Airboats: Two sides to story

Bill Halback and Allen "Cajun" Perry share at least one thing in common: their appreciation of Orange Lake.

Halback has lived in Evinston on the northwest bank of the lake since the late 1970s. From his deck, he can routinely hear wild hogs rooting through the sawgrass marsh below and, much to his dismay, the sound of airboats riding by.

Raised in Louisana's bayou country, Perry grew up gigging frogs at night. He's spent the last 10 years as an airboat captain working out of the Marion County community of Citra on the southside of Orange Lake. He gigs frogs, hunts alligators, ducks and hogs, fishes for bass and takes other hunters out on the water.

The two men have widely divergent opinions on whether airboats should be allowed on Orange Lake at all - let alone the county's proposed nighttime curfew.

Halback wants to be able to sleep with his windows open and enjoy the evening breeze off the lake. Perry, on the other hand, offers head phones to the passengers he takes out on his airboat to block out the noise from his boat's propeller.

For years, the battle over airboat noise has raged in Alachua County as the boats grew more popular and lakefront property grew more populated. That's not unique in Florida, where Brevard, Citrus, Lake, Osceola and Polk are among the counties that have enacted airboat curfews because of noise complaints. In Alachua County, curfew talk has surfaced and then subsided for years, but now it has made it to a County Commission vote.

As currently drafted, the curfew would ban airboats from all water bodies in the county between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. Each violation would bring a $200 fine. While the curfew would cover all water bodies, the debate over the noise centers primarily on Orange Lake, followed by Newnan's Lake.

Within a few hundred feet of Halback's back deck, an airboat trail that he said was cut by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission runs through the sawgrass.

"When they come roaring by, we would not be able to carry on this conversation," Halback said as he stood on his deck.

He said the noise has made it difficult to sleep and rattles the windows of his home at times.

Perry's favorite spot for gigging frogs and hunting alligators is on the other side of the lake. He heads out toward the marsh on the eastern shore - away from homes and toward areas where hydrilla and other aquatic vegetation make it difficult to impossible for other types of motorized boats to reach.

He said it's too bright to gig frogs with any success during daylight hours and, by law, alligator hunting is legal from one hour before sunset to one hour after sunrise.

"If they go 10 to 7, it will kill my business," Perry said of the curfew.

When county commissioners last discussed the proposed ordinance during their Oct. 27 meeting, they ended the approximately three-hour debate by expressing hopes the two sides could come to a compromise. That has not happened.

Instead, with a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday night, each side has come back with a recommendation more in its favor than the county's proposed curfew.

A residents' group called Quiet Lakes of Alachua County wants a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew.

"We each get 12 hours a day," Halback said.

While the county's proposed ordinance has a $200 fine per violation, the Quiet Lakes of Alachua County group has endorsed fines starting at $500 with punishment increasing up to the confiscation of a boat for repeat offenders.

On the other hand, the United Sportsmen & Airboaters Alliance, a local group affiliated with the Florida Airboat Association, has proposed a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with no curfew on weekends and no curfew during alligator hunting season for boats with at least one licensed hunter on board. Their proposed fine is $50 per violation.

That is the same proposal that the Florida Airboat Association has offered up to settle a lawsuit challenging Osceola County's airboat curfew. The Osceola County Commission is scheduled to vote on the possible settlement in late December.

Jerry Wetherington, president of the United Sportsmen & Airboaters Alliance, said the Alachua County curfew will meet a similar lawsuit if it passes.

"We're fighting this with everything we've got," he said.

Wetherington's group feels the curfew will open the door to a complete ban on airboats and argues that the county should not have moved this far in the process without going out to the lake and measuring noise levels from the boats.

Wetherington feels the members of his organization are responsible on the lake.

"We're cognizant of where they live, and we try to stay away from their houses," Wetherington said. "They act like we're out there 24/7. That's not true."

He said laws against boating while intoxicated or the county's existing noise ordinance, which sets a maximum of 90 decibels at 50 feet, should be used as enforcement tools against irresponsible airboaters who cause problems.

Whitey Markle has lived on the south end of Orange Lake near Citra in Marion County since the 1970s, and he said he's been fighting against airboat noise for just as long. He questioned enforcement of a noise ordinance on a moving airboat in the dark. "The only way counties have been able to control the noise is with a curfew," Markle said. "You don't have any noise readings. If you are out there, it is illegal."

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission chimed in on the issue in late October.

In a letter to the county, FWC Vice Chairman Kathy Barco stated that, after being contacted by "boating and sportsmen constituents," she wanted to express concerns that a curfew "will hamper alligator hunters' ability to successfully harvest alligators," particularly on Orange Lake, and will "significantly impact" hunters and frog gigging.

A 2008 FWC survey showed that 50 percent of the alligator hunters in Alachua County used airboats, with the percentage ranging from more than 60 percent on Orange Lake to 13 percent on Newnan's Lake.