[ApS]

Originally Posted by CMG

For the 30 some odd people that feel strongly about a speed limit - let me be the first to thank all of you for not showing up today at the hearing!! there had to be 25 of us opposed.

But this appeared just last week in the Granite State News:

"House Bill 162 is currently under retention by the New Hampshire House Committee for Resources, Recreation, and Development. This bill aims to place reasonable speed limits on Lake Winnipesaukee. The Committee will either kill the bill or pass it on to the full house in its current or an amended state for full legislative consideration. If you are a citizen of the State of New Hampshire, whether or not you use or desire to use Lake Winnipesaukee, you have a personal interest in this bill.

"Lake Winnipesaukee is owned by all of the citizens of N.H. and its waters have been set aside by statute for the use and pleasure of all. It is your right to recreate on this lake, yet if you have visited over the past few years, you know that you are most often being denied this right, unless you own a very large boat or you are very daring.

"Whether the lake has actually become unsafe for ordinary family activities or it is just the perception of a growing danger, the result is the same; present conditions have effectively rendered the lake off limits to many of the state's ordinary citizens, probably including you, for much of the time. Activities that were once common on the lake, like sailing, canoeing, kayaking, water skiing, and leisure boating, are becoming too risky or just not enjoyable. Wildlife, water quality, shoreline erosion and other environmental issues are also being impacted by the hostile activities of a dominant few. These hostile activities go virtually hand in hand with the high-speed operation of the ever-faster boats that are becoming more and more common on the lake every year.

"Other lakes around the country have already gone through the "growing pains" that Winnipesaukee is currently experiencing, and have solved those by enacting speed limit laws identical to those proposed by HB 162. Enforcement of these laws has not been a problem for other marine law enforcement agencies. Inexpensive and effective equipment is available for measuring boat speed. Conviction rates of offenders have been high. And the overall environment and atmosphere on these other lakes has been improved dramatically once speed limits were instituted. Let no one tell you otherwise.

"The existing laws on Winnipesaukee, although extensive and theoretically sufficient, have simply proven ineffective. And as matters grow worse and worse it has surely become time for a new approach.

"There will be strong opposition to this bill from those who own and profit from over-powered speedboats and from the lobbyists they have hired. There is a lot of money being made and spent on these expensive boats by the few who sell them and the wealthy few that can afford them, but although they are organized and loud, it should not take much common sense to recognize that they can only represent a small minority of the voting citizenry of this state. And this is the same loud minority that has repeatedly stood in the way of any reasonable restrictions on the vulgar and dangerous behaviors that have robbed Lake Winnipesaukee of the family environment that had always been its hallmark..."

________________________

If you're afraid of the lake, stay off the dock.