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From todays Danbury News Times.

Candlewood Lake boat sticker plan dead in water
Environment Committee refuses to approve boat bill
By Robert Miller Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 03/19/2008 06:31:36 AM EDT



The boats on Candlewood Lake will remain sticker-free for at least another year.

The General Assembly's Environment Committee last week refused to approve a bill creating the sticker program. Without committee approval, the bill died without debate on the floor of the legislature.

State Rep. Clark Chapin, R-New Milford, and the ranking Republican on the committee, said Tuesday he and the committee chairman discussed the bill and agreed it didn't even have enough support to win the committee's approval. Therefore, he said, the bill never even came to a vote.

"It really didn't surprise me," Chapin said, noting that legislation is often proposed several times before it is passed.

That defeat, however, does not mean work will end on the program. Area leaders, who have pushed the idea of a boat sticker program on Candlewood for several years, said they are committed to continue working on its behalf.

"We will definitely support this until it gets passed," said Patrick Callahan, chairman of the Candlewood Lake Authority.

One of the first steps the authority hopes to take is to sit down with the staff of the state Department of Environmental Protection to learn why the DEP opposed the bill strongly after giving the Candlewood Lake Authority tacit approval to develop a proposal in 2007.

"They blind-sided us," Callahan said.

The program, as proposed, would have made all boaters buy a sticker to use Candlewood Lake each year.

The proposed fee was $50 a year for state boaters and $100 a year for those from out of state. Those who used the lake only once or twice a year would have bought temporary stickers -- $20 for state residents, $30 for out-of-state residents.
The Candlewood Lake Authority would have used the money from the program to bulk up its marine patrol program, which enforces boating safety on the lake. It would have also pleased area residents who believe that they pay for the lake's management while people from out of town, or out of state, enjoy Candlewood for free.

It would have given the authority a much better idea of how many people use the lake every year. It could have also reduced the $60,000 a year contribution the five towns around the lake now give the lake authority for its work.

Larry Marsicano, the authority's executive director, said he knew the DEP had problems with the fees, believing they were too high. He said the DEP may have also been unhappy with the authority collecting all the money from the program.

But he said he wished the DEP would have tried to resolve those differences, rather than opposing the program so firmly.

But Chapin said many people from around the state opposed the sticker program.

"It had support in the Candlewood area, but once you got outside that area, people didn't support it," he said. Some boaters didn't want to pay a fee to use Candlewood, Chapin said, while others feared the program would set a precedent that would spread to other lakes.

Robert Crook, head of the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen, spoke out strongly against the program.

"We think there is a public boat ramp to Candlewood and that the public should be able to use it for free," Crook said Tuesday. "The Candlewood Lake Authority doesn't have any business interfering with access to the lake."

Marsicano said the authority and the leaders of the five towns around the lake need to know if the DEP now opposes a sticker program in general, or whether it just wants changes in the proposed plan.

If it's the former, he said, it makes no sense to continue spending time and money developing it.

"We definitely need the DEP's buy-in to proceed," he said.

bottom line is whoever forges the strongest voice with the dep will have the greatest chance to win the tug of war. correct me if im wrong but imo the gist of this issue is that the lake homeowners represented by cla want to have the same rights as people who live on a private or semi private lake. they wish for the public to be denied or further restricted access to a public body of water. a body of water with a federal deed that requires its owners to allow "UNBIASED" access to all the residents of the state of ct. left unabated and unchallenged the methods to achieve their goals such as the sticker program will incremently(sp) strangle the publics access.

I wouldn't mind paying a yearly access fee. It's no different than having to pay a launch fee. Lake residents would also have to pay this fee. I think it's a great idea; as long as the money collected is used to better the lake.

We who take the time to comment and get involved at any level of this, should probably learn more about the similar issue that occured on our State's shoreline beaches. There is alot of similarities with that.

One thing I beleive is in favor of the public, is the fact that Candlewood Lake, is owned by a government funded and sanctioned company. As long as that is the case, the CLA will never have governing autority up there. The lake will remain PUBLIC, as long as it is PUBLICALLY OWNED! Never will it be a private lake for home owners and residents.