It was truly a wonderful site to see the water flowing under Brooklyn Bridge once again. I had been watching the progress of the water as it slowly began to fill in many of the low lying areas of the lake bed on Brooklyn Lake, but some how I missed seeing the water cut a path under the bridge into Brooklyn Bay. Someone had asked me if I had seen the water flowing under the bridge? So I grabbed my camera and headed down to the bridge to take some pictures. To my surprise the water had already cut a creek between Brooklyn Lake and Brooklyn Bay.

I had taken several pictures from the south side of the bridge and thought it might look good to get a picture or two from the other side of the bridge. At that time the creek wasn’t very wide, so I figured I would just step across the creek to get to the other side. Well that wasn’t happening. The creek was about three to four feet deep and about five feet wide. So I settled for the photos that I had.

This had been a dream come true. To see Brooklyn Lake once again come back.

I was fortunate enough to see this phenomena of water rushing under Brooklyn Bridge in 1994 and in 1998, after the completion of work that had been done to Alligator Creek with Phases I, II, and III. Both times the water had rushed into Brooklyn Bay like a dam had busted. Which in truth was exactly what had happened in 1998 when they finished the work on Alligator Creek and let the water flow after it had dammed up. Unfortunately these were to be only a one time happening once the water had sought its level. But this time the water slowly crept it way to the bay.

The Option 3 pipeline has been a big success. Even more so than expected. Along with all the rain we have been getting.

The idea behind all of the this was to get water to flow down Alligator Creek into Brooklyn Lake. The trick was to find a source that could make the flow be consistent. I believe we have succeeded in finding that source.

We are using the lakes above Brooklyn as rainfall reservoirs. As long as the flow continues to flow into Brooklyn then most of whatever rain we have on the lakes above Brooklyn will make its way to Brooklyn.

I was asked recently why did we see only a small amount of flow (two million gallons per day) and after a couple of months we are seeing more of a flow? (approximately seven million gallons per day)

My answer to that question is a two part answer. Of course we are seeing the rain come back after many long years of drought, but also it took awhile for the ground areas around Lowry Lake and Magnolia Lake to become saturated.

This would take some time for the ground to soak up the water, to the point where the water that is flowing from the pipeline would deliver the volume of water we are seeing currently down to Brooklyn. Naturally after the ground around the lakes is saturated then the water, which flows from Lowry and Magnolia will ultimately find its way into Brooklyn Lake.

What I have surmised from our research is the hydrology characteristics of Magnolia Lake are somewhat similar to that of most of our lakes in this area. Such as, Magnolia has a white sandy bottom and sandy soil around it. Therefore the seepage of water in the ground would act as a sponge. Once the area is saturated then the water flow would increase in the outflow of Magnolia Lake. This same principle would apply to Brooklyn Lake as well as many of the other lakes.

In closing I would like to offer our gratitude to two people who played a very important role in the inception of the Option #3 pipeline, Keystone Heights Mayor Lyndel Hale and Florida Senator Evelyn Lynn. Two politicians who came to the call and made our dream become a reality.

I wish I could have seen Chester Moody (a local resident on Brooklyn Lake) ride up on his big “steel horse” in 1998. As the legend goes, water flowed under the bridge into Brooklyn Bay in a “class III rapid” form. Prompting some of the local residents to shoot the rapids on rafts and floats.

On June 16, 2005, with a friend of mine, I road a “610 mule” across a stream flowing into Brooklyn Bay. That’s right sometime in the night crystal clear water burst into Brooklyn Bay. Wow, how it was flowing! The creek flowing between Brooklyn Lake and Brooklyn Bay had cut a 5 to 10 foot swatch on the lake bottom. There were little fish and birds everywhere.

The water came up over the floor board, but my friend, Mr. Jim Young, and his experience handling such a “mule” steered that thing without a problem. Gary Doolittle, who was also along on the tour, could not believe what a change that happened in just one week. We had a once in a lifetime tour of the resurrection of Brooklyn Lake. (A special thanks to Mr. And Mrs. Jim Young)

LRCA was so impressed with some of the essays that the Fourth graders wrote we thought we would share some of the other essays of the children besides the ones that won the contest. Here are a couple of those essays.

This essay was written by fourth grader Joey Samanigo who is a student in Ms. Waters class.

“When I go to the lake I do lots of fun things. Here are three things I like to do.

First, wakeboarding, second - swimming and third - fishing.”

To start with I like to wake board. I like doing tricks like flipping on barrel roles. I also like to let go of the rope and coast around.

Another thing I like to do is swim. I like to jump off the dock too. And I definitely like to play games like water football and water wrestling.

The last thing is fishing. When I fish I play a game called who can catch more me or my Dad it’s fun. In conclusion to sum it all up, I have a lot of fun stuff to do when it comes to the lake. What do you do to have fun at the lake?

This essay was written by fourth grader Kenora Hassell who is a student in Mrs. Chambers Class.

“Our Lakes” This summer I want to bring my daddy’s boat, his jet ski and his wakeboards and have a blast at Swan Lake. One of my favorite things about Swan Lake is when you take your boat out to the lake and go wakeboarding it is OK when you fall because it is deep in the lake.

One of my favorite things I like to do when I go is bring my bright hot pink lawn chair, put on some tanning lotion and get a nice dark tan. I have a lot of memories from being on the lake, like on my 7th birthday I went to the garage got a float and me and one of my friends floated all the way to the middle of the lake.

So I really want to have lakes when I get older for even my kids to enjoy and have memories of. I love our lake so please keep our lakes clean and full. THE END

As we have noted in past months, Keystone Heights Mayor Lyndel Hale and the cities Attorney, Mr. Robert Bradley, came up with an idea about creating our own “special district”. At our last months meeting we went into detail of what a “special district” would involve and how to create one. To our surprise the idea went over quite well with the membership. Attorney Rob Bradley spoke to our group explaining in depth what the concept would do for us, he did an excellent job of explaining the pros and cons to a special district. Repeating what Rob said, “Special districts are limited purpose forms of government”. “They are established for a specific purpose and they can only exercise those powers which further the purpose for which they were established” “The assessments and/or ad valorem taxes are included in the resident’s property tax bill”. First we will have to appoint a steering committee to oversee the process and then we would have to either appoint or elect a governing body or a “board of supervisors” to oversee any projects or assessments. Again we encourage all members be present at the next membership meeting (July 11th.) as we go into more detail on how to create our own “special district” and nominate a steering committee.