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Administrator
Osceola agrees to rethink waterfront-noise solutions
Daphne Sashin | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 31, 2007
KISSIMMEE -- Plans to impose a nighttime curfew for airboats are on hold for 60 days while Osceola County officials meet with airboat operators in search of common ground.
In the meantime, the commission agreed only to enforce a state law that went into effect July 1 requiring airboats to be equipped with mufflers.
At a packed meeting Monday night, the crowd of airboat users said they had spent hundreds of dollars to comply with the state law.
They criticized the county for not consulting them when it proposed a ban on airboat use between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on most public waters, with some exceptions.
"Without airboating, my quality of life is gone," Jean Smith of the Osceola Airboat Association told the commission.
"I live for airboating. It's like my fix. I want my trip to the lake."
In the ordinance establishing the curfew, the county contends that people living on the waterfront in Osceola have been "subjected to unnecessary noise levels from the operation of airboats."
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office handled 31 airboat complaints in 2006, though it was not clear whether the complaints occurred before or after the state rule on mufflers took effect.
No homeowners testified Monday about noise...
Full Story: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/osceola/orl-owairboat3107jan31,0,7685251.story?track=rss
Daphne Sashin | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 31, 2007
KISSIMMEE -- Plans to impose a nighttime curfew for airboats are on hold for 60 days while Osceola County officials meet with airboat operators in search of common ground.
In the meantime, the commission agreed only to enforce a state law that went into effect July 1 requiring airboats to be equipped with mufflers.
At a packed meeting Monday night, the crowd of airboat users said they had spent hundreds of dollars to comply with the state law.
They criticized the county for not consulting them when it proposed a ban on airboat use between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. on most public waters, with some exceptions.
"Without airboating, my quality of life is gone," Jean Smith of the Osceola Airboat Association told the commission.
"I live for airboating. It's like my fix. I want my trip to the lake."
In the ordinance establishing the curfew, the county contends that people living on the waterfront in Osceola have been "subjected to unnecessary noise levels from the operation of airboats."
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office handled 31 airboat complaints in 2006, though it was not clear whether the complaints occurred before or after the state rule on mufflers took effect.
No homeowners testified Monday about noise...
Full Story: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/osceola/orl-owairboat3107jan31,0,7685251.story?track=rss
