Alachua County Airboat Ban threat 10pm to 7 am

[N. Cook]

If you hunt ducks, frogs or gators in Alachua County from an airboat you are about to be banned from all lakes and marshes. County Commission to vote soon....no airboats from 10 pm to 7 am.

You must contact the county commissioners immediately with your objections.

[duckbone]

Dang, this again.

[huntmstr]

They are fixing to get their A$$E$ sued over this...and the airboaters will win...again!

[N. Cook]

Not so sure.....I have alerted Danny Brantley (I am sure he was probably already aware but he never mentioned this issue to me as recently as last Friday). His group has won some victories, but I do not think they are involved in this particular one....

Someone who posts over on the Florida Airboat Association needs to check out what is going on....

I know Barbara Jean Powell is now on the case...but the ECC is south Florida...

Our problem is we do not have a lot of "voter" Members in the county as most of our folks live in the surrounding counties. You really need locals to stand up to the Commissioners as they are catching heck from the lakeside landowners......who conviently forget the airboats were there before they destroyed the shore with their houses.

[huntmstr]

Newton, no offense to Danny and his group, but they aren't the only active airboaters in the state. A different local group (also from central FL and unaffiliated with FAA) has been working on this issue for over a year now. They have an attorney who is very adept in maratime law who is handling the case, pro bono. FAA & KRVSC had their hands full with Osceola County and the various pending law suits against them. Besides, who better than the locals impacted to lead the fight in their own back yard. Trust me buddy, it's being handled by professional law slingers.:icon_geek

[N. Cook]

Glad to hear that....our Mike Haney was asking for help....and it seems to be on hand...

[Converted]

BJ sent this...

NO Curfew....


Check out this blog and comment appropriately.


http://townhall.blogs.gainesville.com/10087/should-alachua-county-ban-airboat-use-at-night/

Thanks


Jerry Wetherington
jerryw1@bellsouth.net
Phone (352)466-0489
Cell (352)665-9161

[Esteban]

This issue has been going back and forth the last 3-4 years with multiple meetings and suggestions for compromise floated by both the commissioners and the public. There have been a few lake residents that have been at the forefront of this complaining about the noise for several years, one person in particular has led the fight, and now they have a whole bunch of not only lake side residents but residents that don't live on the water on their side. So it's not just a few lakeside homeowners complaining, it's a fairly well organized group that been able to finally push this through, and then initially wanted a total ban on airboats, not just a night time curfew.

I have to say that the number of airboats using Orange Lake has increased dramatically over the last 5-6 years. I suspect the increasing popularity of it along with airboat bans on other lakes has pushed them to other waters. Like others, I say the buyer needs to know what they are buying when they purchase public lake front property. They are buying the entire lake and everything that comes with it including boats running around at night.

The county commissioners engaged some people from UF to help with a year long study including multiple interviews with all the stakeholder groups in an effort to create a master waterways plan for the county waters. A number of duck hunters including myself were invited to sit in on one of these meetings which were designed to gather information and get the opinions and feelings of the general population regarding the usage of the county waterways including airboat noise.

I've been following this the last several years and foresaw this coming as the commissioners we have in there now are pretty much total bunny huggers and generally kowtow to the loudest and most organized complainers. The dynamics of this area are that we seem to always get these kinds of folks in office and have to live with the consequences. Apparently they are ready to go to court to uphold this ban, they even waited to get a ruling from the state Attorney General to make sure it didn't violate any state laws, so I'm sure it's pretty much a done deal with only a formal vote necessary to get it implemented. I tried to suggest getting an exemption for hunting season implemented along with this but to no avail. I think it was a victory in itself just to keep from getting an outright ban altogether. It's easy enough to say we should just vote these people out of office, but it's not all that easy as this is a fairly liberal college town and that's about the only type of candidate we get around here.

The biggest problem we have, which I think has ultimately led to this, is enforcement of the existing noise ordinance. The Sheriff's office has no budget to have on-the-water deputies which is the only legal way they can enforce the laws and write citations as they have to catch them in the act. So that is something that will probably never happen which is just another one of the reasons the commissioners are going to push this through. Had we had enforcement of our noise ordinance from the outset I suspect this might not have been nearly the contentious issue it has become.

I personally am no fan of airboats, I was prop washed by an arsehole one cold morning leaving the boat ramp to go hunting, yes he knew we were behind him, he just didn't care, and I can't tell you how many times I've had them racing around my setup running around scaring off the ducks. It seems some of them only care to run around as fast and as loud as possible but I know they are generally the exceptions and don't represent the majority of responsible operators. Nevertheless I can understand how lakeside residents resent the noise of those things when they are racing across the water, especially in the wee hours of the night. Having said all that, I will stand next to them in trying to get this revoked as it's going down a slippery slope where they might go after prop boats next. It starts one step at a time...

[FastDuck]

Here is what GTO sent me on this subject.

It’s time for us to really get serious about the Curfew possibilities on Orange Lake. The Alachua county commission has chosen to disregard the wishes of a major portion of their constituents and pursue a curfew. We need to show our great displeasure in this decision by writing and calling our county commissioners. We know that there is power in numbers so let’s show them we are serious about not having an airboat curfew. This will be the first of many discriminating ordinances that the commission is considering. Lake Santa Fe bass boats and speed boats are next on the agenda.

The commissioners can be emailed at the following :

byerly@alachuacounty.us byerly@alachuacounty.us
cmchestnut@alachuacounty.us cmchestnut@alachuacounty.us
rjlong@alachuacounty.us rjlong@alachuacounty.us
pdelaney@alachuacounty.us pdelaney@alachuacounty.us
lpinkoson@alachuacounty.us lpinkoson@alachuacounty.us



The curfew will be brought back up on October 27 at the regular county commission meeting. We need to have everyone that we can at that meeting. It may not do any good but we have to give it our best shot. Please tell everyone that you know to attend this meeting. We have to shoe the commissioners that we are really serious about this issue. It’s your future rights that are at stake.

[N. Cook]

The UW-F Board of Directors approved a statement opposing any curfew for airboats in Alachua County and it has been sent to each County Commissioner.

This does not preclude Members and friend from sending their own messages before the Oct. 27 meeting.

[N. Cook]

I received the standard "Thanks for your email" response from a Commissioner this am....The UW-F positon statement was received by the Commissioners in time before the meeting. However, attending the meeting on Oct. 27 has a lot more influence than an email.....