Richard Homsi: Confused about the drawdowns of Opechee, Winnisquam lakes

To The Daily Sun,

I am a little confused how in today's paper it was written that Lake Opechee and Lake Winnisquam are going to be lowered today before winter to the tune of approximately two feet. Lake Winnipesaukee has been down between 16" and 24" for months. Many boaters and waterfront property owners have been forced to remove their boats and have been unable to use them safely because the water has been to low. I have spoken to many people who have claimed they removed their boats around Labor Day because they were having trouble getting off their docks. This weekend I had trouble pulling boats from Silver Sands Marina, jet skis from my waterfront access, and I was advised that the Glendale ramp was horrible to pull out there as well.

If the other lakes are being let out, why didn't Lake Winnipesaukee retain the water all this time so that we could be fuller, and boats could be used more before the seasons end. At this point, it appears better management of our water levels is needed. On another topic regarding Lake Winnipesaukee water quality, the news reported that the lake quality is awful. I wrote an article a few months back about the amount of road salt used by the City of Laconia, the cost factor and the damage it is doing to our road to the lakes natural drainage, which has bacteria that actually eats the cyanobacteria that is greatly destroying our drinking water supply. Do we actually need black and bare roads all winter? Most vehicles are four-wheel or all-wheel drive, doesn't this help? Whatever happened to sand for traction and safer roadways?

When is this damage and abusive costs going to stop to help us and our tax dollars? This is bad. 

Richard Homsi

Laconia