|
|
Town told it can do little to muffle watercraft |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Carol Pomeday
|
|
Wednesday, 08 September 2010 18:46 |
DNR says local officials can’t limit access to Lake Michigan in effort to give waterfront residents peace and quiet
Town of Belgium lakefront residents upset with the drone of a half dozen or more personal watercrafts jumping waves on Lake Michigan didn’t get much hope from Department of Natural Resources officials that the town can regulate the machines.
DNR wardens Mike Clutter of Plymouth and Matt Groppi of Ozaukee County and Kathi Kramasz, DNR water management specialist, were at Tuesday’s Town Board meeting to discuss residents’ concerns and explain state laws governing boats.
They emphasized that access to Lake Michigan and all navigable waterways is protected by the state. There is little townships can do on their own to limit access or regulate activity on the lake, particularly Lake Michigan.
“Any regulation must be adopted by all municipalities that border the lake,” Kramasz said. “That’s easy to do on Random Lake, but not on Lake Michigan. There are no border lines out in the water.”
There is public access at the end of every Town of Belgium road that stops at the lake. As long as people stay within the 60-foot-wide road right-of-way, they are not violating any laws, Kramasz said.
“Parking is not allowed on the beach. They can drive onto the beach to unload their Jet Skis, but then must move the vehicles,” she said.
Residents said no one parks on the beach anymore.
Town Zoning Administrator Charles Parks suggested the town repair the launch ramps at the end of Highway D next to Harrington Beach State Park to encourage people to launch personal watercrafts and boats there.
“Historically, Highway D was the area for launching boats,” Parks said. “If we can get them to ride in front of the park, our problems will be solved.”
The town used to dredge the area to keep it clear for launching boats and even marked spaces for vehicles to park, Supr. Bill Janeshek said.
State grants are available for developing lake access points, Kramasz said. Highway D is a county road, so Ozaukee County would have to apply for the grant, she said.
Lakefront resident Mike Mierzwa said the Jet Skiers often violate the 200-foot no-wake rule and the distance required between watercrafts when they set up a course in front of his home on Sandy Beach South.
Clutter said he responded to two complaints about noise from the machines and riders not observing the no-wake rule at Sandy Beach Road, but no one was using the area when he was there.
Parks asked if rangers at Harrington Beach State Park can enforce boating rules if the wardens are not available.
Park rangers can only enforce rules in the state park, Kramasz said.
“There’s only one full-time person now and he’s too busy,” she said.
The wardens have devices that can determine how far a watercraft is from shore and how loud the motor is.
“They are allowed 86 decibels, and that’s pretty loud,” Groppi said. “Call us. We’ll respond. I cover the entire county and I may be in Mequon or in the Village of Belgium.
“Even if we can’t catch them, we can talk to them and let them know we have had complaints and they should knock it off if they’re doing something wrong.”
Town Chairman Francis Kleckner said he was told the situation has gotten better.
Mierzwa said he fears it will get worse again because the waves are getting bigger.
One two-cycle competition machine may not emit more than the decibels allowed, he said, but when six or seven are roaring around a course, the noise is deafening.
“I don’t want to spoil their fun, and I don’t want to be disturbed all night. It happens during the dinner hour when everyone gets home and wants to relax,” Mierzwa said.
“We don’t want to close it off for access. We would like to prohibit them from launching or retrieving from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.”
Kramasz said she will check if the township can regulate the times when crafts can be launched.
Town supervisors declined to do that previously, saying they didn’t want to prevent someone from launching a boat at night to go fishing.
Town Clerk Ginger Murphy said she gets many calls from people who want to know the rules for walking on the beach.
“I get so many complaints from people who say property owners accost them when they’re walking on the beach and dogs are sicced on them,” Murphy said.
People must walk in the water, not just on wet sand, Kramasz said. She left pamphlets that explains the state’s beach-walking law.
|
|
|
Water clearer, but residents still wary |
|
|
|
|
Written by Carol Pomeday
|
|
Wednesday, 01 September 2010 18:08 |
Neighbors prefer drinking bottled water until village system is looped to reduce sediment from tap
Three weeks ago, Nicole Callahan was so frustrated by the brown water that came from the faucet at her home at 261 First St. in Belgium that she filled a jar with it and took it to Village Hall the next day.
“I set it on the desk and the girls in the office just looked at it and asked what it was,” Callahan said. “I told them, ‘That was what came out of my tap last night. That’s what you tell me is safe to drink. Would you drink it?’
“We always have discolored water on Thursday nights when the fire department practices, but this was the worst it had been in a long time.”
Callahan, the mother of three children ages 1 to 11, won’t let her family drink the water, but they do bathe in it — except on Thursday nights.
The family drinks bottled water.
Public Works Director Dan Birenbaum said the line was flushed when he learned about the problem and to his knowledge the water has been clear since then. It is safe to drink, he said.
“We set up a schedule to flush it every two months through November, then we will re-evaluate it,” Birenbaum said.
Callahan said the water has been clear the last couple weeks, even on Thursday nights.
Her neighbor Wendy Lybek, 211 Spring St., said she doesn’t know if the water is clearer or not after fire practices.
“We don’t use the water on Thursdays,” Lybek said. “I don’t want to have to let it run for one to two hours and pay the water bill. Our water is expensive and it just went up again. It seems whoever uses the water first gets the brownest water.”
Lybek, who has two daughters, ages 10 and 8, said she stopped complaining to the village because it didn’t seem to do much good.
“I was told I had to fill out a complaint form, but no one ever contacted me,” she said.
Lybek is battling cancer and said she did not want to use the water while her immune system was diminished by treatments.
The problem occurs in an approximately one-block area that includes portions of Spring, First and Lar Ann streets where the water line ends rather than looping with other lines. Water sits in the pipe, causing sediment to collect. The sediment is dislodged when a lot of water flows through the pipe, Birenbaum said.
That happens Thursday nights when the fire department uses large amounts of water during practices.
At the time the water line was approved, commercial and residential development was planned to the south and the line was to extend into that area, Birenbaum said. Only a grocery store was built and that closed after one year.
Randy Mickelson, 247 First St., has contacted the village numerous time about the water situation. In 2008, he submitted a petition with 30 signatures asking the village to do something to make the water safe.
“It hasn’t gotten much better,” he said Tuesday. “We haven’t gotten a heavy blast where it’s amber like before, but it’s still leaving a brown film in the water bowl.”
He recently sent a letter requesting the village flush the line once a month until a permanent solution is found.
“They sent a letter saying they wanted access to my home,” Mickelson. “Why do they need to come inside? The water coming out of the outdoor tap is the same as the water inside. I will give them a water sample from inside if they want it, but I won’t let them in the house.”
Birenbaum said samples taken at neighbors’ homes since the line was flushed last month have been clear. Different chemicals were added in 2008 to the water filtration plant that corrected some of the problem, he said.
Village President Kevin Kowalkowski said Monday areas where water lines dead-end are scheduled to be looped into the system in 2013.
“It will cost $300,000 to do all the work,” he said. “Our engineer said doing just that area may not solve the problem and it will cost a lot of money. It will be less expensive to do it all at once.
“I have a hard time right now, given the economy, spending that kind of money, and a month later we may have the same problem. I made the decision to do the flushing for now and
schedule the work for 2013.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Communities 
