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Highlands Today

Awaiting Tragedy

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Marni Frantz

Published: July 2, 2008

Summer is here again and the same people driving boats and wave runners are out of control on the main canal in Leisure Lakes.

I sit and watch them go past our house, full speed, without a care for the law or the postings up and down the canal that say "No Wake." They don't make a wake, they make waves, big waves. They go by in a blur, that is how fast they are going.

The water splashes up over the seawalls in our area, destroying the ecological balance and doing serious damage to our property and others. We called numerous times last year asking for help without any help ever coming to try to police this problem. My neighbor had called for years before just giving up, because it was obvious that nothing would be done. He was told to get ID tags off the boats and call it in, or take photos. Yeah, right!

Police should be placed up and down these canals on the weekends. It's not the responsibility for residents to monitor speed, it is the responsibility of the police. We both have discussed that a serious accident will occur soon on the bend that goes to Lake Carrie. He has seen many close calls of near collisions as people race through the tight bend and another boat is coming through. I just know that someone will be injured. It's a tragedy in the making and it easily could be stopped if the powers that be just pay attention and ticket those people.

Our beautiful lakes and canals provide a wonderful way of enjoying Lake Placid. The drive down the canal is amazing as you watch the turtles, birds and occasional alligator in their natural habitat. It should be the journey, not the destination to the lakes that people need to pay attention to. When you get to the lakes, then it should be time to race your boat and wave runners. The same people are at fault as they barrel down the canal on weekends showing total disrespect and lack of concern for anyone but their own pleasure.

It is amazing that the only time I have seen the marine police was last year on Lake June when one of our family was given a ticket for driving a wave runner under the age of 22. We were so surprised to find out that the age was 22. We were a bit perplexed at the fact that our brother was actually 21 and 9 months old and he still was ticketed. He didn't do anything wrong, the officer said, they were just doing a spot check of ages of boaters. Okay, I will give you that the law is the law, he paid his ticket and now we make sure everyone we know is aware of the age requirements.

What about this ongoing problem on the canal, where the heck is the police, where is the spot check of the canals? Have we no recourse for the damage to our property by these boaters?

Marni Frantz
Lake Placid

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