Candlewood Lake Authority proposes boat sticker fees
By Robert Miller Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 02/09/2008 05:07:47 AM EST

It could cost local boaters $50 a year -- and out-of-state sailors $100 -- to spend a summer cruising Candlewood Lake.

That's the cost now being proposed for a boat sticker program that would apply to all boats launched in the lake. Boaters who use the lake only once or twice a year would pay $20 each time if they are state residents, $30 if they are non-residents.

No motorized boat would be exempt, but sailboats under 19.5 feet long, canoes and kayaks could brave the lake free of charge.

At a meeting Friday at the New Fairfield Library, Larry Marsicano, the executive director of the Candlewood Lake Authority, released the proposal for the boat sticker program, including a range of fees.

Marsicano said the program would need the approval of the state Department of Environmental Protection. The General Assembly would also need to approve legislation to create the program, because it would be the first of its kind in the state.

Marsicano said the plan -- under disMarsicano said the plan -- under discussion for several years -- would do two things many people believe need to be done on Candlewood Lake: improve public safety patrols and make all the boaters who use Candlewood pay a share of its upkeep.

"And the DEP is adamant about one issue," Marsicano said. "Whatever we approve, it can't restrict access to the lake."

Currently, the five towns around the lake -- plus First Light Power Resources Inc., the hydroelectric power utility that owns the lake -- each contribute about $60,000 a year to the Candlewood Lake Authority. A good share of that money -- about $150,000 -- pays for the boat patrols that enforce safety rules on the lake.
But while residents and towns pay to manage the lake, thousands of people in and out of Connecticut use the lake, gaining access to it through state boat launches and private marinas.

This has left many residents believing out-of-town boaters get all the benefits of the lake while paying none of the cost of running it.

The boat sticker fee would remedy that, Marsicano said. Anyone would uses the lake would have to buy a sticker, with out-of-state boaters paying more than those who live in Connecticut. The money would then be used to pay for the Candlewood Lake Authority boat patrols.

The towns would, in turn, see their share of contributions to the authority reduced. The sticker program would pay for the patrols, not the towns.

Marsicano said when he began thinking about the program, he figured the fees would be lower.

But he said it's generally recognized that the boat patrols, which spend about 2,000 hours per year on the lake, need to add another 1,000 hours per year.

That added time could mean monitoring places like the state boat ramp at Lattins Cove, which is often overcrowded, noisy and garbage-strewn.

Marsicano said a patrol program also has to budget in the cost of buying new boats and engines, because they get plenty of wear each year. The authority finally estimated it would need about $350,000 per year to run the patrol program properly. That, in turn, led to the higher sticker fee estimates.

At Friday's meeting, New Milford Mayor Patricia Murphy was skeptical of the plan, saying the boat sticker fee was a tax under another name.

"The Candlewood Lake Authority was created to do this already," she said. "We already pay for it.''

And by setting the fee high, she said, boating on Candlewood Lake would become "a rich man's right."

But Marsicano argued that one tank of gas for a boat now costs at least $50. So a $50 boat sticker isn't an outrageous fee, he said.

James Marquis, the president of the Candlewood Lake Users and Boaters Association -- Club A -- also attended the meeting. But when New Fairfield First Selectman John Hodge said Marquis couldn't speak at the meeting, he immediately strode out.

"This is ridiculous," Marquis said. "What can I do here? Why should I stay?"

In the past, Club A members have suggested that a boat sticker program be used to offset the fees First Light plans to charge homeowners as part of its proposed shoreline management plan.

At Friday's meeting, Marsicano said neither the DEP nor the General Assembly would allow that.

"It's a deal-breaker," he said.

At the urging of the selectmen and mayors at the meeting, Marsicano agreed to provide the towns with a detailed list of the benefits they'll receive from the boat sticker program, as well as a financial breakdown to show the towns what they'll save if the sticker program pays for Candlewood's patrols.

"I want to make sure there's a value added for the towns," Hodge said.