Got to wonder when TU and other groups will come out in public to support this bill like they did the marine license last year. It might be viewed as hypocritical for them to not endorse collecting fees that will help the DEP in one bill but not this one. At least in this example the funds are tied to the body of water that the fee payers use. Still likely a bad precedent.

If you are against this precedent then show up at the meetings and speak out with a calm but adamant position. Threatening and yelling will only take away from your credibility. Remember that the Legislators presently are hearing only one side of the story.

I know we've been political in the past. Don't we think this is a priority issue? Mitch?!

A repeat of BigLee's posting...

Candlewood Lake boat sticker forums scheduled
http://www.newstimes.com/latestnews/ci_8409141

Some thoughts on this since I live in New Fairfield and by most accounts would theoretically benefit from this program. The fact is no one benefits from the program. I have not supported this effort and have told the CLA this at one of our Ball Pond Advisory Committee meetings they attended recently. The sticker program will bleed to every other lake in Ct. and within a year or so you will have to pay to use any of the other popular lakes.
This attitude of restrictiveness started with the state boat launch issue on Lake Waramaug where the DEP did the deal with the Town of Washington. That was politically motivated. Anyone get to launch their boat yet? Of course not, the idea is to drag this out ten years and then let a couple of boats a day launch that is why I fought this hard going all the way to the Governor and the Attorney General. Then Bantam Lake closed their "public" launch and tried the same thing. Now the sticker program for Candlewood. Within five years there will be no public lakes access, it will all be restricted, expensive and logistically prohibitive.
To answer some questions, the CLA is hard to define. Its board consists of a couple of appointed members from each of the five towns that surround Candlewood. It has a paid Director, a patrol, headquarters up in Sherman and does other public oriented programs such as environmental education and lake cleanups. It is a good organization with good intentions and is funded by the towns from each town budget. I have never viewed New Fairfield's contribution as onerous or debilitating to our town budget.
That said, you can understand why five towns balk at funding the CLA when it is a northeastern resource used by the peoples of many states. Add to that the Squantz Pond fiasco that the town of New Fairfield has to deal with every summer which uses our town's police, fire, and rescue resources and you can understand that this cost recovery issue is somewhat more than the exclusive restrictiveness of something like Lake Waramaug which was nothing more than keeping you and me off "their" lake.
So in many respects Candlewood is different but this sticker program is also more draconian to a much larger user base than a Lake Waramaug problem where few got to use the lake anyway. How other groups like TU support this I don't know. Usually it has to do with whose ox is gored. TU members are more involved with river issues but I am sure there are plenty of versatile sportsmen in the TU chapters who see the danger of this precedent.
The best way to stop this initiative is by getting legislative representatives from other parts of the state to vote NO when the bill comes up. That is how the Lake Housatonic initiative was defeated. The DEP got their friends in the legislature from other sections of the state to vote NO. Tell your state rep that this will cost you more money, restrict your access to Ct's "state lake", will cause more crowding on your local lakes and sets a terrible precedent of exclusionary use and you want them to vote NO. Tell them that the CLA funding issue (which is what this is all about) should be addressed by the state through the DEP. No one in his/her district will be calling to say they like the idea. This is truly a regional issue, the YES votes and support is in five towns, thats it. There are dozens of other towns and state reps who do not benefit and there will be no support expressed in those towns or to those state reps so any NO initiatives to those town governments and state reps and senators will be the only voices they will hear and you have a good chance to get them to vote this initiative down.
The bottom line, the sticker program has local Candlewood Lake support in five towns and if it is defeated it will be by the rest of the state. It is not guys like me here in New Fairfield who will carry the day because I have already fought this battle for two years behind the scenes and lost. It is guys like you in Niantic and Hartford and Caanan and Westport and Middletown and Hebron and wherever else you live in this state outside of the Candlewood Lake area who will win this battle. That is how this will be stopped so contact your Selectmen's Office and your state rep and senator and tell them to vote NO because Candlewood is a state resource and should have free and easy access but the CLA also needs a funding plan to relieve the five towns, that is the only fair way, have a financial support plan that is state funded. That way we all benefit from this great resource equally and we all pay equally indirectly through state tax allocations to the DEP for CLA funding.