Jackson Lake Homeowners Hear about Lake Safety

The theme of the Jackson Lake Homeowner’s Association’s (JLHA) quarterly meeting last Friday at the FFA Camp in Newton County was safety and law enforcement on the lake.

A capacity crowd of 193 people was in attendance when President Lou DeFresne brought the meeting to order.

After promptly dispensing with old and new business and various reports, in anticipation of a long evening, Ms. Defresne expressed appreciation to Georgia Power for their efforts in the excellent water quality and cleanliness of the lake this year.

Also, an announcement was made that the three recipients of the college scholarships of $1,000, which the association awards each year to a student in Jasper, Butts, and Newton Counties, would soon be announced.

Guest speaker Ben Armistead, whose boat was struck by another boat in which a fatality occurred on Easter weekend, spoke about the details of the day of the accident and the accident itself, emphasizing the importance of safety on the lake and notifying DNR when dangerous activity is observed on the lake.

The main speaker, Colonel Terry L. West, DNR Chief of Law Enforcement for the state, then took the podium.
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Col. West began by assuring the audience that the issues they faced were shared by residents of all other lakes in the state.

He then went on to give an overview of the DNR agency including their scope, authority and resources, emphasizing that they enforced the laws, but did not make them, and that legislative changes are necessary to add manpower to the agency.

“Today my agency has 222 positions of which 16 are vacant and frozen. We have lost 30 permanent officer positions in the last four years. Five years ago I had 252 officers.”

Col. West said that the agency’s authority includes hunting, fishing and boating, but that in a lot of situations they were required to assist other state or federal agencies.

He reported that the state has approximately 320,000 registered boats and that the number is growing rapidly, and that 24 fatalities occurred last year, the first time the number has been over 20 since 1997.

“That year, 1997, was the last year we had 252 officers, so there is a correlation between the number of officers on the lakes and the number of fatalities,” Col. West said.

Other issues Col. West discussed included the following:

·Speed on the lake—there is no speed limit for boats on Georgia Lakes because no reliable radar system for water has been developed, and it will take a legislative decision to change this. Regulatory markers (buoys) in certain areas do regulate speed to idle speed.

·The 100 foot law enacted in 1998—DNR boats are now equipped with range finders to enforce this law, which prohibits boats and personal water crafts (PWC) from operating at greater than idle speed, to come within 100 feet of moored boats, docks, people in the water, shorelines, etc.

·Alcohol enforcement—it’s not against the law to have alcohol on a vessel. There is no open container law on the lake and it is not against the law for a boat operator to drink alcohol, however, it is against the law for the operator to be under the influence. Concentration on certain times and locations to control boating under the influence is a priority for DNR.

·Enforcement by DNR is a complaint driven effort—DNR encourages the reporting of any illegal activity on the lake.

Col. West said, “The bottom line is that we need more officers,” and concluded by saying that the people do make a difference and can make things happen by contacting their elected officials on this issue.

During the question and answer period following Col. West’s presentation, it was agreed that JLHA would form a committee to investigate the possibility of hiring off duty officers to ad more manpower to patrolling the lake.

Also, laminated cards were distributed with the non-emergency phone numbers for the Jasper, Newton, and Butts County Sheriff’s offices, who maintain radio contact with DNR.

Sheriffs Charles Roper of Jasper County, Gene Pope of Butts County, and Joe Nichols of Newton County were in attendance and each promised help, and gave a time table for getting their departmental boats back on the lake.