Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Slow-no wake zone added on Mississippi’s main channel
A slow-no wake zone will take effect later this week on the Mississippi River’s main channel along the downtown La Crosse area, officials said Tuesday.
The new zone will be marked with buoys Friday from the southern tip of Taylor Island, near where the Black River meets the Mississippi, south to the north end of Isle la Plume, said La Crosse City Planner Larry Kirch.
The zone means boaters in that roughly 1-mile stretch of river must drop their speed as low as possible to still safely navigate while not creating a wake, Kirch said.
The section now has a 30 mph limit.
The La Crosse Common Council had approved the slow-no wake zone in 2006, but it took time to obtain state and federal authorization, Kirch said. The La Crosse County Board also recently endorsed the slow-no wake zone, as the sheriff’s department is the main enforcer of boating ordinances.
The slow-no wake zone was aimed at keeping larger crafts from throwing wakes that could endanger people boarding pleasure boats, including the La Crosse Queen and Julia Belle Swain and boaters at the city’s transient boat docks in Riverside Park. City workers also had said the wakes damaged city docks.
Boaters who opposed the move at 2006 hearings said the zone would discour-age boating and can’t be enforced.
Several other communities along the Mississippi River’s main channel — Winona, Wabasha, Lake City and Red Wing in Minnesota; Alma, Wis., and Marquette, Iowa — already have similar slow-no wake zones, Kirch said.
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