Reduction in and/or Denial of Lake Access Issues

There is a concerted effort to limit public access to the lakes that they own. In addition, the DNR is no longer enforcing the code that says that lake property owners may not have more than 2 boats docked per 100 feet of frontage.

Last night the Big Cedar Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District vote 3-2 to close the boat launches once all parking spaces were filled.   This is the recording.

The vote is at 14 minutes

They said their ordinance is based upon an ordinance from Pine Lake in Chenequa.

It was also brought up that similar access lawsuit from the Lake Geneva area went to the supreme court where the closing of the boat launches was deemed unconsitutional.  

The fishing public needs to know about these kinds of rules and this is probably a good place to start that discussion.

confusion in the meeting?

The legality of the decison and the jurisdicition of the commission certainly needs to be looked into. Unfortuneately this takes time and money.  The article appears contradictory on whether the DNR has jurisdiction in these matters.   And who owns or leases the parking lots?  Good luck Chemist.

At the meeting tonight the Big Cedar Lake PRD told us how they plan to close the lake off when the parking lot is full. They will have 3 uniformed officers. One at Gonring, one at Hacker and one at Cedar Park. They will also have another person watching the lots at Gonring drive with a radio so they know when to shut down the launches. Four new salaries. 

Edit: If they don't have enough officers they will just close and lock a launch such as Hacker's Drive or Cedar Park and anyone who launches there must pick up their boat on Gonring drive which will be supervised. As illogical as that sounds it is literally what was said last night. So if you launch somewhere other than Gonring Drive on the weekend, be sure you understand that you might not be able to get off the lake at the same launch.

If the issue really was safety, they would hire 3 uniformed officers and add them to the lake patrol on the weekends. Too late now though, August 1st the ordinance is official. 

August 12th is the first day it will be enforced.

The selfish attitude I've seen has taken away all of the joy of living near this lake. I once considered my time on this lake to be something special that I could share with my family members. This whole situation has ruined what used to be one my favorite places to spend time. It is difficult to go to the lake without thinking of these people and their unbelieveable selfishness, and lack of logic.  

I have no dog in this fight but sympathize with the non-lake residents. As suggested previously, the one thing you can do is to go out of your way to be a thorn in the sides of the lake residents. Work on getting the ordinance that dictates how many watercraft can be on a private shoreline enforced. Get video evidence of their kids violating boating and watercraft regulations and call them in. If nothing is done about these things, get the local news channels or paper involved. The news stations would likely eat this sort of thing up (Richy Rich oppressing the little guy while breaking the law themselves). Maybe a call or two from a reporter to a Police Chief or DNR official for comment on why no enforcement action is being taken would light a fire. It probably won’t change anything at the launch but I find it satisfying to piss off folks like these lake association elitists as much as possible. But that’s just me. Good luck.

No matter what you do, you cannot win this one. If the Lake Association and DNR control the parking, they control the lake.

I would think that you could make it difficult for the lake property owners though. If I lived in the Town Of West Bend, I would go to them and try to get something passed to limit the number of boats, or watercrafts per property passed. I know they have something like this now, but who polices it, and how can you identify who owns the watercrafts? I would think that they could be put in a position to be awarded the legal number of “special stickers” when they pay their property taxes each year. This way if the DNR drove around the lake they could take the registration numbers off all vessels without the proper stickers. From there they could indentify the law breakers and have them remove the vessels and fine them to cover their costs.

There is going to come a day when us fishermen will not have a place in southern Wisconsin to fish anymore.

Just for the record, I no longer fish Big Cedar lake anymore, plus I wouldn’t even consider going boating on it on Saturday, Sunday, or a Holiday. Fishing it during the week with all of the kids driving the parents watercrafts is putting your life in their hands.

BIG CEDAR LAKE PROTECTION & REHABILITATION DISTRICT

MEETING OF COMMISSIONERS

Commissioners: Roger E. Walsh, Chairperson; Christopher C. Genthe, Treasurer;

Paul Sacotte, Secretary; Mike Bums; Frank "Buzz" Carr; Brian Krebs, James R. McGath

MEETING NOTICE AND AGENDA

Pursuant to the requirements of Wisconsin Statutes Section 19.84 & 33.28, notice is hereby

given that there will be a meeting of the Commissioners of the Big Cedar Lake Protection &

Rehabilitation District on Thursday, July 26, 2018 at the District Building, 4480 Gonring

Drive, West Bend, WI at 6:30 p.m. Agenda items for the meeting are:

1. Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call.

2. Approval of the minutes of the 7/11/2018 meeting of the Commissioners

3. Approval of purchases, leases, contracts, work orders or repairs whose cost exceeds $500,

including:

4. Approval of Bills and Accounts

5. Review progress related to the ability of the District to have effective enforcement of Ordinance

2018-1 on its effective date of August 1, 2018, and modify the effective date of Ordinance

2018-1 if effective enforcement will not be able to be provided as of August 1, 2018.

6. Other business

7. Adjourn

July 14, 2018 /s/ Paul Sacotte

Paul Sacotte, Secretary 

The meeting does not sound like it followed normal protocol regarding discussion or votes. The vote was not valid by one member as too confused to vote. No aye or nay, or acceptance of vote as a party or members attending. I see this being lake owner dominated for sure with over flowing pockets.

I actually witnessed that very thing on Okauchee Lake 10-15 years ago where the lake association hired a gun toting rent a cop to monitor the landing. Once the parking spots were full no one launched. He’d put up cones and park his truck to block anyone from launching. Once a spot opened someone could launch. Hilarity ensued when lake residents would show up to launch and drive back to their homes and Paul Blart wouldn’t let them. One guy called a warden and he just laughed at him telling this is how you wanted it so now you have to live with it. I think they could launch at a restaurant not far but they charged like 20 bucks because they could. 

I mean put chains across the landing and have BCLPRD cops there to block access until someone leaves.

The biggest thing is, this will DO NOTHING to help safety on the lake, which is what they claim is the issue.  

If they spent the same money they plan to spend on cops policing the closed launch on increased patrols, they would actually make the lake safer. 

I suspect they don't want to do that though, because maybe it is people who live on the lake, their kids, or the people who rent their boat slips, who are really making the lake unsafe.

Meanwhile, I living in the Big Cedar Lake Protection and Rehabilition District, but without lake access, get shut out of the lake, AND get my BCLPRD taxes raised to help keep me, and everyone else, off the lake.

What do you mean close the boat landing when it is full? If parking is limited to amount of parking spaces, I would say it is full.  Do you mean no one can launch and  then park in their own driveway across the road when the lot is full? If there is a concern about lake owners filling up the landing with trailers, while their boat is already docked by their pier that is an issue and should be video taped to prove that. If they pay a annual launch fee, I guess that could be a legal dirty move to limit parking launch availability. Sounds like a mess going on over there.

Part 2 of the Big Cedar Lake Issue is:

Thursday night, July 26th at 6:30 PM. 

If you don't care about Big Cedar, well, your lake is probably next and is probably the place that those shut out of Big Cedar will go with their boats.

There has already been a call out to supporters of the "blocking of the launches when the lot is full scheme". 

Here is the message they sent out to supporters:

"This new lake policy is a big 'plus' for the lake, but it is still a hot issue locally and the PRD needs our support."  Never mentioning that two people, and their bullying of a disabled man to make it a 3-2 vote are how it passed. So you know they are just waiting for it to calm down before ripping off the public permenantly. Their willing accomplices in state government will keep the DNR off their backs, while blaming the public for everything that is wrong about the lake. Never looking in the mirror or the actions of property owners as the real problem.

It doesn't look like a public hearing will happen, so it will probably be a sit and watch the public get screwed out of their lake access show.

I live near the lake and can park in my driveway now, but in the new policy once the lot is full, I'm screwed just like everyone else, and I'm forced to pay BCLPRD taxes to the lake people. So I take the screw job twice, and there is no way to get out of the BCLPRD if you live within 1000 feet of the lake, access or not.

Basicly , this is what it comes down too, people that live on the lake don't want to follow the rules and regulations but want to make rules for everyone else . It's that simple. I use to fish big cedar a lot when i worked in west bend , was easy to take boat to work and punch out and be fishing to 20 minutes . Weekends there regardless are horrible , way too many boats trying to occupy the same space , you add on top of that people who just don't care and are not safe . Now as far as the argument about how pine lake does their launch , you have to remember there is only ONE public launch that is controlled by the Village . Like it or not they set their rules accordingly, plus it's a much smaller lake compared to big cedar. Now , those who can vote for the commissioners on the board , I would highly recommend doing so because it's clearing obvious that they screwed the pouche on that vote . The only way to help the overcrowding of boat traffic on that lake is to have both lake residents and non residents follow the rules and regulations that the DNR have set for how many boats per square mile of lake area.  But you know that will never happen 

Hogger,  I was at the meeting. Here are my best answers to your questions. 

Did I miss the exact issue that needs to be fixed? What is the exact issue here that needs to be fixed?

It was unclear what needs to be fixed because the commisioners each had different reasons. I have a video clip of 18 minutes of the meeting attached to the original post. You can see that what I say is true. 

Too many boats are making the lake unsafe? The lake is getting hurt by too many boats?

This is the company line. However, I believe that it is a red herring. There are at most 75-100 boats launched at any one time. However, there are between 2500 and 3000 boats docked on the lake by property owners and their guests/customers. If even 10% of them are running at any given time it dwarfs what comes onto the lake through boat launches and they know it because I told them that at the meeting.

Too many trailers are being parked on roads, making the roads unsafe?

There was clearly too many people illegally parking on area roads and accepting a possible $20 fine as just part of what it costs to go to the lake. New NO PARKING signs were put up, the Town deputized the lake district cops to write tickets and that problem was solved prior to the meeting and the vote. The head lake police officer made that very clear, and on the attached video.

The fishing is getting bad?

No comment.

Lake home owners want people off their lake? 

For some, that may be true. But some of us that live in the lake district (because we are within 1000 feet of the lake) but have no frontage are shut out of the lake just like everyone else. I can tell you I will be at the annual meeting and will vote for BCLPRD commissioners accordingly, as will everyone on my road.

I don't think I have heard the exact issue that is trying to be fixed here.

That's because there was no one issue brought up by the Commissioners of the BCLPRD. It seemed very clear that the chairman wanted this to pass, and by saying someone else voted yes when he had actually voted no, he was able to bully the old man enough to get it passed. It was just that simple. Look at the video, it is remarkable. 

Link to the 18 most important minutes of the meeting including the vote.

Did I miss the exact issue that needs to be fixed? What is the exact issue here that needs to be fixed? Too many boats are making the lake unsafe? The lake is getting hurt by too many boats? Too many trailers are being parked on roads, making the roads unsafe? The fishing is getting bad? Lake home owners want people off their lake? I don't think I have heard the exact issue that is trying to be fixed here.

That was on the other thread. But as long as I’m back, did you have the blue shirt on, or the black. ?? 

Tuffy2 You said that B=4!