Fawn Island Owners Association (FIOA)

Fawn Island is conveniently located in the St. Clair River, directly between Sombra, Ontario and Marine City, Michigan. It hosts both cottages and boating properties that are close to the mainland, but peacefully secluded and private. The Island's unique canal system allows every resident direct access to their property by boat.

All property and cottage owners on the Island are members of the Fawn Island Owners Association (FIOA) and pay annual dues accordingly.

Fawn Island offers many exclusive benefits for the association members, their family, and guests:

Parking and Transportation

Convenient parking is close by directly east of the Island in Sombra, Ontario. The Fawn Island Owners Association owns a passenger ferry that is available for guests and residents to travel to and from the Island. The water taxi will pick up at the parking lot, and take you directly to your property (see Water Taxi Schedule for hours of operation and pricing).

Property Maintenance

Providing they follow association bylaws and township ordinances, residents can do as little or as much as they choose to maintain their land and cottages. Scott Cook, the Island Care Taker, offers complete maintenance services such as: cottage opening and closing (winterization), inside or outside cottage and window cleaning, lawn maintenance - including grass cutting and trimming, tree and shrub trimming, fertilization, and flower planting. He also offers services such as cottage painting, re-roofing, remodeling, or shed construction.

Recreation

The Fawn Island Owners Association owns a clubhouse located on "center island." It contains full private restrooms and showers for residents and guests, along with a large seating area, complete kitchen, bar area and dance floor. The clubhouse also offers boat dockage, shuffleboard, horseshoes, basketball nets and a grill. Residents host frequent theme parties during the season. This parties often help raise funds for special projects on the Island. These parties are open to all residents and their guests. Residents can also book the clubhouse for private parties or events.

Island Park

The Fawn Island Owners Association also owns Hodgson Park located on the "west island." It offers a place for families to picnic and play. There are swings and teeter-totters for children, along with steps that lead into the beautiful St. Clair River. This excellent place to swim offers a shallow, sandy bottom with very little current. The park also offers benches for viewing the passing ships or watching the sun set.

Association Dues

When one becomes a property owner on Fawn Island, there are dues to be paid initially and then on an annual basis. Each property owner, no matter how large or small, pays the same amount and has the same access to all the services and properties belonging to the Island.

The $2,000.00 new member fee was started so that the new owners could also help pay for some of the large capital purchases made over the years, such as the water taxi, the pedestrian bridges and the clubhouse.

The $1,200.00 yearly fee is to be used for the maintenance of the Island. Mainly it pays for the salary of the Island Caretaker (Scott Cook), insurance, city water, as well as maintenance of the parks, clubhouse, pedestrian bridges and any other Island property. These are the main expenses with a few other administration costs such as postage. All of the board members or people who help organize parties or other events are all volunteers for the Association.

All who own property on Fawn Island are members of the Fawn Island Owners Association (FIOA) automatically. This entitles them to a number of services such as the use of the water taxi, the clubhouse and the park. It entitles them to clean, city water piped from the mainland, garbage pickup and the use of the lot on the mainland to park cars. It gives owners the freedom to walk around the boardwalks as the Association has a 4 foot allowance around all inner canals, although each property owner must maintain their own frontage.

Mainly, the Association Dues are spent in order to maintain the beautiful atmosphere on Fawn Island. Our parks are neat, the clubhouse is fully stocked and the garbage is taken away promptly on Monday mornings. People on the Island take great pride in how wonderful everything looks, but without the Association Dues, the Island would not look the same. Over the year, a fee of $100 per month is well worth keeping up the beauty of Fawn Island.