When Jeff and Monique Sullivan bought a home on Horseshoe Lake in 2004, they were charmed by the sight of kayakers, paddle boaters and fathers fishing with their children.
Generally, their backyard was a peaceful scene.
Approximately two years later, wakeboarders showed up.
It would only take one wakeboarder to dominate the shallow, 85-acre lake, Jeff Sullivan said, and turn the waters into a “frothing mess.” As another homeowner said at a public hearing last month, wakeboarders would be on the lake all day.
And it wasn’t just the irritation of waking up at 6:30 a.m. to the sound of a wakeboarder blaring “Stairway to Heaven,” that riled homeowners. They were also concerned about shoreline erosion, which the Sullivans saw firsthand in 2008 when a section of their retaining wall fell into the lake, and safety, because the lake isn’t wide enough to let two boats pass safely while staying as far from the shoreline as they are required by law.
Disruptive wakeboarders forced everyone else out of the water and that has brought lakeshore homeowners closer.
They’ve been pushing to get the Woodland City Council to restrict the speed limit on the entire lake (the north end of which is already a no-wake zone) to 5 miles per hour. Jeff Sullivan said that rather than try and outlaw a class of boat, they decided it would be best to restrict speed.
The process has been complicated by the fact the lake is governed by three sets of conflicting laws.
The border between Clark and Cowlitz counties runs down the middle of the lake, and the city of Woodland has its own rules.
The county laws conflicted over maximum boat speed (40 mph in one county, 50 mph in the other), curfew and other issues. The problem of conflicting laws was highlighted when one boater successfully fought a ticket by claiming he was in the county that had the law on his side when his infraction occurred.
On April 13, the Board of Clark County Commissioners had a public hearing on whether it should adopt water safety regulations for the lake that were consistent with the city of Woodland’s. The board unanimously agreed to do so after hearing from speakers such as Woodland City Attorney Bill Eling.
“If you have three laws, it’s the same as having no law,” Eling said.
Woodland Mayor Chuck Blum said he anticipates the Board of Cowlitz County Commissioners will follow Clark County’s lead by next month.
When the city has control of the lake, the city council will consider changing the speed limit. Under current city law, the speed limit is 50 mph.
Scott Perry, a Woodland real estate agent who lives on the lake, said he took the license plate numbers of the wakeboarders and sent them to the chief of police, who informed him that none is a local resident.
Perry suspects that the lake is used by wakeboarders because of its proximity to Interstate 5.
The lake was originally a bend in the North Fork of the Lewis River. In 1940, when the Pacific Highway was built, the loop of water was cut off, creating the U-shaped lake west of I-5.
“It’s a really calm lake, in that we don’t get a lot of wind, so it’s really smooth for them,” Perry said.
If homeowners get their way, it won’t be smooth for wakeboarders much longer.
Jeff Sullivan, a retired Cessna salesman who hasn’t completely lost his New Jersey accent even after 40 years in the Pacific Northwest, said he created a megaphone by cutting off the bottom of a plastic jug. He’ll stand in his backyard and bellow at wakeboarders who are in violation of the rules, such as when they are on the lake between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on the weekend (a no-no for motorboats with engines greater than 10 horsepower).
“I generally say, ‘No boats are allowed at this time,’” he said.
He hopes he’ll be able to throw his megaphone away and go back to enjoying the canoers, kayakers and families.
“What we are trying to accomplish is a safe and serene environment,” Sullivan said.
Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.
