,” Kennedy added.

There are just under 300 students that attend Beach Elementary, which serves students from kindergarten to fifth grade. There are 30 to 40 staff working in the building.

On Monday, March 31, students and staff were told to stay home. Kennedy is hopeful that students can return to the school April 14 after the break. The gym will be closed for at least seven to eight weeks for repairs, he said.

“There’s a lot that will go into getting this building back up and operational,” Kennedy said.

Other schools in the district do not have room to take on more students, Kennedy said.

“The classroom spaces just do not exist to be able to do that,” he said. “And rather than just sending 300 students to (another) school and having to put them in a gym space, as an example, or our performing arts center all day long, we made the decision to keep students in this building.”

While contractors worked on the gymnasium Monday morning, crews outside were cleaning up scattered debris and fallen trees.

The superintendent said he is updating parents and the community through social media and other channels.

“I’m just asking for the patience of our parents in the community,” Kennedy said. “I’m certainly apologetic for the inconvenience that this is created, but we need to make sure that we do this right, and that the safety of our kids and our staff is protected and is of the utmost importance.”

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