Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

During the Chambers County Commission meeting, County Engineer Josh Harvill gave a brief update on the plans for the Chambers County Lake off of County Road 83 which is in the process of being reopened to the public since 2020. 

According to Harvill, the county highway department is completing maintenance work on the road at the county lake, primarily tree trimming to keep brush and low hanging tree limbs from scratching county vehicles and visitors’ cars. 

On Monday and Tuesday, the county workers worked to finish mowing around the lake. This will be the first of two mows planned per year. At the meeting, Harvill said the mowing schedule will be one round in early summer and another in late fall. 

Harvill added that the county will also be using herbicide to keep the weeds under control for visitors to the lake throughout the year.

Chambers County Commissioner Sam Bradford added that one reason the reopening of the lake has been delayed as long as it has is because the state has had an “extremely difficult time” finding someone to be the lake manager. 

“They just really hit some dead ends, but they do have somebody in place now,” Bradford added. 

Talks of reopening the county lake began back in August of this year after State Representative Debbie Wood and Ed Poolos, the Deputy Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, visited the commissioners. 

The lake has been closed since the beginning of 2020 after the last lake manager left. 

In August, the ADCNR expressed a hope of reopening next February, though Harvill said on Monday that he couldn’t speak to the state’s timeline. When they visited in the summer, Poolos said they had already hired two concessionaires to act as lake managers. 

At that time, Poolos had said they were working to make the position of lake manager more desirable. The concessionaires have to cover the smaller maintenance costs, but the state uses some sports fishing revenue gained to pay for large maintenance costs.

Poolos also said they were looking into other streams of revenue besides licensing fees but that no camping is permitted at state lakes. Camping grounds require a law enforcement presence to maintain peace, but because the lakes are run solely by concessionaires they can’t do this.