Boaters balk at new noise, speed laws on Fox, Chain O' Lakes
Enforcing existing laws instead of creating new ones seemed to be the popular choice among boaters who attended a standing-room-only meeting of the Fox Waterway Agency in McHenry.
Boaters said deputies from the Lake and McHenry county sheriff's offices do not try hard enough to enforce existing noise and reckless boating laws on the books.
They said those laws should be enforced to the fullest before additional laws -- like speed limits -- are added.
But board member Phil Bartmann said the sheriff's departments are doing all they can to enforce the existing laws, adding there is no way to accurately enforce the noise ordinances in place on the Fox River, where most of the problems are taking place.
"I get stopped two or three times a day and the only comments I've heard is, thank God we are looking at speed limits," he told the 150 people in attendance Thursday. "I'm getting comment after comment supporting speed limits, at least on the river. People are really in favor of it."
Thursday was the second of three discovery meetings held by the agency to try to find a way to reduce boat noise on the river and Chain O' Lakes.
Imposing a speed limit on the Chain and river seems to be just one of numerous ideas tossed around by board members to try to reduce noise. Other ideas include putting up signs to ask people to be quiet, installing cameras to catch reckless boaters, and making "silent choice" mandatory for all boat operators.
"Silent choice" is a switch that can be flipped that gives the boat operator the option of running with his muffler above the water -- which is louder -- or below the water's surface.
Three board members said tougher noise laws and potentially adding speed limits to the watershed should be broken out and discussed separately.
Boaters against speed limits clearly outnumbered boaters in favor during Thursday's meeting.
Bruce Zarok, spokesman of the Northern Illinois Offshore Club, said some boats are loud and some boaters are too reckless. But, he said, sheriff's agencies need more boats and more personnel, and need to do more overall to enforce the current laws.
"Our suggestion is to support better enforcement of the laws we have," he said. "I think with proper enforcement, this would stop. The noise ordinance has been on the books for five years, but there are only a handful of noise violations handed out each year."
Agency officials said only five noise citations and six warnings were issued in 2007.
Bartmann argued sheriff's officials cannot properly check for noise violations on the river, despite handling equipment designed for that purpose.
"Whatever the people on the lakes want to do, I am personally behind them. But, my constituents along the river are asking for more control and tougher noise laws," he said. "The police say the current laws don't work. My neighbors say it doesn't work. I don't think it works. It's a problem and it isn't going to go away."
He also said adding boats, personnel, or video cameras will cost a lot more money than the agency has.
"Are you people prepared to raise your user fees to pay for more police or video cameras?" he asked.
Agency officials said they would hold one more brainstorming meeting regarding potential speed and noise laws at 6 p.m. Feb. 14 at the agency headquarters in Fox Lake. A final decision would be made a couple of months after.