Not sure what other city or towns along the lake require but in Laconia I pay .50 cents for a permit which asks for all my contact information as well as where the aquatherm will be placed, how many aquatherms and the amount of area of ice to be open. I have a neighborhood water access close to my home so I pay very close attention to how much ice I clear. If I couldn't keep that access safe for snowmobiles going on the lake I would be in violation of my permit and open for trouble. I keep just enough water open to protect the docks. You can walk the ice around them because I only turn them on to reopen the previous hole. This forms a thick ring around the docks. If you have an aquatherm near public access that you can't babysit you are nuts running it on a timer or thermostat imo.
And tis, you are very right. All the effort during the winter keeping the docks ice free is moot when the spring wind blows and large ice masses crash without anything to stop them. Last spring the wind blew out of the north west taking the ice in Paugus Bay into the Margate area (AC2717 will attest). The Town Docks got hit hard too. Other years the wind comes out of the south and impacts me. Nothing stops that ice. You just have to be lucky!
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