Commissioners hear lengthy list of lake concerns
Staff writer
Dogs not on leashes, kids driving golf carts illegally, and sewer capacity at Marion County Lake continues to be a problem.
Marion County Lake Improvement District director Greg Wyatt, who lives at the lake, approached county commissioners Monday with what he sees too often.
There needs to be a leash law for dogs, and lake officials need to have authority to write tickets instead of warnings, he said.
“The lake problem is enforcement,” he said.
He also voiced concerns over the number of short-term rentals at the lake.
He said the lake at one point had 60 as its maximum number of houses. That later was increased to 90. Now, there are 292 lake homes, nearly triple what was planned, placing stress and burden on its sewer system.
Sewer lines should be increased from 1½ or 2 inches in size to 3 to 4 inches, he said.
The lake applied for a grant to improve the sewer system, he said, but even if the grant is approved it would take three years for the work to be completed.
He remembers reading a comment in the Record, where a planning and zoning commissioner at a meeting said it was not possible to enforce rules against short-term rentals.
“If you can’t enforce regulations then why have them,” he said.
He proposed that the maximum number of eight people at any one rental be reduced to four or six.
“We run the risk of stressing the line, and if we have a break in the line, sewerage will go into the lake,” he said.
This would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for cleanup, he said.
He also touched on permits for garages at homes on the lake. He has seen lake residents build on top of garages, which is not supposed to be allowed, he said.
“If one gets away with doing it, others will do the same thing,” he said.
Wyatt also said he had heard concerns over parking at the lake but that these were not his primary concern.
“Parking is minor when compared to sewer lines,” he said.
Wyatt made his concerns during the public comment portion of the commissioner’s meeting. Commissioners said they would consider adding lake concerns to a future agenda.