BY JENN SAMSEL
Special to the Monitor
On Saturday, April 25th, Save Our Lakes rallied the community for a cleanup and restoration project near the county’s Fifth Street boat ramp in Lake Geneva.
The areas designated for cleaning are part of a large project to restore Lake Geneva. Once the county receives approval from the state, trees in certain parts of Lake Geneva will be removed.
Thirty-seven volunteers cleared 3,020 pounds—over 1.5 tons—of debris, making a significant difference in their community.
“Thank you so much to all the Save Our Lakes volunteers who came out for the Fifth Street Boat Ramp cleanup,” said County Commissioner Betsy Condon. “It’s crazy to see all the things people have illegally dumped in the woods over the years. Now our beautiful lake area is a little cleaner.”
“It was a big cleanup event for— actually a pre-cleanup event for the Geneva restoration project that hopefully will begin, I’ll say, in about a month,” added Save Our Lakes President Vivian Katz James. “Thank you to everyone for coming out and helping with this project today.”
The SOLO president added that once the 21-day comment period for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s permit expires, contractors will remove trees and underbrush from Geneva’s dry lakebed.
“We’re waiting for the 21-day waiting period, which will be up May 1st,” Katz James said, “and then everything should start moving quickly. The paperwork is being done now and is ready for when May 1 hits; they really can’t do anything in particular until that happens.”
