OXFORD – Cost, maintenance, liability issues and lack of consensus over a channel-marking proposal near Pismo Beach on Thompson Lake could mean the whole idea will end up dead in the water.

“It’s safe to say there’s not even an agreement among those on the committee that this is a project that should happen,” Town Manager Mike Huston said.

Still, several members of the Lake Thompson Advisory Committee did volunteer site work by boat earlier this summer to tentatively identify the boundaries of the channel.

“They’ve come up with an idea where the buoys need to be placed” to steer boat traffic through the deepest part of the lake in that area, said committee member Kerry Halterman.

But he said some landowners have expressed concern that marking the channel with buoys will detract from the aesthetic beauty of the lake, he said. Proponents say the marking is needed to guide boaters away from shallow areas with underwater hazards that are unsafe for boaters unfamiliar with the lake.

Huston said the committee agreed to wait until the water gets lower and invite Tim Thurston from the state’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to come inspect the proposed marking plan. He said it will be at least September or later before the committee will be prepared with plans and cost estimates to take to selectmen.

At least one selectman, Dennis Sanborn, strongly favors marking the channel.

Once a channel is marked, state rules must be followed, and either the town or the Thompson Lake Environmental Association must assume responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the markings.

“There’s a lot of points of view on this one,” Halterman said. But the committee’s role is to research the issue and report back to selectmen, and that’s what they’ll do, he said.

The committee is being chaired by Art Bellwood, and its members include Tom Cushman, Bob Cotton, Bill Condon, Marcia Pottle and Sharon Jackson.

Copy the Story Link