Senate passes speed limits for Big Lake

Near the end of a session that went past midnight on Thursday, the Senate passed a bill imposing daytime and nighttime boating speed limits on Lake Winnipesaukee, starting in 2009. Governor John Lynch has said he will sign House Bill 847 into law, temporarily ending a controversy that began in 2005.

Like House Bill 162, which died in the Senate in 2006, the bill would set a daytime speed limit of 45 miles per hour and a nighttime speed limit of 25 miles per hour. But, while the original legislation would have applied the speed limits to all lakes, HB 847 applies only to Lake Winnipesaukee and for only the 2009 and 2010 boating seasons. Lawmakers will have to pass new legislation for the speed limits to continue past that point.

As long anticipated, the Senate endorsed the bill by a roll call vote of 14 to 10, dividing much along party lines. Two Republicans, Senators Joe Kenney of Union, a sponsor of the bill whose district includes Moultonborough, Tuftonboro and Wolfeboro on Lake Winnipesaukee, and Bob Odell of Lempster, who represents New London, Sunapee and Newbury on Lake Sunapee, joined 12 Democrats in support of the bill. Kenney, a Republican candidate for governor, was expected to offer an amendment to raise the nighttime speed limit and exempt the "Broads". He did not introduce an amendment, but he did vote for a motion to table the bill, which failed 11 to 13.

Two Democrats, Senators Lou D'Allesandro of Manchester and David Gottesman of Nashua voted with the remaining eight Republicans in the minority.

Voicing the sentiments of many opposed to speed limits, D'Allesandro told the Senate "I always though this was the 'Live Free or Die' state and here we are restricting every aspect of our lives." His fellow Democrat, Senator Peter Burling of Cornish countered that "Live Free or Die" applied to everyone, including "the family in the kayak."

Sandy Helve of the Winnipesaukee Family Alliance for Boating Safety (WinnFABs), which has led the campaign for speed limits, said that, "I would have preferred a bill without a sunset, but we understand that compromise is part of the process." She said that "we will certainly be communicating with the governor's office to urge him to sign the bill" and indicated that at the appropriate time efforts would be made to repeal the sunset provision of the bill.

Associated Press was reporting yesterday that the Lynch has said he will sign the bill.

Discounting fears that speed limits would adversely affect tourism, Helve said that studies from across the country have found that "as people experience lack of safety on the water, they leave the lakes. This is going to help the boating industry and the tourist economy. Speed limits," she continued, "have not hurt the tourist economies around lakes where they have been applied."

Representative Jim Pilliod (R-Belmont) introduced the first speed limit bill in 2005, sparking a debate that led the House Resources, Recreation and Development Committee to retain the legislation and hold public meetings in Moultonborough, Wolfeboro and Gilford that summer. The committee split 11 to 10 in favor of the bill, which set speed limits of "45/25" on all lakes. Although the House passed the bill after prolonged debate, it was rejected by the Senate, where Republicans held the majority, 15 to 9.

Pilliod reintroduced the bill in 2007, when it was again retained, this time by the House Transportation Committee, pending the results of a pilot program mounted by the New Hampshire Department of Safety to monitor boat speeds on Lake Winnipesaukee last summer. After amending the bill to limit its scope to Lake Winnipesaukee and its duration to two years, the House passed the bill in January, 236 to 111.

"I'm very, very pleased," Pilliod said yesterday. "It has been a long fight." Without predicting how the governor would handle the bill, he ventured that "a strong vote in the House and a good vote in the Senate," together with public opinion polls showing that two-thirds to three-quarters of those questioned favor the speed limits, would persuade him to sign it.

"Absolutely," said Pilliod, when asked if he would seek to repeal the sunset provision of the bill. Although the bill takes effect in 2009, Pilliod hoped that "the culture of limiting speed will start building this summer." He pointed out that shortly after speed limits were imposed on Lake George in New York state, enforcement action became unnecessary as a culture developed among boaters, who operated within the limits. "I think the same thing will happen on Lake Winnipesaukee," Pilliod said. "People will not feel hurt by this bill."