Higher lake level would benefit all
Oh well, another boating season is … water under the boat. The good news is all the money I can’t spend now. The bad news is all the money I can’t spend now. Our boating season is rather short compared to many locations and depending on the length of your dock, the marina you’re moored in, or if you’re trailering, it can be somewhat variable but mostly too short considering the cost of the boat.
Most of us think of the season as only three to four months long, or should I say darn short. In spring, it’s just wonderful to see the town and lake come alive after the protracted mud season and kind of sad as we now go into early hibernation until the snow flies and we start up the other unique industry to Sandpoint. David Keyes is always glad to hear from me when I call in to prompt a story about what the darn U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plans are for the drawdown so I can pull my boats before they are stuck on the lift. You can see now that this opinion is largely about the dam.
In business, in any sector, if management can extend their revenues and at the same time continue to net a reasonable profit, even for a few percentage points — we will jump through hoops. If you could extend your season by 15-20 percent that would be a huge number. Imagine if your town was full of businesses that were in trouble with doors closing, mortgages defaulting, predatory mergers and acquisitions going on, etc. But also imagine if you were a lakefront town, an asset fewer than 5 percent of towns in the U.S. enjoy. Imagine if your town was one of the latter communities to feel the squeeze and therefore one of the first to potentially emerge and you could do something to hasten that. Imagine you were getting free national press advertising your “business” because it was so unique.
There are a lot of competitive interests vying for our lake water. Hydroelectric power generation, in-stream fish flows, in-lake habitat and spawning gravels, ag irrigation, recreation and others. Most of these uses also exist in the lakes and river “system” above and below us so it’s quite complicated and no one interest or location can be best served. Just how well are our interests represented and given the changed dynamics of the economic crisis we are in, are we voicing as directed as we might? Do you think a committee of bureaucrats in a Portland tower has this figured out promoting our best interests?
Are our representatives there and are they armed with a structured argument and economic impact analysis that would indicate an enormous lost financial opportunity to our whole community? Do our elected and appointed officials and others of influence have this topic at top of mind and do they have the tools to work this issue for us? Are we opportunist promoting assets hardly any community has- not one but two? Just what makes a lake town a lake town and a ski town a ski town anyway?
If we could have a “full pool” say, two weeks earlier and maintain it two weeks later, or some variation on either or both shoulders, we would extend the boating season 20 percent and likewise, our economic potential with no capital costs, to say nothing of improving my “fun index.” Not 20 you say, I’ll take 5 percent. Imagine a few more weeks that corresponds quite well with the weather; especially if you believe Al Gore! What’s the deal on a quick two foot draw down anyway, and is there any understanding at all of what only one foot versus two might mean economically? The greatest recreational/financial impact is probably in the top two feet, the last two in and the first two out. Did you know that the enabling act of Congress that funded the dam specifically calls out “recreation” as a primary intended benefit ahead of the others?
It would be appropriate for the chamber, EDC, affected businesses (that’s most everybody) and interested parties to fund an economic impact analysis and start a “lake level initiative.” I bet you will be amazed at what such a studies results would reveal, both the direct impact and a big multiplier. Make sure we are represented in Portland with position reports and economic data.
Target this coming spring’s earlier fill with a focus on extending next September’s start of drawdown. Call it initiative 2062’.
n Charles Wilson has enjoyed a 35-year career in resort and community development and resort operations. He has been a vice president of a market research, feasibility and marketing support company and of a 300-person land planning and engineering company. Currently he is freelance consulting on real estate/development matters. He is an avid boater with a “man cave” boat house on East Bottle Bay where he keeps an old Chris-Craft and “his wife’s plastic boat” preferably in the water. He can be reached at Charles WilsonConsulting@gmail.com.