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| Here it comes guys! Round up the troops!!!!
Good Luck
Tyee
OSHKOSH — A speed limit for boats and other ordinances to regulate boat safety on the Wolf River could be in the works.
Jeffery Knorr, conservation warden in Fremont for the state Department of Natural Resources, presented concerns and complaints he received about boating on the Wolf River.
"I'm not asking for more money or more patrol time," Knorr said during a special session of the Winnebago County Board last Tuesday.
"I'm simply asking for tangible rules that we can say with the boats being too big and too many people who are using this waterway."
Supv. Nancy Barker recommended the judiciary and legislative committees look further into the issue.
"It is unbelievable with the speeds that they are," she said of the larger boats. "If this is an issue, then this is something that we need to address."
Knorr said that proposed laws should include setting a required distance between moving boats and anchored boats or boats with children in the water, as well as a boat speed limit.
The warden said he had been suggest changes for six years through the DNR's Bureau of Law Enforcement.
"Everyone wants their slice of pie on the river," he said.
More fishing tournaments are bringing larger and faster boats to the Wolf River, Knorr said.
"You have boats going 50-90 miles an hour, with no brakes, no airbags, and no seatbelts," he said.
Knorr said there have been close calls, but he hopes that it will not take such an incident for changes to happen.
Filed by the Oshkosh Northwestern
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| I happened to see the Officer speak at the Winnebago County board meeting the other day on public access TV. He was mostly concerned with protecting the average family or fishing boat including the tournament guys from the big boats like Donzies, Cigarettes and such with open exhaust. His main concern was the noise, speed and lack of knowledge about the occasional boater speeding on the river with very little regard to the everyday users.
I don't get on the Wolf like a lot of people on here so I can't tell you whether he was making any sense or not, but he sounded like he was complaining about the go fast boats and not so much the guys and gals out fishing in a Ranger. I had to laugh when I heard Nancy Barker, who is on the board, talking about the speed of the boats by her house on the river. She was a bridge tender for 25+ years in Downtown Menasha and she lives 1 block off the river in Menasha... where there is a NO WAKE and SPEED LIMIT in the Menasha river and I have never seen a boat go over 5 mph in all the years I have been on the river in Menasha... God Help us if people like her have an influence on the Wolf from her cozy place 1 block from the river in Menasha.
Dominic
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| I am sure that they are not talking about the fishing folks, but rather the large boats that come up from Winnebago and cruise through at high speeds. This really seems to be a problem on Fridays. A few weeks ago , I almost got run over by a huge boat that came up behind me, Happened just below Chicos. Thank god I wasnt in a 14ft Alumacraft. |
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| Stick, Jeff is making comment on the tourney boats in the article and I am sure he is refering to one of the many bass tourneys where boats are exceding 60mph on the river. There have even been a few Rangers parked in the trees up there in the spring for the walley events. This weekend was nuts out there and the majority were pleasure crafts with Skiers and cruisers and go fast thirty plus boats. they can get from bar to bar faster on the river without spending as much money on fuel in the river. I talked to a few friends that live on the Wolf and they said it was nuts so we took a run over to see and they were right it was crazy. I was extremely surprised that the north end of Lake Winnebago this weekend was without a boat over 30' all weekend in front of us, when normally there are dozens upon dozens of big rigs going in front of the cabin all weekend. Never seen the lake so dead with boats in 20 years on the 4th of July. You know gas prices have got to be the reason.
Good Luck
Tyee
Edited by tyee 7/6/2008 10:12 PM
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Gentleman, this is a very heated discussion in fremont these days. Certain representatives of the communities, LANDOWNERS, want the slow no wake in the designated areas to begin at noon on fridays till midnight sundays. The current is midnight friday to 6pm sunday. They are siteing danger as the reason, even though there has been less than 5 accidents, none bad, in the last 5 years. They continue to implement rules to the general public for the few landowners, and monetary reasources for law enforcement of the rules on the river are limited at best. NOW, Mr. Knorr has petitioned waupaca county as well as winnebago county to disallow all tubing wakeboarding and any other water sports during slow no wake periods siteing they are the majority of calls he recieves in regarding these issues. They referr to them as user conflicts by the DNR. Thats his boss, the DNR. Now follow with me.
Now, let me tell you another thing. If Mr. KNorr gets his way, there will be many other restrictions that form on the river, and IT WILL AFFECT YOU, YES YOU!! Is anyone aware of how many call he recieves on USER CONFLICT during the spring season? Yep, lots. And mostly it is not from tourneys but the general public. How about Duck Season? Yep many and they are not tourney guys. Snowmobiles? Anyone? See where this is going.
He is getting his foot in the door and he will get in and rape us if we let him. He does not want to do his job. He wants to create unenforcable rules.
There is a informational meeting in Fremont at 7pm Tuesday night right downtown at the library. It will be a time to be heard. |
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| Denny is that tomorrow night? Lets go! you have any other ammunition? 5 accidents in 5 years? How about Doug and Lisa at the Tri-County Powerboat Alliance? anyone there have anything for us?
Good Luck
Tyee |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Tyee,
I will be in attendance as well as every business owner on the river. Power boat alliance and many others. The chamber members, vitually everyone. There will also be a landowner coalition. I will be there for the sportsman but we need numbers in the room. we need to make the few landowners feel really small, and look small to the contingency. I am trying to get fox 11 to cover, do you have an inside scooper over there? This is more about the few trying to regulate the many. Take away our access to a natural resource.
Tuesday the 9th. meeting, fremont hall, right across from the webfooters site in beautiful downtown Fremont.
Thanks
Shep, you in? Jayman? anyone else within 30 mins of fremont? |
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| Yeah. I am one of the Fremont, river property owners. Guess what, I am very against the Fri no wake proposal. Since it would be non-standard wake hours it will just open the door to 24/7 like it or not. The DNR will not address issues as erosion and speed on a river wide basis, so they back door target the municipalities. I am not a DNR basher, but I know they will push their agenda to the fullest. The villages feel justified in restricting the boaters and fishermen, but still feel they can make an exception for the beloved Webfooters. You can't have it both ways!
"No wake" by definition is basically impossible to comply with. It is just a matter of who they want to stop and cite. I have seen the sheriff get dizzy going so fast from one boat to another for what appears to be minor wake issues. People just minding their own business. During "no wake" hours, it is 20-30 minutes through Fremont.
Non Standard "no wake" hours- No
Selective enforcement- No
The River ecology is the DNR's game not the village's.
The meeting is actually Tue Jul 8 @7:00 p.m.
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| As I understand it they are proposing a change to the slow no wake hours in Freemont tonight, they want to move the time back to noon on Friday instead of the weekend rule that is currently in place. Hopefully it will be a packed house.
Good Luck
Tyee |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Not really sure what you mean by back door targeting, but I can tell you names of who is behind this and they dont work for the DNR.
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Update:
Last night there was many in attendance in Fremont. It seemed to be a split, some for or against the issue. The ones for the extention of slow no wake times cited many reason from erosion, to quiet times needed for entertainoing on there river front property, to safety as the need to extend the slow no wake 12 hours on friday and 6 hours on sunday.
The opposition was pretty straight forward by all speakers in wondering why we need to be restricted more. There is no enforcement of the current rules on a regular basis, I cannot believe you would restrict things further. I agree 100% with this.
Even though there was no "Beyond a shadow of a doubt" defense Presented by either side, I believe everyone in that room agrees that something should be done, BUT WHAT? The old adage, "Give to get" is what some on both sides of this coin will have to do to rectify this situation. |
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| Very few people deny that there are erosion and speed issues on the river. However, those issues need to be addressed by an organization that can address the entire system. That is not Fremont. Many valid issues that were brought up last night are way beyond the scope of what Fremont does or doesn't do.
If this passes it would just be further restrictions that would not address any real issues or solve any problems. |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Ladies and gentleman, that is where the local game warden Jeff Knorr is soliciting right now. He is going to the county boards and asking for restrictions. Mark my words, if we donot stand up and fight this, it will pass. He has to sell the boards in these counties. If no one is selling against him, he will get the whole river shut down. For those of you that fished here last spring, did you enjoy the forever slow no wakes?
It is time to stand up and be counted. I for one will not stand by and watch this river be taken away from the citizens of the state of Wisconsin. They will do it inch by inch.
Right now they are trying to solve a mosquito problem by killing a mosquito instead of going after the breeding grounds. Translation, you need to enforce the rules set forth, before you can make more and expect people to "Just abide by them". |
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Location: Fremont, Wisconsin | Lets update what is happening up here.
The latest was warden Jeff Knorr. He proposed to the county of waupaca to have a no water sports rule on the river during the same time that slow no wake would be inforced. That would be 24/7 in waupaca waters. On the 30th of July there was a meeting in waupaca with many present who were against this, and basically the board said that they did not need to hear from the "against it" crowd as they were in disbelief that this man would try to shut down a resource of the people. The village of fremont has not acted at all regarding the proposed slow no wake time adjustments. Summer will be over in 6 weeks. remember that the wolfs will be back at the fishermans door wanting us to change something about what we do. This will be a never ending fight, dont drop your guard. I will keep you informed.
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Location: Appleton wi | Thanks for the updates denny! Sounds like what we have here is a renegade dnr warden thats out of control |
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Wolf River Speed Limit Proposed