Proposed water-ski slalom course at Lake Metacomet in Belchertown rejected by Massachusetts DEP

BELCHERTOWN – The state has denied a request for a water-ski slalom course on Lake Metacomet, saying the fixture is too dangerous and would interfere with the public’s use of the Belchertown waterway.

Residents and town officials vociferously opposed the water skiing course.

David Fuhrmann, of 87 Metacomet St., who requested the permit says he will appeal the determination. He also has a home on Long Island in New York.

“I am not trying to stir up trouble with the state but it’s discrimination,” Fuhrmann said. He stated that he believes there are 12 other water-ski slalom courses operating on public waterways in Massachusetts, but did not name them.

In an interview Wednesday evening Fuhrmann said he has retained counsel and is researching the matter with his lawyer that he did not identify.

There was heavy community opposition to the Fuhrmann plan.

At an Aug. 26 Belchertown selectmen’s meeting all but two of the sixty that attended opposed the water slalom apparatus.

Fuhrmann applied for a permit from the Department of Environmental Protection in July.

Records show that the plans Fuhrmann filed with the DEP on July 21 measure the course at 75 feet wide by 950 long. They also state: “300-foot setback on sides; 700-foot setback on ends.”

Using the water-ski slalom course “if permitted, would jeopardize the public rights of others on Lake Metacomet,” the DEP wrote in the denial.

“The layout and use of the course on Lake Metacomet, a 74 acre Great Pond, would interfere with public rights of navigation. It would generate water-borne traffic that would substantially interfere with other water-borne traffic and impair in a substantial manner the ability of the public to pass freely upon the waterway” and interfere with “public rights of fishing and fowling,” the DEP stated in the Oct. 4 decision. It was signed by Robert J. McCollum, Wetlands and Waterways Program Chief.

Source http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/10/state_says_no_to_water-ski_sla.html