Recommendations to reduce boating noise, improve access and increase law enforcement on Alachua County’s lakes, rivers and streams will be presented to the County Commission Tuesday.

Key Issues

• NOISE: People who live along Orange Lake and Lake Santa Fe complain about noise from loud boats. The complaints are greatest on Orange Lake because of greater airboat use.
• RUDE BOATERS: Some users, particularly on Lake Santa Fe, complain that other boaters and Jet Skiers drive recklessly, speed too close at high rates and dangerously hotdog while skiing.
• ENFORCEMENT: A theme throughout the report is the need for more enforcement of current laws. However, the County Commission and Sheriff Sadie Darnell said they are unlikely to have money for more enforcement.

The process that led to the options was lively because of the conflicting perspectives – canoeists who seek calm water and motorboaters who like to ski or speed to fishing holes; lakeshore dwellers who want quiet and airboaters who want to enjoy their pastime.”It’s similar to a zoning issue in what uses should be in what places,” County Manager Randall Reid said. “It’s a large document and a controversial issue. This has been in the works for over a year, and the subject matter and the problems go back several years, but they have been getting more intense. It’s everything from conflicts with airboaters and conflicts between motorized and non-motorized users.”Guiding the process as consultants was a team of University of Florida faculty from various fields including recreation, fisheries and conservation law. Several graduate assistants also worked on the project.Meetings with various user groups were held to get thoughts on what is needed – and not needed – to guide or regulate activities on the lakes and streams. Surveys were also done via the phone and Internet.The recommendations were developed from public input.Some are likely to be controversy-free: better maintain restrooms at boat ramps and waterside parks and clean channels of debris, trash and muck. Others will likely generate discussion: limiting the types of recreation that can take place on a particular water body and providing separate areas for passive uses, such as swimming and kayaking, and active uses, such as Jet Skiing and motorboating.A majority of public comment favored providing access to all user groups, though not necessarily on all water bodies. For instance, some creeks could be set aside for use only by paddlers.One of the most controversial issues is noise, particularly from airboats on Orange Lake. The report has several options for recommendations on noise that start with the minimum of more strictly enforcing an existing state law to keep noise below 90 decibels at a distance of 100 feet to the stringent option of nighttime curfew on airboats.About 57 percent of those surveyed favored enforcement of noise ordinances and a curfew.Jerry Wetherington, president of United Sportsmen and Airboaters Alliance, said the recommendations were expected. He said members will be at Tuesday’s commission meeting for the discussion.”We have followed this from the inception and went to all the meetings, so when they released the draft recommendations, I was not real surprised. We realize noise is a problem and we are doing everything we can to address it,” Wetherington said. “When we went to the meetings we said our position was going to be that they enforce the laws they have now, they don’t need any more laws. The thing that rubbed us the wrong way was the imposition of a curfew. Everybody who has been involved in this knows there are only a few people who live on Orange Lake who are complaining.”One of them is Whitey Markle, who for many years has been pressing the commission for stricter noise regulations.Markle said he believes a curfew is the only way to control airboat noise.”They are out there and they are noisy. Mufflers are not effective. The only solution is some sort of physical restriction – saying you are off-limits, you are too close or it’s the wrong time of the day,” Markle said. “I’ve written letters to each commissioner about it. I’ve enlisted my friends in the Sierra Club … to at least let commissioners know the citizens’ wishes. It may come down to them not doing anything. Then we’ll sue them. What else can we do? We are being polluted.”Also recommended is an education program on boating etiquette to try to quell behavior such as blasting loud music and speeding too close to the shore or other users.A lack of money to increase law enforcement is likely to be a concern for commissioners. They traditionally wrangle with the sheriff over the budget, had to to cut their own budget last year and will likely have to do so again for the 2008-09 budget.Commissioner Lee Pinkoson said it will be difficult to justify spending more to patrol lakes when other programs are being cut that may be just as needy.”I know they talked about the County Commission paying more to the Sheriff’s Office for enforcement, but obviously we can’t afford that,” Pinkoson said.Sheriff Sadie Darnell said the agency has two boats and a dive team. Patrols are mostly limited to weekends with heavy use, particularly warm-weather holiday weekends.Darnell said the primary waterways patrolled are Lake Santa Fe and Little Lake Santa Fe. Patrols are done to a lesser extent on lakes Alto, Orange and Lochloosa.”If citizens are indicating they need more enforcement, we certainly would … like to attend to that. But at the staffing level we have now, the times we are able to get out there is limited,” Darnell said. “I would be willing to, absolutely. But because of budget constraints currently, and potentially even more so after Jan. 29, it is not likely.”A statewide tax-cut referendum will be held Jan. 29. If it passes, Alachua County estimates it will lose about $11 million in revenue.Reid said the commission does not have a target date for developing policies regarding use of waterways. The discussion Tuesday will be the start of that process.Cindy Swirko can be reached at 352-374-5024 or swirkoc@ gvillesun.com.