TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Committee Wants To Close Public Access To Denton

ADVERTISEMENT

By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: September 4, 2008

SEBRING - In a 4-1 vote early Tuesday evening, the Lake Denton Citizens Advisory Committee recommended that the Highlands County commissioners permanently close public access to this popular lake.

Immediately after that vote, Erin McCarta, the county's assistant lakes manager, said the Highlands County Department of Natural Resources will strenuously try to convince the county commissioners to say "no" to the recommendation.

"It is not our mission to give up public access to lakes," McCarta told the crowd of about 30 people at the advisory committee's meeting at the Agri-Civic Center.

Jack Richie, the Lake Denton committee member who made the motion to permanently close public access to the lake, said he is glad McCarta and the entire Natural Resources Department will take that stand.

"We expect you to do that as your job," Richie responded. He also said he hopes the Natural Resources Department can recommend a financially feasible and practical way to open safe public access to Lake Denton.
Lake Denton is rated among the top three lakes in Florida for water clarity, and it is the most popular scuba diving site not only in Highlands County but also in all of south central Florida.

"If we can find a good way to keep the boat ramp open, I'm all for it," Richie said. But, he added, the committee came to the conclusion that there is just not enough public land at Lake Denton to have any type of decent recreational facilities or public access.

Russell K. Danser, a former official with the Florida State Park System and now an environmental consultant working on an Everglades restoration project, agreed with Richie's assessment.

Danser said the county's short, 40-foot wide shell road to the water's edge is simply too small for any type of good access to the lake. He compared using that as a public lake access to "trying to put the state fair in a Publix parking lot."

At an earlier committee meeting, Danser recommended in-depth biological and recreational-use studies of Lake Denton to determine how much, and what types of recreation it can bear, for both the safety of people and the health of the lake.

Norma Wiggins, a Lake Denton lakefront homeowner who has attended all of the committee's meetings over the past 10 months, said she would like to see Danser's plans for detailed studies on the lake go forward.

"I like Russ Danser's ideas for a study on Lake Denton," Wiggins said. "And then I'd like to see studies on other lakes in the county."

Several months ago, McCarta showed the committee in-depth studies on recreational uses and biological factors made on several lakes around the country. She said those studies helped local, county and state officials develop plans to allow maximum recreational uses on a lake while keeping the lake biologically healthy.

Terry Burkholder, a scuba instructor, was the only committee member voting "no" on the recommendation to close the county's public access to Lake Denton.

In addition to Richie, the close-public-access proposal was supported by Charlie Lambright and Dave Simpson, each one a Lake Denton lakefront homeowner, and Nadine Tedstone, a scuba diver.

Committee member Ken Melvin was absent, and the seventh member, Ray Napper, had earlier resigned from the committee, which was appointed by the county commissioners.

In full, the committee's recommendation not only proposes closing the 40-foot wide access to the lake, but also giving that piece of land back to the sole remaining heir of the landowners who deeded that land to the county.

Further, the recommendation asks the county commissioners to encourage and give their "blessing" to the Orange Blossom Baptist Association Camp, right next to the public lake access road, to keep providing private-enterprise access to the lake for a $10 fee.

Phil Elders, manager of the faith-based camp, said the organization has been using the proceeds from its $10 fee for lake access to help children attend church-related camp programs who otherwise could not afford to do so. Being able to subsidize the costs for children to attend church camps is needed, "especially in this economy," Elders said.

Elders said the church camp would have no interest in buying, or even accepting for free, the county's 40-foot access to the lake from the heir, if she does get it back from the county.

The church camp staff would not be able to administer a boat launch ramp where the county's land is located, he said, and there is no space on the camp's land for boat launching. He said there would be no benefit to the church camp from adding the county's 40-foot wide Lake Denton access to the church camp's land on the lake.

Phil Boudreau worked from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day as the county's part-time gatekeeper at Lake Denton. He opened the gates to the public access ramp at 8 a.m. and closed them at 4 p.m. every day. He also was stationed at the gate from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and reported collecting the $25 fee for scuba divers to access the lake only three times.

On most Saturdays and Sundays, Boudreau said, he usually had to turn away between eight to 10 carloads of people who wanted to use the public access to Lake Denton to swim. Swimming is not allowed at the county's Lake Denton lake access.

Scuba divers and instructors at the meeting, including Mike Edmonston, agreed with Richie that scuba divers have been very pleased with the lake access and first-rate facilities they get at the church camp, for what they consider a very reasonable $10 fee.

The county commissioners will have to hold a public hearing on the proposed permanent closing of public access to Lake Denton at least 30 days before they could vote on the proposal.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT