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Ottawa Sheriff more strictly enforcing no-wake laws as high waters threaten lakeshore homes

Deputies in the marine unit ramped up citations over the holiday weekend, officials said.

OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The view from his backyard is pristine – a front-row seat, poolside, to the parade of boats passing through Spring Lake all summer. 

"It's become an obsession to me to a degree," Ernie Petrus said, looking out over his submerged deck and shrunken yard. "I've taken pictures and sent them to the sheriff's department, maybe videos this year."

He watches for boats making wakes fewer than 200 feet from land, which is against the law. More importantly, record high waters make each wake dangerous, further eroding his lakeside property. 

"It's amazing what the water can do," Petrus said. "Even these water dams [we built], those are thousands of pounds of water in there, that got tossed this past week from a wake like it was just a bobber."

Last year, the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit often let boaters who violated no-wake ordinances off with a warning. Deputies focused on education, said Sgt. Eric Westveer, who has overseen the unit for three seasons. 

"This year, we're going to up the enforcement and actually issue citations more often for that violation," Westveer said. "They are even more critical now because the wake can come off the boats creating more damage to property."

Both Spring Lake and Ferrysburg spent an extra $5,000 for additional marine unit patrols during high traffic boating times. They will assess $115 citations for boaters violating no-wake laws. 

"The time has come where we have to issue tickets because the warnings were not working," said Spring Lake Village Manager Chris Burns.

Several portions of Spring Lake are entirely no-wake zones, and the rest are no-wake within 200 feet of shore. Boats larger than 26 feet cannot make wakes. 

Stops for violations and citations increased over the holiday weekend along with complaints by residents, Westveer said. 

"We did not increase [enforcement] simply for the the weekend," he said. "They are going to continue as long as we need to until the waters recede and we see some of these problems go away."

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