LAKE AND DAM NEWS

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone-they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”.

 How many times have you heard that song, and sung along with it? Have you ever really stopped to think about what it means? Sometimes, we take for granted that because things are there, they always will be. Sometimes, we don’t even think about the things that are there, until its too late and they are gone.

Bell’s Lake is one of those “things”. How many times have you visited the swim club and walked right past the lake, never giving it a second thought? What if the next time you walked in the swim club, the lake was gone and in its place was a trickle of water surrounded by smelly swampland? Would you still want to be a member? What is your alternative?

 The GPBLCC Board of Directors is trying its best to prevent the loss of what we consider to be our greatest “natural” (as in nature) asset.  As evidenced by our recent survey, the reason many people join our swim club is not just for the pool, but also for the fishing, boating, and the scenic view. Children play on the beach, fish from the dock, and go boating during the season. What would they do without the lake? Many of our members pay full membership fees and a boat key fee just to fish on the lake from their boats, and never use the pool or set foot in the park.  Boat key members have year round use of the lake, and with the mild weather we have been having, they are out there in the middle of winter connecting with nature. When you come to GPBLCC it’s like you are in a different place and time. First time guests are surprised by the oasis we have tucked away on Bells Lake Drive. It’s one of South Jersey’s best-kept secrets.

But we can’t hide from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. We are faced with the loss of our lake unless strong action is taken. For years, the NJ DEP has been cracking down on dam owners to repair dams and bring them into compliance with State regulations, especially since the loss of the dams at Medford Lakes. Dams are classified according to the damage they would cause if there were a breach. A Class I dam would possibly cause loss of life if breached. We are a Class II dam, which means we would cause considerable damage to any structures in our path. We would wash out Greentree and anything in our path, including houses and businesses. That’s a lot of damage, and we would be responsible for it. For many years the lake and dam have been put on the back burner, second only to the maintenance and upkeep of the pools and grounds. We can do this no longer. We are running out of time and the DEP is running out of patience. The beaurocrats do not care about the serene view of the summer sun setting over our lake.

For more than ten years the NJ DEP has repeatedly requested that GPBLCC address outstanding issues relating to the dam, or face action by the NJ Attorney General. This Board has taken a proactive position and has been working for the past four years to respond to the DEP. These issues include many engineering reports and studies, in addition to the biannual inspection report we are required to file. As of this date, the Board has spent thousands of dollars in engineering costs in order to attempt to comply with the all of the studies and reports required by the DEP. All of these studies and reports form the basis to determine the extent of the repairs that will be needed for the dam and the spillbox. The spillbox is the concrete structure built into the dam that controls the overflow of the lake. Princeton Hydro, and Joseph B. Callaghan, Inc. are the engineering firms that represent GPBLCC. Princeton Hydro recently conducted soil borings on the dam for analysis, as well as several other studies, which have been submitted to the DEP. They will also be the engineering firm designing the repairs needed to the dam. Joseph B. Callaghan Inc. is a structural engineering firm which is in the process of preparing the specifications needed for the repairs to the spillbox.

Of course, there is a price tag for all of this. Engineering fees alone are in the thousands of dollars, and we are looking at hundreds of thousands to repair the dam for the long term. As you may know, the Board has approved a $100 dam assessment fee which we asking all renewing members to pay, in addition to the 2007 membership fee.  BOARD MEMBERS ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO AND WILL BE PAYING THIS FEE. In addition, we are requiring all new members to submit a $250 initiation fee, in addition to the 2007 membership fee. All money collected from the assessment and initiation fees will be put into the dam fund. In the meantime, the Board has been and will continue to explore other sources of income to finance this project, such as grant submissions.

If you are interested in volunteering your time to help, your expertise in any relevant field connected to financing, fund raising, engineering, lake ecology, etc., or if you would just like to know more about what’s going on and be kept up to date, please fee free to contact me.

Making sure our dam is safe and secure for the future is the right thing to do for the lake, swim club and enjoyment of our members. Join the cause!

Patti Mazella, Chairperson, Lake & Dam Committee pamazella@hotmail.com.