Elite Marine

Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Chief Tom Hausner said 20,000 boats are registered to operate Lake Geneva, which is nine miles wide and has 5,200 acres of water and has a 45mph speed limit on weekdays and a 35mph speed limit on the weekends. There were 15 accidents were reported in 2007

The Fox Waterway Agency sold more than 28,000 boat stickers in 2007. Those boats are spread across 45 miles and 7,100 acres of water on the Chain and Fox River. There were 20 accidents on the Chain last year.

The chain, with no day time speed limits in place, actually had fewer accidents per acre than Lake Geneva.

FRMULTR

Kirk, great post , and I'll bet none of these involved an offshore boat at speed. Probably rented pontoons and new runabout drivers, with a few cocktails tossed down their throats.

Jamie B.

Would it help if I came dressed as a priest ??

sommerfliesby

Priest's don't use hair gel. They'd see right through you.

10x

Maybe I could show up as a priest.

Revd Up

This is very important. Appoint a spokesperson and remain calm. They will realize what they are up against, just by the huge showing of boaters and homeowners.

When we were going through this, things got a little heated. They banned us from future meetings and the rest is history

sommerfliesby

Nahhh. You'd have to keep pushing those little devil-horns back under your hair.

Elite Marine

They will get the point. The complaints are from 6 or so houses on the river.

During the River Shiver, there were hundreds of people on their docks and yards cheering and waving. It's the Phil Bartmanns causing the issue. Retired,assh*le with nothing to do but drink and ***** about things.

Elite Marine

Overall some very good comments from the audience. Bruce Zarek did a nice job explaining why there should be better enforcement of existing regulations and telling the board about how NIOC polices itself.

Phil Bartmann (see picture) lives on the river and has a personal agenda. He started his comments stating that many people have spoke to him recently and emailed him supporting the speed limit issue. He of course had no proof of this to support his statement. He went on to say that the police could not control or regulate anything on the River Shiver, which was a complete fabrication of what the officer stated at the last meeting of the Waterway Agency. Once the member all stated their position, he was visibly upset that not many on the board supported the speed limit.

People asked how to contact Mr. Bartmann and he told them that his email address is on the Fox Waterway website. I cannot locate it. Here's the link so if you find it, please post it so everyone can email Mr. Bartmann.

http://www.foxwaterway.org/

http://63.135.96.26/about_us/profiles.cfm

If I can acquire his email address I will post it so everyone can let him know how they feel about his personal agenda.

From the sound of things, it is my opinion that they will try to regulate the speed on a portion of the river, but nowhere else. Most of the board agreed that a speed limit would not serve much of a purpose and feel that noise and speed are two seperate issues.

There will be another meeting at the Fox Waterway Agency on Feb 14 to continue the discussion on this subject. Again, I hope there is a big turnout representing the users.

I will be at the Miami Boat Show looking for a faster louder boat!

Kirk

1980 Martini

Did anyone else find it interesting that neither McHenry nor Lake County Sherriffs showed up for the meeting? It really does seem that Phil B. has his own agenda. We live on the river in Johnsburg too. We love the action. Maybe posting some signs, and self policing in the problem area will help. Maybe someone knows someone who could donate the signs to the FWA, or find them for a reduced cost. I really like the idea someone had of an increased sticker fee for non-residents, to help offset agency costs. Even if residents had to pay a few dollars more, would it be so bad? Bruce and Fred did excellent jobs of speaking on the behalf of so many of us. As did the Lady from the lower river. She rocked! Belinda also had some great points. Well, let's see where it goes.