02/04/09 USAA Newsletter

Another year has come and gone. It’s hard to believe how fast time is passing. The United Sportsmen Airboaters Alliance (USAA) is definitely alive and well thanks to all of your hard work and contributions. We are definitely making progress in statewide recognition.

The club is donating monies to the Ronald McDonald House (RMHC) in Gainesville Florida. The RMH provides lodging and food for families with critically ill children that are at Shands Hospital.

The cookouts and rides that we did last year were a result of your request. The Shell Mound fishing trip was enjoyed by all that attended. The BOD will meet on March 01, 2009 to set the dates for upcoming cookouts and rides.

As many of you know the club took over responsibility for the annual New Years day Burnt Island cookout. The cookout was a success and we generated a lot of recognition for stepping up and keeping that tradition going. There were over 400 people attending and all had a good time. Thanks to all that participated.

Special thanks to Norman Clifton of GTO airboats/Goodtime Sporting Goods for donating a 12 gauge over/under shotgun that will be raffled off and given away at the GTO Swap meet on March 7, 2009. See Jerry to get your tickets, they are $5.00 each.

The politics never end; we are working with the Florida Airboat Association in their filing of suit against Osceola county relating to the banning of airboats on East and West Lake Toho. The suit was filed at the Osceola courthouse on January 12, 2009. Myself and Lee Chamberlain attended the filing and subsequent news conference on the courthouse steps. We know that other counties are watching this action and its outcome could definitely affect all of us.

A Waterways Master Plan public meeting will be held March 02, 2009 at 6:00 P.M. at the Gainesville downtown library.

The purpose of the meeting is to further discuss recommendations of the Waterways Master Plan particularly recommendations 6e and 10b.

Recommendation 6e: Consider as a more restrictive option than Recommendations 6c or 6d, the imposition of a nighttime curfew for airboats. Current regulations would not likely allow for signage of a curfew not based on safety. Thus, if a curfew is desired, the most defensible approach would be to enact it on entire water bodies or countywide.

Staff to further investigate Recommendation 6e to recommend what form/format a curfew might take. (Consider all users: hunters, frog gigging, night fishing, night use for livelihood)

Status: Letters have been sent to appropriate agencies*. Staff is gathering background information from other local government agencies. Responses have been received from:

• St. Johns River Water Management District

Recommendation 10b: Do not implement new regulatory zones (such as, zones for environmental protection, safety, or speed) without sound justification that is based on appropriate scientific data and/or information.

Refer Recommendation 10b to staff to determine if data is available, if regulatory zones needed and determine what other counties are doing.

Status: No action by staff has been taken at this time.

This meeting is very important to us and our usage of the Alachua County waterways so please try and attend.