Feb. 25, 2019 – Big Cedar Lake, WI – The District Committee for the Big Cedar Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District met February 11 to start the process on a possible boat/water survey on Big Cedar Lake.
Commissioners included Roger E. Walsh, Mike Bums and David Claussen, and Operations Manager and Water Safety Patrol Chief, and Daniel W. Carroll. There were about 20 residents from around Big Cedar Lake in attendance.
Hot topics for the survey were boater safety, rental of boat pier slips, weekend and holiday boating traffic and temporarily closing Gonring Drive public launch when the parking spaces on Gonring Drive are full.
Some of the sample survey questions are below.
Boater Safety
Are you aware of what the ordinances (rules) are on Big Cedar Lake? Yes/No
Do you feel the lake has a crowding issue due to the boat traffic on weekends/holidays during boating season? (scale) Strongly agree/agree/Strongly disagree
Do you feel that the lake has safety issues on weekends/holidays?
What boater safety issues do you feel need to be addressed on Big Cedar Lake? Fill in the blank
Do you feel that there is a boater safety issue in the Peninsula Narrows? (the channel)
Do you feel that Big Cedar Lake is adequately patrolled? (scaled)
Rental of boat pier slips by riparian property owner to non-riparian property owners
Do you feel riparian property owners should be able to “rent” a pier slip/s to a non-riparian property owner?
Should steps be taken to limit residents’ abilities to “rent” pier space/s?
A request to word the question explaining the word “riparian” was brought up.
Temporarily closing the Gonring Drive public launch when the parking spaces on Gonring Drive are full.
Are you aware the DNR had established the maximum number of public parking spaces on Gonring Drive for public launching?
Should the District continue to temporarily close the Gonring Drive Launch when all of the parking spaces on Gonring Drive are full?
Should non-riparian owners in the District be allowed to launch their boats at the Gonring Drive launch ramp, provided they do not park in the two parking lots on Gonring Drive?
Enforcement of DNR regulations
Preface with DNR regulation specifics of what is allowed.
If the DNR is unable or unwilling to enforce DNR regulations relating to the number of boat slips allowed on a riparian owners’ property, should the district attempt to enforce those DNR regulations?
It was suggested the survey include a possible preface for certain questions including factual information in regard to recorded citations and accidents, etc., and to word some of the questions as yes/no, and scaled when necessary. Also, the format of all of the boater safety questions to be listed, or grouped? Should there be an “other” fill in the blank type of question?
There will be another public committee meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26 starting at 6:30 p.m. The agenda is posted below.
