The public will get more access to the Bear Creek Reservoir, but a small group of people will get special privileges.
With almost 40 citizens present, the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority voted last Wednesday to modify the rules it approved two months earlier for boat access to the 505-acre reservoir located off GA 330 in southwest Jackson County.
The general public will have access by the boat ramp Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the Bear Creek Reservoir. Citizens whose property abuts the Upper Oconee Basin Authority's land at the reservoir will be able to use the lake seven days a week by launching boats from their property.
Some people to get greater lake access than others
The first modification grants residents of property contiguous to the authority's property seven-day-a-week, dawn-to-dusk boat access to the lake.
The rest of the public will be restricted to dawn-to-dusk Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The second modification expands the kinds of boats allowed to include sailboats, kayaks and canoes - providing they are 16 feet or shorter.
The regulations take effect when the boat ramp is completed, presumably in late August. Currently all boats are prohibited on the lake, although adjacent property owners regularly use boats on the lake.
While Wednesday's moves granted special privileges to owners of lakefront property, those privileges do not extend to owners of all lots in lakeside subdivisions. Only the owners of lots that actually abut the authority's high-water mark will be able to utilize the lake daily.
Chairman Melvin Davis appeared to concede that the regulations will likely see further modification.
"It will continue to be a work in progress," he said. "I can assure you we will not please anybody."
For the full story, see the July 29 issue of The Commerce News.
The rest of the public will be restricted to dawn-to-dusk Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The second modification expands the kinds of boats allowed to include sailboats, kayaks and canoes - providing they are 16 feet or shorter.
The regulations take effect when the boat ramp is completed, presumably in late August. Currently all boats are prohibited on the lake, although adjacent property owners regularly use boats on the lake.
While Wednesday's moves granted special privileges to owners of lakefront property, those privileges do not extend to owners of all lots in lakeside subdivisions. Only the owners of lots that actually abut the authority's high-water mark will be able to utilize the lake daily.
Chairman Melvin Davis appeared to concede that the regulations will likely see further modification.
"It will continue to be a work in progress," he said. "I can assure you we will not please anybody."
For the full story, see the July 29 issue of The Commerce News.
Instead we wind up with limited access for the people that paid for the park and unlimited access for the few that by chance alone ended up with lake frontage. Easy to see why they get a special treatment because they are just doing what they have been doing right along
( breaking the law)using the lake when ever They have been breaking the law since it was built. Nothing was done about it then and nothing will be done now. So much for equal access to a public facility.