Hello Members and concerned Clay County citizens,
My report this month for our on-going work is to inform you of a field tour, that we arranged with a local hydrologist, of Camp Blanding. We had a good tour once again of the Camp Blanding area, and the chain of lakes, which lead to Keystone Heights. This tour was conducted for Stephen R. Boyes, Hydrogeologist and for Tom Morris of Karst Environmental Services, Inc.
As some of you are aware, Stephen R. Boyes is very familiar with this area and has done a couple of studies in the past. He seemed to be pleased with the results he saw of Options #3 and #7.
We gave him a copy of the Peter Schreuder report because he wanted to study the report further. He seemed to be in agreement with the options completed thus far. He also suggested that Option #3 be lowered about another 10’ and the pipe enlarged.
Option #3 pipeline was still flowing. But the old headwaters, the beginning of Alligator Creek, which started within the old mine area was not flowing through the breach in the levee. This shows me that the elevations were changed in this area, and now the drainage flows to the Southwest Quadrant Lake where Option #3 is located. Also on our visit at the Southwest Quadrant Lake, we noticed a weir board had been left in the control structure, which was restricting the flow of water through the pipe. This would keep the surface water level of this lake up by about 6 _”, I don’t know how many gallons of water that is, but it sure doesn’t make sense to keep water in a manmade lake.
Tom Morris (Environmental Consultant) will be helping put the costs associated with the Wetland Impact Study together for Option #5. You could tell Tom likes his job; he was like a child in a new playground! He would disappear at times taking in as much as he could for the time allotted. Steve and Tom were very professional and enthusiastic, and in agreement there is still work to be done with the water available for increased flow.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Army National Guard’s Col. Nelson and Florida Division of Forestry’s Paul Catlett for arranging this tour for LRCA. We appreciate your cooperation and concerned efforts that you show.
Also a special thanks to Keystone Heights Mayor Mary Lou Hildreth for attending. The Mayor has been in contact with Peter Schreuder who performed the research on the last study, which I think is very good. It’s good to have as many educated people as possible together on this endeavor; one person can’t do it alone or think of every possible situation. We have all been working on these well thought options for some time now! And they’re working!
Remember every time we get an option completed, and we get rain, there’s even that much more volume of water coming to the Keystone Heights area.
We should have our outline presentation done to show the Delegation of Elected Officials for our area by the time you read this article. I’ll inform you at our next LRCA meeting.

May God Bless You All,
Lyndel Hale

The last two issues of the newsletter I had to write while being in the hospital. After six and half weeks in the hospital it is good to be home again. Although it was heart breaking to see that White Sands Lake had dropped even more since the last time I was at home. We are suffering from a shortage of rainfall all across the north central Florida area. I saw on the news where Jacksonville is still showing a deficit of nearly twelve inches. While there is nothing we can do about the rainfall we must continue to work on the concerns of the issues with the low lake levels. LRCA has been working with Florida Representative Joe Pickens since January 2001. Mr. Pickens was instrumental in opening doors for us with the water management district, as well as forming the group, which was later known as the “Stakeholders Group”.
Which there is still some misconception that this group was named after a group formed by Clay County Commissioner James Jett called the Keystone Heights Lake Advisory Council. The KHLAC had been inactive for several years and Hal Wilkening from SJRWMD wanted to reinstate the group but since the group was not active Joe insisted that we start with a new fresh group. There were representatives from KHLAC, Commissioner Glen Lassiter and Lake Brooklyn Civic Association President Jim Hayhurst. Joe chaired the first meetings we held then Commissioner Lassiter resumed the position as Chairperson of the “no-name” group. We were simply an ad hoc group with representatives from the SJRWMD, the county, the mayor of Keystone, Camp Blanding, DuPont, Florida Rock and LRCA.
Because of Representative Pickens initiative and support we were able to obtain $50,000 funding from St. Johns River Water Management District to do the study that Peter Schreuder performed back in 2001. It wasn’t until we started meeting with Peter Schreuder and John Dumeyer that Mr. Schreuder started referring to our group as the “Stakeholders Group”, which took hold and we began calling ourselves the Stakeholders.
I hope after the recent article written by James Williams, editor of the Lake Region Monitor we can put this issue about the “conspiracy” to change the groups name to rest.
Right before I went into the hospital we had a meeting with Representative Pickens and he requested that LRCA put a package together to present to the delegation meeting, which is to be held Wednesday, Nov. 8th. at Green Cove Springs requesting funding from the legislature for the new study.
LRCA President, Lyndel Hale and myself met with Representative Pickens Senior Aide, Jack Hall on Nov. 3rd. and presented Joe with our package and the estimate we would be requesting of $133,000 for the study. Mr. Hall has arranged for a separate meeting with Joe one hour prior to the delegation meeting for us to go over the preliminaries of the package. We are very grateful to Representative Joe Pickens and for his continued support.

It is early November the leaves are turning and we are entering the holiday season. Lake Brooklyn’s water level is dropping and I ponder what has happened for this to occur? This time last year Lake Brooklyn was filling up. When Lake Brooklyn was rising, we at LARCA tried to alert everyone that more work had to be done to keep Lake Brooklyn’s water level up. It is unfortunate that our warnings fell on deaf ears.
It is the opinion of this writer that the lack of a joint effort, which we had in the past, by elected officials, prominent citizens of Keystone Heights, businessmen, and local community organizations have hindered the progress of restoration. In the past there was a monthly meeting of all of the above mentioned, these meetings resulted in the full implementation of Option 3. If history teaches us anything the louder and larger the voice the more attention it receives. The splintering of the Stakeholders group was the beginning of the end of the rising water levels in Lake Brooklyn. The time has come for us to once again unite, put differences aside, and remember that the goal of this movement is to restore our lake levels so that our next generation can enjoy what Keystone Heights has to offer, as I have. All parties responsible for the completion of Option #3 need to reunite, and work in concert, to finish the job that was started. People may come and go in key positions, but the commitment of that position should not change. If our expectation is to be successful, we must return to the standards we once held when we where successful. (Agree to disagree, but stay focused on the issue at hand) The time has come to form a group, appoint a chair and a co-chair, designate a date and place to meet, invite those that need to be there, remember why you are there and get back to work.