Wooster Lake is back to being wide open for boats to travel at any speed after a Round Lake ordinance was rescinded last month.
The controversy on the lake goes back many years and resulted in state legislation to allow boat owners to accelerate their boats beyond the no-wake limit that some area residents wanted to impose on the 100-acre lake off Route 134.
Round Lake Mayor Jim Dietz said the village never enforced the ordinance for a no-wake zone and officials did a survey where opinion was split 50/50, although some say the survey was flawed and incomplete. But it was clear the issue was exhausting to him.
"I'm for property owners not causing problems for others," he said. "We couldn't get a working consensus. It was time to let it go. The fact they have confrontations, bumping boats, that's improper."
Some subdivisions, like Tanneron Bay and Holiday Park, have language in their homeowner association covenants that call for low impact use of the lake, or no wake.
Lake County Board member Bonnie Carter Thomson of Ingleside said she gathered more than 400 signatures multiple times from people who own lake bottom and have lake rights. They all want low-impact boating.
"I'm disappointed that a majority, several generations of people, have done everything they can to protect the lake," she said.
Thomson said there had always been a gentleman's agreement about the lake, until Kirk Denz moved onto the lake and wanted to water ski and use his personal watercraft.
Read more at http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/6878727-418/round-lake-gives-up-on-wooster-lake-no-wake-rule.html
