On Wednesday, August 14, 2024 the Drummond Township held a public meeting to a very large audience on an ordinance to regulate Wake Boats on Lake Owen. At the start of the hearing, Drummond Township Board Chairman Roy Bloom asked the audience of a show of hands of those supporting and opposing the ordinance with everyone but one person supporting the ordinance. Lake Owen Association President Amy Louis addressed the Town Board on the issues. After everyone was allow to speak, the public meeting was adjourned and the Board went immediately into their monthly meeting. Near the top of the agenda, the Board voted unanimously passing the ordinance as drafted with the audience bursting into applause.
The ordinance bans wake board boating unless 600 or more feet from shore and in at least 20 feet or more depth from the bottom. The ordinance also ban wake boats that have been operated in other lakes this year without written proof that the boat has been properly decontaminated, the first such ordinance in the state. An attorney who specializes in representing Lake Associations said he was “delighted by the wonderful news” and that “Drummond is the 29th town in Wisconsin to establish any enhanced wake ordinance, and the first to implement one with any ballast sterilization requirement for boats that have been used on other waters.” The news traveled fast and far with Jeff Stelzer, a Senior Biologist in southeast Wisconsin saying, “Wow that is fantastic and will help preserve this gem. I advise some lakes in Southeast Wisconsin that would be extremely interested in the template for this sort of meaningful ordinance.”
Lake Owen Association President Amy Louis Addresses the Drummond Town Board