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M Request for Vat e rsk i Permits, y Lake Owasso Safe Boating Asst*. Responses to Rog Request for Public Hering We are requesting ing authoriz tion to leave surface equipment in Lake Owasso ovennite as rewired by stave law which provides that the DXR with the cooperation of the County Sheriff to permit such uses Some seven other lakesites in the Twin Cities Area have like Permits so this is not a singular attempt to saddle Lake Owasso with something unique. would estimate that there are approximately 50 waterski, activity permits presently, active in the State The 1996 Suer Olympics, which incidently the Twin Cities were hoping to host" proposes to place waterskiing in the program as a "Demonstration Sport " with it's future as a fully qualified event to be determined by the the effectiveness of this proposal. It seems only reasonable that this State, the "Founding Hone" of' the sport should have the support of its local commute i t i , Lake Owasso and it's many neighboring lakes have provided a tr .ining ground for more than its share of National Champions and some twenty competitors who are now listed in the World Waterski Ratings. �f taxpayer expense and without hope of direct monetary return our local government has built facilities or provided space for hundreds of spurts Tennis, Golf " Baseball, Softball, Swimming, several types of' Boating, Jagging, Volleyball and even Bird Watching.. Our communities have also built, at enormous expense, many ice arenas and skating rinks and are proposing to u ld a refrigerated speed skating rink with costs estimated at $1.5 million dollars or more The City of Roseville is even now considering the acquisition of the Concordia School properties to expand are our recreation capab i it es, at costs that will exceed a million dollars, Our group does not object to these expenditures" we just want you to listen to our request and compare the merits. Competition ition watersk ers provide their own 6%ipment, ,along with providing liability insurance for ourselves and our operations, our county permit also requires us to protect the goverment agencies with a $500,000 liability pol icy for thier role, the per it grantor. You wont find any drinking driven in a competition training boat Along with the ,state boating certification most of our beat dri err ls� are American Wat rsk i Association certified drivers or have had . training that is required by the association to provide the type of' driving required of these specialized boats. Compare that with the average boat driver who may or may not have even had the state: drivers test (which consists of only a written test, without any "in the boat test"), the state test does not even require any boating experiance, only a few sort hors of cla5sr oom for some drivers under the age of 18 years Prefered times of operation for competition practise are between the hours of 7 A. M. and 10 A. M. because the waters are usually calmest during that time and the winds light. Although boat speeds for our competition do not exceed 36 mph, skier speeds may approach 3n because of the length of line and skier course travelled. At those speeds a skier can be in trouble if he or she encounters water r i 1 . by the winds or other boats 4. One can only compare the restriction of wat rski con petition practise 5