Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

Cuda

Here is item in Orlando Sentinel

Crowded lakes test neighbors
By Stephen Hudak
Sentinel Staff Writer

June 19, 2005

EUSTIS -- From his dock, Stacey Pait scowled at the line of whitecaps rolling across East Crooked Lake, crashing into his shore and chewing at the high banks like piranha.

Pait, 75, figures in the past year he has lost two feet of property, a concrete walk and landscaping to the water. He blames wakeboarding neighbors for the omnivorous waves.

A few miles away, Monty Gatch, whose family has lived on Clear Lake for 40 years, circulated a petition to dock his newest neighbor's boat, a wave-making 23-footer. He says the vessel's wake swamps fishing boats and ruins the lake for others.

As Central Florida's population grows, so do lake conflicts, said law-enforcement, government and wildlife officials, who often are asked to intercede in the disputes. But municipal and county governments cannot arbitrarily prohibit legal recreation in public waters, said Kevin McCann, who is responsible for lake management in Orlando.

The city, for example, decided it could not divide Lake Ivanhoe into separate lobes to resolve a feud between water-skiers and fishermen, though it seemed a fair solution.

For people who for years enjoyed the tranquillity of quiet lakes, sharing the water with skiers, personal-watercraft riders and wakeboarders can be especially difficult, McCann said.

"But you're either going to have to get used to it or move," he said.

Tiffs have always been common between people who enjoy fishing, birding and other less athletic activities and those who'd rather water-ski, wakeboard or ride personal watercraft.

But growth amplifies their disputes.

"More and more people are on the water, so you have more and more conflicts," said Sam McKinney, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Lake County sheriff's Capt. Cecil Garrett compared congestion on inland waterways to traffic on the highway.

"The lakes aren't getting any bigger," Garrett said. "People get frustrated."

Lake's marine patrol was summoned to Clear Lake five times last month by neighbors seething over Colin Johnson, who uses his big boat to make waves he can jump on his personal watercraft.

Johnson, 27, was cited once for reckless boating, a charge he disputes.

Deputies noted no violations during the other calls, though they watched him from neighbors' yards for 30 minutes one time and for 45 minutes another, according to sheriff's reports.

"I'm not doing anything illegal," Johnson said. "They want to keep me from enjoying what I enjoy doing on the lake, and they can't tell me what I can and can't do on state property."

Though surrounded by private property owners, the lake belongs to the public.

The petition submitted to Lake County commissioners by Gatch and Johnson's other neighbors sought to restrict vessel size and horsepower, and the county agreed to consider it.

On East Crooked Lake, five families own wake boats, including Pait's next-door neighbors, Scott and Merry Worrell. Their son, Wade, rides their boat's wake almost daily.

The neighbors are friendly to one another, though the Worrells disagree with Pait's blaming wakeboarders for damage to his shorefront. They have directed their son to practice his acrobatics far from Pait's property whenever possible.

"We love our lake," Merry Worrell said. "We care about it and protect it. But we use it differently than Mr. Pait. Some people, at a different season in their lives, enjoy nature passively by looking at it, others enjoy it by participating in it. We participate in it."

During an interview on his dock, Pait frowned as a wake-making boat buzzed by. Rock music blared from its stern. The boat turned, and waves rolled. Pait's frown deepened.

"If I was a kid, I'd be doing the same thing. That's why you live on the water -- to enjoy it," he said. "But tearing up other people's property, well, that's another thing entirely."

Still, Pait said he realizes he might be swimming against the tide, especially when he considers the experience of Rick and Cindy Schumann, who own a lakefront home in Groveland.

The Schumanns moved to Lake Catherine nine years ago, expecting to retire in the house they considered their dream home. But new neighbors arrived who enjoyed personal watercraft.

For two years, the Schumanns petitioned the county to outlaw the buzzing motorized vessels on the 70-acre lake and calm the waters. They put their home up for sale two weeks ago.

"We gave up," Rick Schumann said. "We will never live on a lake again, never, ever. You have no privacy on a lake and, worse, you have no control over what's in your back yard."

Stephen Hudak can be reached at 352-742-5930 or [email protected].

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

Why did Koolhand say that "St. Pete has gotten a bad taste for Offshore racing,and isn't in a big hurry to bring it back" and where did he get that information from?

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

Maybe he was talking about "Mike Alweiss"

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

He said it because it's true...talk to Rick Baker(or any local for that matter) and they'll tell you the same. I've lived here since '99 and have seen every race here since, last year's was sad.

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

if these people have a problem they should move to a non motorized lake...it never seizes to amaze me how people think...it is a lake, fisherman can be used as turn buoys while we are skiing...hahaha

Big Air Jer :)

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

The race last year in st pete will NOT effect how thick Todd's steaks are... He would have gladly paid double for it being his race, Problem was M. Alweiss and storms...

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

now back to our regularly scheduled programming! :D

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

St. Petersburg, FL is a one of the best racing venues in the United States and will be for future offshore power boat races. The sport needs more Todd Werner's to step up to the plate and sponsor an event of this magnitude.

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

I guess the old saying is true, You have to break some eggs to make an omelet, Maybe that's what Todd did in stpete last year... I don't think the profit or loss was his motive, Maybe he made head way for future races in St pete, It's a great venue...

Re: Is St Pete dead??
 

Dry sump, define bad karma?