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Hearing Held on Boat Bills Affecting Lakes Region Area

January 29, 2008 - AUGUSTA - Boating safety and how best to achieve it - especially on the Lake Region's Long Lake and BrandyPond - dominated discussions before the Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife this week.

Nearly a dozen local people testified, pro and con, at a fourhour committee hearing on four proposed boating LDs, one a bill proposed by Representative Rick Sykes (R-Harrison) to limit horsepower on boats operating on Long Lake and Brandy Pond.

Several area people addressed the three companion bills, too, one of which seeks to heighten safety by requiring training and certification of boat operators, much in the manner of the Hunter Safety courses that passed the Legislature nearly three decades ago. Thirty-eight other states have similar programs.

While there are indeed horsepower limitation laws on the books for about 20 lakes in Maine, several state officials pointed out that boating interests, marina owners and local concemed citizens now often work out the details of local regulations for local Great Ponds in local public hearings, before the Maine State Legislature even gets involved.

"If that's the way it has to be worked out, I would be happy to host those (local) hearings," Rep. Sykes told the committee.

The joint committee will go through more fact-finding and internal debates before deciding whether to recommend passage of any or all of the four proposals discussed Tuesday aftemoon.

They'll have a lot to chew on when making their decisions, judging by the broad spectrum of testimony weighed Tuesday. Most speakers seemed to agree on two things: (1) Maine lakes in general, and Long Lake in particular, feature a chaotic mixture of boat users on a summer weekend, some of them ignorant of "the rules of the road;" and, (2) to quote: "more enforcement is needed."

In fact, those who spoke against the Sykes bill, LD 2090 - the bill asks for a 500 hp limit for boats operating on Long Lake and Brandy Pond - generally cited "more enforcement" as being far more pressing, in order to take care of problems caused by large boats, by small boats, and by those in between.

Brian Spaulding of Harrison, for instance, said a "State Marine Patrol" needs to be formed. He favored some limitations but he didn't think tourism would be hurt by banning the higher performance boats.

"Tourism will increase, because people will think you care about them," he contended.

Funding issues have kept the game warden cadre down to somewhere around 90, to cover the whole state. Increasing that insufficient number "just isn't going to happen," Rep. Sykes and other state officials said Tuesday, because of state budgeting constraints.

The answer, again, appears to be a local one. Officials said: appoint local harbormasters and form safety patrols. If you can't get wardens, then sheriffs or local police officers can enforce boating laws, as well.

Around Long Lake, Naples has a harbormaster and safety patrol; Harrison has a harbormaster. This past year, a committee looked into drawing up a harbormaster ordinance for Bridgton, but the idea did not make it onto a ballot.

Regional hearings, should they happen, would prove interesting, judging by the testimony from various speakers Tuesday. (Twenty-five petitioners at the local level can generate such regional hearings.)

Jim Allen, operator of Naples Marina said that, of his 170 slips, 36 are occupied by boats of more than 500 horsepower. Quite a few of these are "displacement" craft, with a much lower top speed than the "plane" design that is typically much faster, and louder, than conventional watercraft.

While Allen said "enforcement is absolutely needed." he contended that a blanket horsepower rule would hurt his business, and the regional economy.

"These people come up here on a weekend and spend a lot of money in Maine." he said.

Most of them obey the law while they're at it, too. he said.

Most speakers agreed it was only a small minority of large boat owners causing problems; safety issues can also arise with craft of all powers and sizes which is why the educational component was favored by many speakers.

Charles Frechette of Sebago Lake Marina said that more education would not have prevented the August 11 fatal boat crash on Long Lake. More enforcement, possibly, might have. All sizes of boats create problems.

"The first educator is the warden." Frechette said. "He can see what is needed."

Rep. Ralph Sarty ((RDenmark), who sits on the joint standing committee, said he has received a lot of calls, pro and con, on the issue. The highpowered boat crash last August increased local attention significantly. And Rep. Sykes said he had never received more calls "on any subject." than he has on the issue of high-performance boats. But Sarty said the emphasis should be on performance, not on horsepower, per se. And he also called for tighter enforcement. The laws suggested Tuesday "are needed - or something similar is needed." he offered.

A New Gloucester man who has been boating on Long Lake for 15 years has worked his way up to a high-performance boat. He said most high-performance boat operators are very skilled.

"They're not 'racing boats,' they're high-performance boats," he said.

Decibel laws are already on the books, he said; why not enforce those, if noise is a problem?

Dan Allen, owner of Causeway Marina, noted that he owned a 500-plus horsepower boat that couldn't do even 40 miles per hour. He also noted that trying to regulate boating on Long Lake and Brandy Pond could prove tricky, since the connected waterway runs through the Lock to Sebago Lake and all the way to Standish.

W. Gair MacKenzie Jr. of Bridgton, Lt. Cmmdr., ret., USN, asked why "any size racing boat is allowed on inland waters?" He said size of wake was also a concem, for shoreline erosion on Long Lake. And noise is a big problem with the large "plane" boats. He said one passng by sounds "like a DC-10 taking off over your head."

Ian Stacy of the Lake Region Safe Lakes Association spoke for certification attempts. Of Long Lake he said, "It's not Golden Pond and it's never going to be Golden Pond."

Though the "intolerable noise" of the high-performance boats began around 2000, he also acknowledged that many who guided these craft are "good skippers."

The problem with them is not usually with the operators, but with the characteristics of the watercraft themselves. Also, as he saw it, the narrowness of the 11-mile long water body, and its configuration, greatly exacerbated the noise factor caused by the speedy high-performance watercraft.

"But the biggest problem," Stacy said, "is enforcement. Yes, there are 2,500 lakes in Maine, but many (are small.) Sand Pond in Denmark doesn't need a warden on it all the time. Long Lake does."

Roger Clement, a resident along Brandy Pond, pleaded with the legislators to take the enforcement issue "off the table." He said, "In the last decade, boating activity has increased significantly. We do have an element that operates frequently with no regard for others' safety."

Bob Macdonald of Bridgton called Long Lake between Harrison and Naples "a drag strip in the summertime." He said, "We need legislation, we need laws."

Steve Blackstone of the National Transportation Safety Board spoke Tuesday, too, supporting education and certification efforts. A Sportsman's Alliance of Maine speaker argued against certification as another unneeded layer of bureaucracy, as enforcement and regulation is already adequate to the task, George Smith argued. Rep. Sykes said he couldn't get one boating bill into committee; it called for a designated summer warden for Long Lake/ Brandy Pond.

Several who spoke Tuesday said that some kind of action is needed. Rep. Sykes, who cited a 1991 newspaper article that discussed the same issues addressed Tuesday, said he went out on Long Lake last year on a Saturday aftemoon with Warden Neal Wykes. They found the pond a target rich environment for the warden.

"There were so many (infractions in view), Neal asked me, 'Which one do I take first?"' Sykes told the committee.

State Warden Colonel Greg Sanborn said he took an aerial overfiight of Long Lake last August 12. He said it was a typical, beautiful summer day in the Great State of Maine. The scene was not peaceful, though.

"It looked like the Invasion of Normandy down there," he said.

SOURCE: BRIDGTON NEWS

DATE: 01-17-2008


Lakes: Long Lake
Regions: Sebago


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