Stacie Anaya, parks and recreation department director, briefed Lewisville City Council during a work session Nov. 3 about the possible program for Lewisville Lake. Council members encouraged the department to move forward with implementation.
If a viable vendor can be found by mid-February, vessels are expected to be in the water on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-controlled lake as early as March and would operate into October, according to discussions at the meeting.
“We don’t really have any oversight of the concessionaires,” Anaya said of the existing boat rental vendors operating in Lake Park and nearby Tower Bay. “We really have limited recourse to dealing with them. The U.S. [Army] Corps [of Engineers] wasn’t supportive of an official program until now.”
Lewisville leases Lake Park from the Corps, and the city has permission to enter into third-party vendor agreements following City Council and Corps approval.
According to Anaya’s presentation, the parks and recreation department envisions one vendor with proof of liability insurance as well as photos and registration information for all watercraft that would be on the lake. Furthermore, the vendor would have a history of limited complaints and citations over the past five years and could pass a background check conducted by the Corps.
Preference would be given to a Lewisville-based business, according to the presentation slides.
According to the additional requirements listed by Anaya, the vendor would be required to park only in designated spots at Lake Park, would need to remain on site for the duration of rentals, would have to remove its watercraft after operational hours, and would be barred from subleasing or subcontracting its permit with the city and Corps.
The council's main concern, raised by Mayor Pro Tem Kristin Green, was the inherent danger of watercraft being operated by inexperienced renters. She suggested the vendor be required to give a boater’s education demonstration before renters are allowed to step into the vessels.
“This is one of the main reasons the Corps allowed us to do this, because, when we pitched this, we said they’d have to have a safety and communication plan,” Anaya said. “One of the things we put in there was understanding safety rules and guidelines for usage, [and] making sure there are life vests on every one of the vessels, which has been one of the issues."
She said that having the vendor on site while vessels are on the water is key.
"What’s been happening is they drop it off and leave, and there’s no monitoring of what happens,” Anaya told council.
