Hart Van DenburgElected leaders in Sterns County are being asked to enact no-wake restrictions as high water swamps area lakes.
A group of lakeshore property owners grind their teeth every time they see a boat speed by their property and the high water waves slowly erode their land. Property owners have erected handmade “no-wake” signs that plead with boaters to slowdown without much success. Now they are heading to the county to request that wakes be curtailed until the water recedes.
The St Cloud Times reports that the request is being met with opposition from resort owners who rely on tourists that like to feel the breeze blow in their hair and drag their kids on tubes behind speed boats.
Jim DeRose owns Riverside Resort on Cedar Island Lake near Richmond. He said when Stearns County adopted a temporary no-wake zone for five days in July, some customers canceled their reservations.
DeRose said many of his customers look forward to boating, water skiing and tubing.
“They’re not going to book a vacation if there’s a chance they can’t use their boat,” DeRose said. That has an economic impact on the whole county, he said.
The paper points out that it’s unclear if a no-wake zone is enacted if it would include all area lakes or just those hardest hit by flooding.
