Old Lyme — The Point O’Woods Beach Association will undertake repairs of its 40-year-old boat basin this fall if town voters approve the project at a special town meeting scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

“The Board of Selectmen have already recommended approval to the town meeting,” First Selectman Timothy Griswold said by phone Tuesday. “It’s more of an administrative measure than anything else.”

The resolution allows the Point O’ Woods Association, a chartered neighborhood considered its own municipality located off Route 156 to the southwest of Rocky Neck State Park, to take on $820,000 of debt for the project and waives town liability or responsibility for repayment of the debt the association will incur to make the repairs needed to maintain the marina, known as the Point O’ Woods Boat Basin.

The marina, which has 62 boat slips, is for association use only and yields approximately $80,000 per year in revenue through slip rental. A boat ramp is accessible to all association members for launching of watercraft, and a pedestrian bridge supported by the basin’s retaining walls provides access to the beach on the south side of the marina.

The 740 linear feet of steel retaining walls, which make up the boat basin bulkhead, run along all four sides of a roughly trapezoidal marina, and act as retaining walls for the surrounding parking lot, properties and beach on the south side of the marina.

Significant corrosion and pitting have occurred, and some holes have developed in the walls since their installation in the 1980s, requiring repair of the east wall immediately as postponement would increase the possibility of collapse.

The current phase of repairs will tackle replacement of the east wall, walls on either side of the boat launch and the launch’s ramp.

The Point O’ Woods Association voted in June to approve significant increases to association fees paid by property owners to cover the cost of repairs to the community-owned property. The proposed first year increase to fees is 16%, followed by a second-year increase of 5.5%, and 3.5% each subsequent year through 2034.

“We were grateful for the overwhelming support at our annual meeting,” said Point O’Woods Association President Abe Krisst, reached by phone on Tuesday.

He said the project is not “an enhancement in the community; it’s necessary maintenance analogous to fixing the roof on your house or replacing the tires on your car.”

“If it isn’t addressed, the cost to repair things down the road is going to be even more than it is today,” he said.

The western and southern sections are proposed to be replaced in future phases of the project.