Lake Mead experiences safe holiday weekend

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

Frank Beers was ready to help Monday as he patrolled the waters around Lake Mead's Callville Bay.

Beers, a National Park Service safety volunteer, was ready to tow in stalled boats, administer first aid or search for missing people, but instead found himself spending most of his day watching visitors load their boats onto trailers at the Callville boat launch.

"The worst accident I've seen was a car that backed up a little too far into the water," Beers said. "It's been pretty quiet."

An estimated 150,000 people visited the Lake Mead National Recreation Area over the weekend, but despite large crowds National Park Service officials said many people spent their day at the lake just as Beers did -- quietly.

"We didn't have any major problems, and it looks like we had a pretty good weekend," Park Service spokesman Bert Byers said. "We took care of some scraped knees, found one person who was lost and there were six or seven minor boat accidents, but that was it."

Last year 159,098 people visited the lake over Labor Day weekend, and park personnel responded to 17 medical emergencies and 10 boat accidents.

The 150,000 believed to have visited the recreation area over this year's holiday weekend were the first to pay the park's new entrance fees over a busy holiday period, Lake Mead Fee and Business Manager Dan Yeager said.

"We haven't seen a drop in usage, and most people seem to be taking the fees in stride," Yeager said. "We've even encountered a large number of visitors who are happy about the fees and the improvements they'll bring."

Dave Strobelt and his family were among the boaters coming off the lake Monday afternoon at Callville Bay who said that the fees are not a big deal.

"We knew the fees would be here, because we're locals," Strobelt said. "We've been going to Lake Powell in Utah for years and they've always had fees, so we knew that sooner or later there'd be fees here as well."

The entrance fee is $3 per person or $5 per vehicle for a five-day pass or $20 for an annual pass. Those planning on boating while in the park are also charged a fee of $10 for a five-day pass and $5 for each additional boat they plan to use at the lake. Boaters can buy an annual pass for $20 for their first boat and $10 for each additional boat.

"It would be nice to see the fees go toward improving the lake as I've seen at other places," Strobelt said. "At Powell they have these floating potty houses that are really nice and work really well. Here they have some Porta Potties on the beaches, and they just stink up everything."

Floating restrooms are among the additions to the recreation area that are planned, Yeager said.

Eighty percent of the money collected through the fees goes back to the recreation area for improvements, cleanup, upgrade of bathrooms and maintenance, Yeager said. The other 20 percent goes to the Park Service to be used in other areas.

"I was out there over the weekend, and the stations really didn't slow traffic down," Yeager said. "We had very few lines at the three fee stations. At most when we had 10 or 15 trucks with boats lined up, it took about three minutes to get them all through."

Park officials strategically placed rangers on beaches, along roads, on boats and even in a plane to monitor crowds at the recreation area.

While the Labor Day weekend was mostly problem-free for the rangers, fatalities in the recreation area kept pace through the holiday weekend with last year.

In 1999 there were 20 fatalities in the park through Labor Day, including eight drownings. Through the same time this year there have been 20 fatalities but only three drownings. Both this year and last year's fatality numbers are an improvement over 1998, when there were 34 fatalities through Labor Day weekend, including 13 drownings.