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Highlands Today

Lake Denton Financial Report

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: August 7, 2008

SEBRING - So far this summer, only three scuba divers have paid the $25 per day, weekend/holiday user fee to use the county's 40-foot wide, shell road that serves as the only public access to Lake Denton.

That figure was released Wednesday by Bernis Gainer, director of the Highlands County Office of Management and Budget.

An OMB report on the cost of and income from reopening public access to this lake - widely regarded as one of the top three freshwater scuba-diving lakes in Florida - found that the actual cost is still unknown.
Gainer found that, as of Tuesday, the county's total spending, not counting the one part-time worker's salary, totaled $2,036.

That figure, Gainer said, includes the cost for labor, equipment, fuel and materials to tear down the concrete-block and chain-link-fence barrier, which kept pubic access closed, the costs to remove the barrier, and the costs to install the new gate in late May, when access was reopened.

As far as the total cost to the county for restoring limited public access to Lake Denton, Gainer said OMB officials cannot find the salary of the part-time county worker who was hired to open and close the gates every day and to be there from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays to collect the scuba fees.

"Money for his salary was put in the wrong cost center," Gainer said. "It was put into the general parks and recreation budget, but it was supposed to go into the specific cost center that was created for Lake Denton."
Gainer said the clerk of court's office will retrieve the information on the salary of the Lake Denton gate keeper/money taker and put it into the special Lake Denton "cost center."

"That cost center was created to track all of the costs and all of the revenue regarding Lake Denton," Gainer said. "That was the whole idea of creating that cost center."
Gainer said he expects the clerk of court's office to find the information on the worker, including both his hourly rate and total payments made to him so far, within one or two days.

After being closed since mid-September 2007, public access to this lake was reopened in early summer.

Restrictions on the public access include being able to use the public access ramp to get in the water from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. On Saturdays and Sundays and holidays, anyone can use the county ramp to get into the water, but scuba divers only must pay the $25 per diver per day user fee.

Scuba instructors are exempt from the weekend/holiday diver's user fee, but only if they are instructing students.

Jack Richie, one of the nine citizens on the Lake Denton Citizens Advisory Committee, predicted in May that few, if any, scuba divers would pay the $25 county fee when, at the Christian camp next to the county's access ramp, divers can pay $10 to get into Lake Denton.

Not only is the Christian camp's fee less than half the county's charge, but the county provides no amenities or facilities except a portable toilet facility.

The church camp provides restrooms, changing rooms, picnic tables and grills, shade trees, water fountains, and close-to-the water and secure, fenced-in parking. Also, the camp enforces rules that forbid alcoholic beverages, tobacco use, and not only profanity but any words that would not be considered "family friendly."

Earlier this week, Richie asked for a "complete cost analysis" of the county's expenses in re-opening public access to Lake Denton, including the part-time worker's salary, plus all of the revenue generated by the scuba diving user fees.

The Lake Denton Committee, formed by the county commissioners after they voted in mid-August 2007 to close public access to Lake Denton temporarily, will meet again at 4 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Agri-Civic Center on George Boulevard.

County Commissioner Don Bates called the meeting, the committee's first in four months. Bates serves as the non-voting chairman of the committee. He chairs the meetings but has played no role in the committee's decisions, which are made solely by the citizen members.

Bates said he called the meeting to begin discussions on what the committee believes the county commissioners should do about the long-term future of Lake Denton's public access.

Installing the gate, closing public lake access from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. every day, and charging scuba divers $25 per day on weekends and holidays were recommended by the committee only as temporary measures to reopen limited public access to the lake.

Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

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