The Weatherford Utility board is selling large quantities of water again, this time to a bankrupt golf course, according to the Weatherford Democrat. That is what happens when used car salesmen manage your lake.

Lake Weatherford is currently 8 feet low. The board previously voted to stop purchasing water from TRWD because of the cost of running the pumps. If they had purchased the water in a timely manner the lake would not have been low. The pumping cost is only $4000 a day, which is fully recovered from the water customers. The board has sold millions of gallons of water to oil companies to support drilling and fracking operations according to published reports.

Was the lake built to be a water source?

Yes. In 1956. Good point. However, the lakeside property has been promoted for many years as a recreational lake and the property owners have invested large sums on the premise that a reasonable lake level would be maintained.

Also, I think that allowing the lake to go so low is flirting with not being able to provide water to the city if the drought continues. Cashing in on short term income does not seem prudent.

This is what happens when you let real estate salesmen to sell property lakeside.

Weatherford Utility Board = Idiots.

I would bet good money that not a one of them has lake front property on Lake Weatherford.

A lot of rain will make all this go away

Why would that have any bearing on the decision?

Because if any of the board members had shoreline property, they would want water as close to their shoreline as possible. And I think they would not vote to sell water from a lake that they lived on or owned property on. I have never known anyone who lived on a lake who liked their lake to drop several feet where they could not access the lake easily.

They "should" be on the board making decisions that are best for the community not just those that live on the lake or fish it.

David, I totally agree with your post. But that is the problem and my point. While they "should" make the best decision based on what is best for the community, too many times, money and politics come into play when water boards make decisions. That is why I said that if a board member owned property on the lake, they would vote in "their" "best interest" and not that of the community. It is the "Good old boy" club many times!
And that is why it is not in the communities best interest to sell water from Lake Weatherford while Texas is experiencing a major drought.

That is what happens when you let boat salesmen manage property...always have a catch to it in the long run.

Don't hold your breath

you cant have it both ways. if you are going to tax the heck out of water front owners and get the benefits of that, you cant sell ruin their property values. see lake travis.

Homeowners do not own the waterfront at Weatherford. Its lease back if I recall.

I know Weatherford and the lake has it problems. But how are they taxing the heck out of water front owners? There is no special tax for them. They pay the same rate as me, as a Weatherford homeowner.

The land is on "license". The real estate improvements are owned by the homeowner, who pay taxes on their property.

Ok people read the article. All they did was update an already in existence contract to provide the new ownership with the same access to water that the previous owner had.

SO basically nothing has changed.


The lake is low and that sucks as we all know, but what lakes around here aren't suffering the same?

At least they will be starting on the new boat ramp project soon. The marina new ownership and the city finally got off there butts and going to fix a 30 year old problem.

I resent that. We poured a new ramp in 2006. If the city had managed the lake and pumped in water when they could have the new ramp would have been more than adequate. We certainly were not "on our butts." The new ownership is certainly to be commended for all the improvements they have made, but look at all we accomplished too. We built new slips, gas pumps, a new store and many other things.

Steve and Cynthia did many good things for the marina. I have been fishing out there for almost 30 years now.

Really hard to say that a "new ramp" was poured. All that was done was a new top cap poured about 3/4 of the way down.
It too steep, uneven, and is at a bad angle towards the slips. It sucks then and still. It may be fine for a bass buster, but anything bigger and your going to have a issue, unless you know the sweet spot to jack-knife it and hope you get it even

+1

I started to let this go by, but it is just too wrong to overlook.

As you can see from this picture taken during construction, there was no "cap". The old ramp was completely removed and a new ramp was poured.The water was 9 feet low at the time.

As far as the ramp being too steep, we studied Corps of Engineers and TPWD documents to see what they recommended. The ramp is in the middle range of their recommendations.

The ramp had to be sandwiched in between the gas pumps and the slips, and the result is certainly not ideal.



The plain fact of the matter is the new ramp worked great so long as the lake was near full. When the water level dropped it was no longer satisfactory. But even when the level was low I launched large boats for our customers with no problem.

I cant believe that this ramp is in the middle of TPWD and ACOE regulations... I've fished more different lakes than I can count across the great state of Texas and IMO the ramp at Weatherford is one of the worst I've used. In all fairness I think the lake was at least 2-3ft low every time I launched.

I am not sure when that pictue was taken, but the ramp at Weatherford has never to my knowledge been that wide, we could only wish it was.

It takes a very experienced boater to launch a boat at that ramp, I am not sure what regulations were taken into affect, but that is one the steepest in or around the metroplex.

If you take a boat over 18ft out there and actually get the boat off the trailer, there's a good chance you will damage your trailer taken it out.

So, I am not sure I would be tooting my horn about repairs because I dont see much of an improvement.

IBTL

The picture was taken in 2006 when we poured the present ramp. The present ramp is exactly that wide.

The point I keep trying to make and cannot seem to get across is that the ramp, with all its faults, is perfectly adequate when the lake is full or nearly so.

I also want to make it clear that I have no connection with the present owners, and I wish them the best.

Lilburn,

When was the last time you actually launched a 18+ boat out there?

The ramp sucks!

Here are a few pictures taken showing:

How steep the angle is @22 degrees
How fast the transition is, trailers are dragging the asphalt at the breakover
How the ramp was only 3/4 replaced and falls away VERY uneven

All that was done was replace a horrible ramp with a new horrible ramp.





It may be "useable" when the water is up but its far from "adequate"

I have seen more than one trailer laying in the grass where the axles have been ripped off or broken due to the transition.

Even with the lake full it still sucks.

It's Lilburn, not Wilburn.

I give up. You are right. It should be replaced. I have not launched a boat since the marina sold.

We did the best we could with the money available. It was a constant battle just to keep the doors open with the low lake level and lack of customers.

I can see that I do not have many fans. I do not intend to post on this subject again.

Guess ive never seen that ramp.

Yea the ramp sucks, but he kept the beer cold!!

Even when the lake is full you had to angle the trailer back towards the slip to get it even. Not a big deal unloading, but important if you wanted to get your boat loaded correctly. It is also fairly steep regardless of regs, but I will concede that if it wasn't we wouldn't even have a ramp if the lake got much below 4' low.

It is unusable at the current level if you don't know what you are doing. I fished out there about two weeks ago and it was a bear to do by myself. If I didn't know how severly you had to angle it towards the slip I don't think I would of got it done, or I would of really screwed up the boat in the process.

Btw, I'm in no way bashing Smithhaven. There is no doubt you poured a new ramp and it was an improvement. It's just going to take some serious money to make it right.