Better boating

Bethel confident boating law will work for all

By CHRIS CONROY

BETHEL, NY — It’s been the source of confusion, annoyance, litigation and outright arguments. Now, the near infamous Town of Bethel boating and personal watercraft law is getting a makeover the likes of which no previous version has seen.

This time around, the town has tapped 22-year-old Princeton graduate Mathew Hinden to help with the revisions. Hinden, an alum of the town’s summer youth program, has taken his academic training in law and applied it to the sticky issue of dealing with personal watercraft—jet skis, wave runners and other such non-boat aquatic vehicles—on White Lake.

The current boating law, the basis for the revision Hinden is working on, has been fraught with difficulty. Questions of the legality of fees set up in the law, as well as its general fairness in relation to rental operations, prompted litigation in 2001. Reducing fees charged to rental businesses for personal watercraft registration were modifications made as a result of the litigation.

The approval of that law did not stop the steady stream of complaints from lakeside residents who feel that their safety is threatened by the continued usage of personal watercraft on White Lake. Over the past two summers, many stories of near misses and of observed dangerous behavior have come to the board’s attention.

Town constable Ray Neuenhoff confirmed that the majority of incidents he responds to while patrolling the lake involve personal watercraft.

Bethel isn’t the only place where personal watercraft is seen as a problem.

A New York State law going into effect for the summer of 2004 increases the amount of training anyone wishing to pilot a personal watercraft needs. Next summer, a boating safety certificate, not quite the equivalent of a driver’s license, will be required to pilot a personal watercraft.

“Our law will read the same as the state law in many places,” Hinden said when he first introduced a draft at the June 26 town board meeting.

After gathering more input and hearing back from state officials on plans for new state regulations, Hinden again appeared before the board at the July 10 meeting with some new opinions.

“Safety certificates alone will not successfully and fully address the issue [of personal watercraft safety],” Hinden said.

The solution?

In addition to requiring the boating certificate, operation of personal watercraft on White Lake, on weekends between July 1 and August 31, can only take place between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Hinden said that a provision for more restrictive hours had been modified after discussing the issue with a number of lakeside residents.

The new law will not include special fees for personal watercraft. The rest of the standard permit system, which does include a charge, will remain in place.

Personal watercraft will also be completely banned from Lake Superior and the public portion of the Toronto Reservoir.

While the presentation of the new law drew applause from the audience, one serious issue still remains: enforcement.

“We just don’t have enough [enforcement] employees to do the job,” said town supervisor Allan Scott. The town board will shortly be discussing options to fix this problem, Scott said, including seeking help from Sullivan County.

A public hearing on the new boating law is scheduled for August 14. Once passed, the law will be in effect for the summer of 2004.