Lake Delton is full once again!!!

(Photos taken May 14th, 2009)

 

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 5/9/09

A distant memory

A lot of lakeside businesses will remember June 9 as the day heavy rains washed a summer season into the Wisconsin River. But with Lake Delton’s shoreline restored less than 11 months later that fateful day is a distant memory, and those businesses are preparing for another busy season in the Dells.

Resorts and attractions circling the lake are quietly optimistic as the summer season rolls to a start, and many are hoping this summer will mean business as usual.

Sunset Bay Resort co-owner Dawn Baker is very excited about this summer for a number of reasons, not the least of which is a new lake.

“It’s going to be an awesome summer because we have water, and the gas prices are low, and people aren’t going to fly to Disney Land, they are going to come here to the Dells,” she said. “It’s just like a normal year. It’s almost like it never even happened. It’s like it was a nightmare and now you’re awake, and it was just a dream.”

Baker is a self-proclaimed optimist, but after the lake washed away last June, she admits she had her doubts about 2009.

“It was pretty hard to imagine that it would be done,” she said. “I wanted to have the faith, but there were times that I did not.”

Baker’s resort, like many others around the lake, rely on repeat guests. That’s why the resort was sure to send e-mails to its past guests to keep them abreast all winter long of what was going on with the lake.

Baker said she plans to have a boat in the boat parade being planned for June 9 by the Visitor Bureau, and she said she’s offering specials for that whole week so past guests can join in on the celebration.

Other resort owners are optimistic about this year, but are still waiting for the bookings to come in.

Sandrift Resort co-owner Linda Allessi and neighboring resort owner Wally Bochenczak, of Thunderbird Resort, are still behind on summer reservations.

Allessi said she’s about 25 percent booked for this summer. In a normal year she’d have half her reservations filled by now.

“People are still leery,” she said. “Gas prices are

starting to climb, and now you have this whole thing with the epidemic going around. There’s always something.”

Bochenczak said he is hoping for the best this summer, but doesn’t think things will return to where they were before the breach.

“It will not be business as usual, and it won’t be for a couple of years,” he said. But the lake won’t be the reason, “It’ll be the economy,” he said.

Bochenczak is predicting a worse year than 2007, the last full year of business.

“To be honest with you, with the amount of reservations so far, I’ll say we’ll still be down 25 to 30 percent from 2007,” he said.

With the economic downturn affecting many people, Bochenczak said he’s hoping people opt for a shorter road trip this year and vacation in the Dells.

“It’s going to be a wait and see approach,” he said. “We’ll hold our breath like everyone else.”

One man with more than enough reasons to hold his breath is Tommy Bartlett owner Tom Diehl.

After losing 90 percent of its normal business last year, the show will return May 22 and hopefully so will the customers.

“For 55 years our format has been: Open with the ski show and (have) entertaining acts in the second half,” Diehl said. “Last year without the ski show we had to go and get two great acts to put on a 90 minute show, but the attendance was bleak at best.”

With so many years of clean, wholesome entertainment, Diehl said he was hoping his customers would continue to support him last year, even without the ski show. But that wasn’t the case.

“For 55 years that’s what we promoted,” he said referring to the ski show. “Why would you expect people to come?”

Diehl described the show in this way: “The water ski show is the cake and the rest is the frosting. Last year we had two frostings and no cake.”

Diehl said he learned a big lesson about the show’s fans, and said he hopes he can re-establish his customer base after what was, essentially, a year off.

His biggest concern going into this season is the economy.

“In Wisconsin, unemployment is reaching 10 percent, and unemployed people don’t take vacations,” he said.

Rhapsody Resort and Spa General Manager Wally Czuprynko thinks, however, that the economy is starting to turn around.

Czuprynko has been in the tourist business for 20 years and said there is always an upward or a downward economic trend, but people still come to the Dells. After last year, however, Czuprynko said, “There is no way to go but up.”

The summer bookings are coming in, and he said 2009 will be the best year the resort has had.

Czuprynko said he knew it was entirely possible that Lake Delton could be restored for 2009, but said he was worried that it could get done.

“I wasn’t concerned about the physical labor of it,” he said. “I was worried about the bureaucratic part of it…I was worried about intergovernmental squabbling.”

Now, he commends the village, the state and the federal government for doing a great job of working together and restoring the lake.

Even though the lake is filled with water, it still isn’t filled with fish, which could mean another slow summer for one Lake Delton business owner.

Bill Stecky, owner of Schleef’s Bait Shop and Schleef’s Boat and Pontoon Rental, said he’ll still get fisherman who fish on other lakes to come into the bait shop, but “it’s not the same.”

“I still believe it will be slow, 100 times better than last year, but not as good as the year before,” he said.

If the fishermen aren’t there, Stecky can always rent his pontoons for tourists looking to splash down into the new Lake Delton.

Last year, hit both business especially hard. Two days after the lake emptied, Stecky changed one of his signs to read, “Pontoon 4 HR 95¢.” The crafts had been going for $95.

“It made people stop,” he said.

After last year, that’s all the lakeside businesses can hope for: That people will stop.

 

 

 

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4/22/09

Another restoration fund donation came in and the first batch of minnows went out at Lake Delton Monday morning.

Lake Delton Fisheries Restoration Project founders gathered at the East Adams Street boat launch Monday to watch the first 9 million minnows enter Lake Delton. They also accepted a $5,000 check from Leinenkugel’s for the fish restocking efforts.

The fathead and golden shiner minnows were bought from Gollon Bait and Fish Farm in Dodgeville with $18,000 of restoration fund money.

Village Trustee Gordy Priegel said it was important for the minnows to be placed in Lake Delton when they were because they are near the spawning stage. They should be reproducing in the next week or two, he said.

The minnows will serve as food for the pan fish and game fish that will be stocked later this year.

Project co-founder Dan Small said the first 9,000 walleyes will be stocked on June 9, the one-year anniversary of the lake’s draining.

Once all pan and game fish are stocked by the end of the fall, there will be no special restrictions on fishermen.

Pan fish have no legal size limit, so anglers can keep anything they deem big enough, Priegel said. But the game fish, like the walleye, won’t be big enough to keep legally for a few years.

The project has accumulated more than $100,000 in donations and pledges so far, project co-founder Ben Hobbins said.

Now-retired Department of Natural Resources Fish Biologist Tim Larson said last year that it would cost at least $200,000 to restock Lake Delton.

Hobbins said he is confident the money will be raised by the end of this summer, even though initial goals were set to raise the money in three years.

“Everyone has come on board slowly but surely,” he said.

Small added that Priegel has “almost single-handedly raised most of the money.”

Some of the major donors to date have been Rhapsody Hotels ($9,000), Walleyes for Tomorrow ($7,500) and Leinenkugel’s.

Leinenkugel’s donated $5,000 Monday, but has pledged to give $40,000. The brewing company will be teaming up with local distributor C&H Distributors to raise the rest of the $40,000.

John Leinenkugel said the company is going to distribute paper canoes in the Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells area. Anyone can buy one for $5, and the entire $5 will go toward the fish project.

Leinenkugel drove to River’s Edge Resort after the minnow stocking and bought the first paper canoe, and signed it with the company’s name.

C&H Sales Manager Judd Cassity said they have printed 5,000 paper canoes, which people can write their names on, and will print more when they are needed.

The C&H account that sells the most paper canoes will receive the Leinenkugel’s-labeled canoe that Leinenkugel used to paddle into Monday’s gathering on.

“It’s great to give back to a state, to an area, that’s given so much to Leinenkugel’s,” Leinenkugel said.

The project is also expecting about $10,000 from this February’s Madison Fishing Expo and $15,000 from Taste of the Dells.

Hobbins said the restocking project is also planning to start a canister campaign shortly. About 300 donation canisters will be placed in the Dells and Lake Delton, and another 100 will be placed around Madison.

He said he is hoping the campaign will raise another $20,000 for the fishery.

As for Lake Delton, village Trustee Tom Diehl said it is one foot from being completely full. It should be filled by the end of the week.

The DNR and Department of Transportation have been monitoring wells on the river side of the Highway A berm to see if there is any water seeping through the berm, he said.

There have been no problems and the refill has gone faster than planned, Diehl said.

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3/1/09
Governor promises lake will be filled
wde-news@capitalnewspapers.com

Governor Jim Doyle Thursday announced the Department of Natural Resources expects Lake Delton to be refilled by Memorial Day and, with help from local groups, will begin to restore the lake’s fishery this spring.

“I am pleased to announce we are confident that Lake Delton will be refilled in time for families throughout the country to enjoy Lake Delton this summer,” said Governor Doyle. “Lake Delton is a Wisconsin treasure and a critical component of the area’s tourism industry. Finishing this project has been a top priority since last year’s flooding. Within a few years fishing on Lake Delton will be better than it has been in generations and a great place to land a trophy walleye and bass.”

The lake began refilling in December after reconstruction work was launched on County Highway A. Enough work was completed in the fall to allow the lake to partially fill and additional work will be completed to allow the lake to reach proper levels by Memorial Day.

The state will be stocking fish into Lake Delton beginning in early spring and continuing through 2011. Fish slated for stocking include largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, bluegill, black crappie, channel catfish, fathead minnows, golden shiners and white suckers. It will take three to four years of growth for the bass and walleye to reach keepable size.

After the lake drained, a carp eradication project was conducted on the portion of Dell Creek flowing between Mirror Lake and Lake Delton and in a coffer dam pool on the lake bed. This is good news for anglers as carp compete with native fish species, destroy aquatic habitat, roil water and stir up sediment, reducing water clarity.

State agencies including the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Tourism worked with local businesses, governments, organizations and individuals to make the Lake Delton restoration project a success. In less than one year, together they will have rebuilt roads, bolstered dams, refilled Lake Delton and begun work to restock the lake with fish

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2/25/09
Sign will measure filling of lake
By Andy Steinke, Dells Events

wde-news@capitalnewspapers.com

The village of Lake Delton will try to clear up confusion about where the lake’s refilling is at by placing a thermometer of sorts on a billboard near the lake.

The village board approved an informational sign Monday for the billboard next to Parson’s Indian Trading Post on Wisconsin Dells Parkway.

“I think psychologically it would be a good thing,” said Trustee Tom Diehl, who proposed the idea.

The lake is officially half full, but there is only water in part of the lake, which confuses some people.

“If you look at the lake from Highway 12, there is no water,” Diehl said after the meeting. “So you are getting a lot of people saying its not being done.”

The design for the billboard has not been finished, but a duck floating on water in a thermometer-style sign has been discussed.

The duck will climb up the billboard as the refilling is finished this spring.

The money for the billboard will come from the Room Tax Fund.