Thanks to everyone who volunteered for inspections on Memorial Day weekend. The weather was cool and rainy, but that did not stop boats for entering or leaving the lake. The team conducted 25 inspections over two days. We had 60% coverage over the weekend, far from our in-kind goal of 90% volunteer coverage. The county picked up two of the open shifts on Saturday so in total we ended up with 80% coverage.
Of the 25 inspections:
- 17 were lake owners launching their watercraft for the summer;
- 8 watercraft belonged to people visiting or fishing for the day or weekend. Of these, the boaters reported that they were last in one of four local lakes: Cedar, Sugar, Ripple and Round. Of these lakes, Round is known to have zebra mussels. Thanks go to Steve and Karen Frazier, who informed the individuals that a very thorough inspection would need to be conducted on their watercraft. The individuals elected to leave and not be inspected. Great save, Steve and Karen.
Remember that emergency brake!
One other unusual event occurred over the weekend. Late Monday afternoon, two individuals came to view the lake from the access. Somehow, the small pickup they were driving was either left in neutral or the brakes failed. The truck started rolling and went in the lake almost to the point of going completely underwater. A tow truck was called and the truck was pulled from the lake about 3 hours later. Unfortunately, we did not think to inspect the truck or ask what lake it was last in. Hopefully it had been more than two weeks. Everyone was okay.
Again, thanks to everyone for your time over Memorial Day weekend.
-- From Linda Syzmanski, AIS coordinator