By Scott Wright

CENTRE – At Thursday night's quarterly meeting of the Weiss Lake Improvement Association, Alabama Power Vice President of Environmental Affairs Willard Bowers addressed a lake-related legality that has been the topic of much discussion lately -- a piece of legislation currently being considered in the state Legislature and known as the “big boat bill.”

The bill, proposed by Sen. Gerald Dial, D-Lineville, would ban a variety of watercraft from a series of lakes in Alabama. Boats defined as “residence boats,” any water craft longer than 30 feet, six inches, and any boat with an engine that produced in excess of 500 horsepower would have been banned from Weiss, Harris, Jordan, Lay, Logan Martin, Martin Mitchell, Neely Henry and Smith lakes under the language of the original bill.

Amid a furor among some boaters after the original language of the bill became public, Dial agreed to withdraw it and make changes that would draw wider support. Sen. Dial has not returned several phone calls placed to his home, business and Senate office by The Post, and he was not present Thursday’s meeting.

“Alabama Power supported the original bill,” Bowers said. “But there were some things that needed to be changed. We have said from the beginning that people need to talk to their representatives, their senators, propose alternatives. Despite what people say, Sen. Dial is listening. That’s why changes have been made.”

Bowers said it has long been the policy of Alabama Power to ban houseboats from their reservoirs, but the policy was not enforceable by law. He said the substitute bill now under consideration will allow the effective implementation of that policy.

“Everybody I’ve talked to says we don’t want our lakes to be like Lake Lanier in Atlanta,” Bowers said. “And on Lake Fontana in Tennessee, there are abandoned houseboats all over that lake.”

Dial has also cited Lake Lanier, which is home to as many as 1,000 houseboats, as another reason for introducing the legislation.

Bowers said the revised legislation would also ban high-powered cigarette boats and cabin cruisers from the lakes.

“Those are the reasons we support it,” Bowers said. “The substitute bill grandfathers anything that’s out there now. For example, a house boat that meets all the requirements, pumped by certified sewage company, it’s grandfathered in.”

Weiss Lake Improvement Association President Carolyn Landrem said the public was right to be concerned that the original bill was hastily concocted, with little research or debate. But she said the revised legislation has the full support of her organization.

“When the initial bill came out, everyone just thought it was very poorly written,” Landrem said. “There was no leeway or grandfathering of current boats or any grace period or whatever. So when the Weiss Lake Improvement Association had our next meeting we talked about the bill and we felt like the way it was written we were opposed to it. But we were in favor of it, with some stipulations.”

Landrem said once a second bill was written that would allow sailboats, existing boats, and other types of watercraft such as barges, the WLIA voiced its approval.

“A lot of people say we don’t have problems with things like this on Weiss Lake,” Landrem said. “But Cherokee County has been discovered and it’s just a matter of time before a lot of these issues start showing up here. If you don’t control growth, it’s going to control you, and we need to start putting some things in place that are going to help us maintain the quality of the lake so people can enjoy it.”