Archive

(Articles and paragraphs that were on the home page at one time.)

New Starting Dock

May 2010. Work is complete on Ski Watch's new starting/observation dock. A great addition to the property, the dock has been built with care and used all self-help labor by Jeff Harber and Shawn McCann with the assistance of Dan White, Lisa Harber, Tom Johnson and Toms' son Nathan. In addition to the dock for skiers to launch, there is a large, covered area for sitting and observing. All decking is constructed with artificial wood and should last for many years.

March 2010 Gator Dredging reps will arrive week of March 22 to begin preliminary observation of the lakes and make arrangements before starting the bottom survey. See the meeting minutes (Special) march 15 for details). A letter went out to the membership last weekend that covers the details of proposed lake work. For more information, contact one of the the board members listed on the "Contacts" page.

December 2010. To gather membership feedback on issues with the lakes, the Lakes Improvement Committee has set up a blog attached to this site. If you are a property owner here at Skiwatch, please visit the blog and leave your comments. The address is: www.skiwatch.org/blog (Update--due to lack of use, this blog will probably be taken down in May 2010.

• Skiwatch Property Owners Do Well at 2009 Waterski Nationals. A number of our members skied well this year! Here is a list of medal winners:

Sally Montavon, National Champion, Women 3 Tricks (AND, set a new National Record)
Elizabeth Montavon, National Champion, Girls 3 Tricks
William Montavon, National Champion, Boys 2 Tricks
Jennifer Kaldor, Silver Medal, Girls 3 Slalom

The bear shown in the photo above (taken by Skiwatch residents Shawn and Trudy McCann, visited our area for a short period this past September. The immature Black Bear raided some garbage cans and garages looking for food. Once the food sources disappeared, so did the bear. The unusual sighting did provide quite a bit of excitement around the neighborhood during his/her short visit.

• Killdeer Adults and Young. These shots were taken late June of this year and show a nest with three just-hatched Killdeer with an egg and a shot of one of the parents. The Killdeer are kin to the shore birds you see at the beach. They nest here then move on until next season. There have been several nests on the vacant lots here at Skiwatch this year. The nest was in a vacant lot in the North-West cul-de-sac.

• The image at right shows the results of the extensive bush trimming work done accomplished recently by Jeff

Harber, Jim Harwood, and John Melker. When the long hedges were cut low, it was a dramatic improvement in the view and offered a much better vantage for people to watch our tournaments. Another improvement made by volunteer property owners.

Two Immature River Otter were spotted recently in Lake one (a bit hard to see). There are several adults and now a pair of young in the lakes. For several days, the two small otter were staying in in a depression or washed out area on the left side of the boat ramp. These photos were taken around 7 a.m. in May of this year.

• The Skiwatch Boat Driver Checklist has been mailed out with the annual assessment letter. This form is to be signed by the owner and lists names of anyone who will operate the owner's boat. The owner/member certifies that the listed drivers have attained a specified level of proficiency for safe boat operation at Skiwatch.

• Shore Work. On the weekend of 21 March, several skiwatch property owners re-sculptured the shore at John Melker's property. A sizable lip had formed which reflected a fair amount of rollers into the course at Lake 4. Part of a bigger-picture effort to examine all aspects of our lake shores that includes, invasive grasses, erosion control, and shore configuration aimed at improving skiing and reducing erosion. After a lot of work, the lip is gone and a gentle slope down to a sandy shore. No boat wave reflections were reported on this section of shoreline after the work. Thanks to Dan White, Shawn McCann, John Melker and Tom Johnson (did I miss anyone?) See more images of this operation on Photos Page.

• The is a new article on impact of herbicides and pesticides on lakes such as ours at Skiwatch (see "Water Quality" tab).

• Brush cutting. With funding from the 2008 annual budget, the board was able to hire

the services of Seth McCann to trim and remove tons of vegetation from the shorelines at Skiwatch. With Seth's Dad Shawn doing the bulk of cutting (volunteer), Seth loaded and removed the cuttings using the Skiwatch pontoon boat. The shorelines of Lakes 1, 3 and 4 look much trimmer now. Also, a good start was made on Lake 2. Seth is off to college so completion of this project may be an all-volunteer effort from here on out. Thanks to Shawn and Seth for a great job!

What is it? It's the cover that protects the vertical outflow drain pipe on Lake 4. The wood cover was rotten and could have resulted in a nasty fall had someone stood on it. George Pichel and Frank Harwood removed the old wood and installed a new treated-lumber cover. There is also a new access door.

Buoy Boxes. The buoy boxes on Lakes 1,3 & 4 now have everything you need to repair the slalom course. Lake use rules say that the course must be repaired prior to leaving it after skiing. See the buoy hookup picture below for directions on the proper way to hook things up.

Slalom Course Maintenance. Now that the water is getting warmer and the skiing season is heating up, the slalom courses are getting used more and more. Everyone knows what a pain it is to arrive at the lakes ready to ski only to have to swim in missing or sunk buoys.

If you need equipment, the boxes located on the various docks in the lakes will have the equipment you need. If you have any of the buoys, rubber lines, magnets or clips in your boat, please deposit them in these boxes that way our limited budget for course equipment will stretch farther. Thanks, and good skiing.

The docks on Lakes 1 and 2 got a bit of maintenance recently. Both were unsafe and ugly. Although the wood was in good condition, the nails had rusted away leaving the boards unsecured. They are now both safe to walk on with the caution that the Lake 1 dock is steep near the shore. This condition will be fixed soon and hopefully we will get another five years out of them.

Lake info. The Florida Lakewatch program has given us a level of confidence that we are properly managing the lakes at Skiwatch. The lakes have regained the clarity we have had in the past. We expect that the clarity will decrease a bit with summer skiing on the upswing but should still stay reasonably clear. Please remember to use 15-0-15 formula fertilizer to help keep the lakes' nutrient levels down. Also, use Weed and Feed fertilizer sparingly, especially on the water side of the lot. Some of these types of fertilizers contain Atrazine, which is harmful to marine life. Our turtles and crawfish will appreciate it.

The recently updated requirements for the USA Water Ski-sponsored lake insurance plan dictates that all Skiwatch property owners must be members of USAWS (regardless if the property owner skis or not). The board of directors will be providing additional information as we work towards compliance.

Also, boat owners are required to annually submit a copy of your insurance declaration page to Bill Baggett or Shawn McCann as soon as possible.
The declaration page must show Skiwatch and USAWS as 2nd insured and show liability coverage of at least 500K. (See the Board of Directors meeting minutes for details.)

• A Red-shouldered Hawk has been sighted at Skiwatch several times in the past few weeks. This picture was taken over on Lake 3.

• This pair of Mergansers were spotted cruising Lake 3 recently. A small group of these birds have stayed the Winter here but will be moving soon on as the weather warms up.