Frozen dock in Lake Placid ice marked for safety
LAKE PLACID — If you’re snowmobiling on Lake Placid this winter, be careful around the northwestern side of the lake — there’s a dock frozen into the ice about 100 yards from shore.
On Jan. 6, the Lake Placid Shore Owners Association posted a notice about the dock to its Facebook page:
“While skating the lake yesterday a member came across a floating dock lodged in the ice.”
Lake Placid lake Constable Buzzy Rickard said he received a call from a Lake Placid resident notifying him about the stranded dock. Rickard contacted the owner of the dock, who he said was aware of the issue, and Rickard told the owner he needed to mark the dock with reflector tape or lights to keep snowmobilers from running into it at night.
Rickard declined to share the name of the owner of the dock.
The owner and Rickard sought guidance from the state Department of Environmental Conservation on how to handle the situation, and the DEC echoed Rickard’s advice to mark the dock, according to Rickard. He said the owner is responsible for putting up reflective tape and beacons, the flashing solar lights similar to those used on construction sites. That way, he said, people snowmobiling at night can see the dock before they approach it.
Rickard said the dock is on the northwestern side of the lake near Echo Bay.
Rickard mentioned that there was some talk of tying an anchor to the dock so it wouldn’t keep drifting after the ice thaws this spring, but he said the main concern right now is snowmobile safety. He contacted the Lake Placid Snowmobile Club about the hazard, and the club posted a photo of the dock to its Facebook page.
Joe Stanton shared photos of the dock-marking trip last week on the Lake Placid Community Forum Facebook group. They used an airboat to travel to the site.