Clarks Bridge Boat ramp gets a $1,000 boost

GAINESVILLE - The Lake Lanier Rowing Club Monday delivered a check for $1,000 to local bait and tackle store owner Kerry Hicks, owner of the Smokin' Fisherman near Clermont, to help extend the boat ramp at Clarks Bridge Park.

Hicks has collected pledges for more than $4,000 to cover the cost of extending all three lanes at the Clarks Bridge Park ramp, and signed an agreement with Gainesville and Hall County, which jointly operate the park under a lease from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to donate all materials and labor for the project.

"We met and discussed it and wanted to be a part of it," said Duane Schlereth, outgoing president of the Lake Lanier Rowing Club."That's why we made this contribution of a $1,000 to help toward it."

Schlereth presented the check to Hicks in the Board of Commissioners' Office at the Courthouse Annex.

"Everybody was looking for a place to put in that was safe," Hicks said. "We just all got together and decided to do something about it."

Hicks said the three-lane ramp will be extended down to the water and once the concrete is dried a 45-foot metal ramp will be installed with floating buoys.

"It'll be safe to back onto with your boat and your truck and you can pull your boat back out," Hicks added. "Hopefully by this Sunday it will be open to the public."

"This lake being down has hurt a lot of businesses and hopefully everybody can have fun and get their pleasure back."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/1/205535