Yes I am glad to report that the water is STILL flowing into Brooklyn Lake via Alligator Creek. Recently Mayor Lyndel Hale and some other people took a trip up to the Southquadrant Lake to inspect the pipeline and witnessed that the water was still flowing through the pipeline. So the “bathtub” effect is working as expected. Actually the Option #3 pipeline is working even better than the Schrueder report anticipated.

The last report that was given concerning the volume of water that was flowing through Alligator Creek into Brooklyn was approximately six million gallons per day. If you remember we had reported at one time that the flow which was flowing into Brooklyn Lake was approximately three million gallons per day. And as I stated before in one of the previous newsletters the Option #3 pipeline is working above and beyond our wildest expectations.

Think about it, if the water is continuously flowing through Alligator Creek this must mean that lakes Lowry and Magnolia are full of water and well above their outfall levels, which in turn means that these lakes are working like rainfall reservoirs. That means any rainfall that falls on Lowry and Magnolia will be running off into Alligator Creek and ultimately into Brooklyn. Thus these lakes are therefore working as rainfall reservoirs.

The Schrueder report had determined that the Option #3 pipeline would only deliver a small volume of water out of the Southquadrant Lake and more than likely would dry up after it reached a level below the outfall of the control structure, but instead the water appears to be seeping back into the lake from the soil. Which justifies the theory behind the Schrueder report that the old mined area (the area which was mined back in the 1950’s) is indeed working like a rainfall reservoir or as a “bathtub”.

My point is, if Option #3 pipeline is going to continue to deliver water into these lakes (Lowry, Magnolia and Brooklyn) then maybe Option #5 pipeline may not be needed after all. Because it would appear as if Option #3 pipeline is doing a good job of sustaining the water levels of Lowry Lake and Magnolia Lake.

Now I am going to make my report very brief because we have some other articles that LRCA would like to place in the newsletter.

At our last membership meeting LRCA’s Vice President, Tom Jones, came up with an idea of getting the children involved by writing an essay on what they enjoy about the lakes in Keystone Heights. So Tom went over to the Keystone Heights Elementary School and gave the Fourth Grade teachers an assignment for their pupils to write an essay. Mind you we did coerce the children as what to write. We received over 100 essay entries and all of which were very good, which made it very difficult to pick only three. But we had to pick out only three, 1st. place, 2nd. place and 3rd. place winners. I might add, it was very difficult to choose the best of the best. (Remember these are 4th. Graders)

“Sad but True”

(The following is a testimony by Tom Jones)

Several friends of my family were “weekenders” to this area for many years. They all loved and enjoyed many summers at the lake. Fireworks, festivals and parades were some of the things they all remember. They all had cottages either on Gatorbone Lake, Kingsley Lake or Lake Geneva that range in the 1000 sq. ft. size, with plus or minus 100 ft. of lakefront property which allowed access to the lake. The families were forced to sell their real estates around 2001. The Gatorbone cottage sold for approximately $75,000, with each of the grandchildren receiving a share of around $37,000. The Lake Geneva cottage sold for approximately $125, 000 and the grandchildren’s share was around $41,000. The Kingsley Lake cottage was on a postage size lot, with only approximately 32 ft. of water-frontage. That cottage sold for approximately $410,000. There is something to be said about lake water level stability. None of the grandchildren, with the cost of real estate these days, can afford lakefront property on Kingsley Lake or Santa Fe Lake Even though they would like to relive their childhood memories they are leery of buying lakefront property around Keystone Heights area. So now they choose to vacation on the coast at the beach.

Keystone Lakes are going down. We want to show you how fun they are so you can help out. To begin with one fun thing to do at Keystone Lakes is water ski. Water Skiing is so much fun! You put one foot in the ski, hold on to the bar being pulled by the boat and off you go! At first it’s hard to do, but you get the hang of it. It is so awesome going around the lake going really fast! Next you can jet ski. Now that is awesome! It is actually simple, just press the gas and your jumping waves and gliding across the water. It so much fun try it. Concluding with, you can go tubing! You lay on a tube holding on to the handles and try to hold on and don’t fall. You ride around the lake until you fall off! It’s a blast! In conclusion please help save Keystone Lake’s before it’s to late. Remember all the fun things, tubing, Jet Skiing, and Water Skiing. PS Help out Please!

During the hot summer there is many things to do. One thing to do is go swimming. Living in Keystone there are a lot of lakes to swim in. However I usually swim in Lake Geneva since I live on it. This summer I plan to spend a lot of time swimming, boating, and building sand castles. When it gets steaming hot outside I think I will go down and enjoy the cool refreshing waters of the lake. Swimming will be a blast. Maybe when one of my friends comes over they can go swimming with me too. My family owns a bright red kayak. I hope this summer I will be good enough to paddle it on my own, I plan to attach a float on to it and convince someone to tow me. I did that last year and it was a blast. One last thing I plan to do this summer is build sand castles. My favorite thing about building sand castles is finding things to add to them such as shells, and pieces of drift wood. This summer I plan to do a lot of building. Living in Keystone is great because there is so many lakes. Boating, swimming and building sand castles are a lot of fun. Any way that’s what I plan to do over the summer.

Our lakes are important to KHES. I’m writing this paper to help save our lakes. For instance if I go camping this year I want to camp on a full lake. If there is still a lake to play on, my kids could go camping on a lake. I might go down to Keystone Lake and go swimming, or go fishing at my friends house We might even go to her neighbors and go boating. Lakes also help cool people off even on the hottest days. Lakes are fun to just sit in and drink ice cold lemonade. Lakes are also a home to many animals such as, Alligators, Minnows, Snapping Turtles, regular Turtles, Bass, and Ducks. If we did not have lakes, we couldn’t see all these fabulous animals or watch people do awesome stunts. Remember that lakes are important and we want us our kids, and grandkids to enjoy them.

As we noted in last months issue 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 gave a brief synopsis of what a “special district” would involve and how to create one. To our surprise the idea went over quite well with the membership. So what we propose to do is to ask Attorney Rob Bradley and LRCA’s Attorney, Tommye Frost, to come to our next membership meeting and give a better description of what this new idea would entail. According to Rob, “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”. (Very similar to the way SJRWMD taxes are included in your tax statement) Naturally we would have to either appoint or elect a governing body or a “board of supervisors’ to oversee the process of any projects or assessments. Again we encourage all members be present at the next membership meeting (June 13th.) as we go into more detail on how to create our own “special district”.