GEORGETOWN – Police here have issued only one permit for waterskiing on the 88-acre Pentucket Pond, but it was about as murky as the pond water whether the town had authority to issue even that permit.
With waterskiing season approaching, the Select Board met last week with Police Chief David Sedgwick and Office Tyler Shane, who acts as the town’s harbormaster, to ask how the town should proceed to figure out if waterskiing is allowed on the relatively small pond. Sedgwich and Shane were responding to a complaint by a resident, who bought a house on the pond and apparently claimed her Realtor said that no motorized vehicles were allowed on the pond.
Pentucket is not owned by the town. At almost 90 acres, Pentucket exceeds the 50 acres that makes it a state-owned Great Pond.
Forty-four years ago, the town tried to pass a bylaw governing activities on the pond, but the measure was never ratified by the state, leaving governance of activities at the pond uncertain. The pond is governed by State law MGLchapter 90B.
To complicate the activities allowed on the pond, the ramp on the pond is privately owned by the Georgetown Fish and Game Assn. Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco said the ramp was in poor repair, mostly gravel and mud.
And Pacheco offered to apply for state grants to repair the ramp so more boats could be unloaded from trailers into the pond. The problem, according to former harbormaster and
long-time Conservation Commission chair Carl Sheder, is that being privately owned, the ramp would not be eligible to apply for public funds.
Any privately funded improvements to the ramp would have to be approved by the town’s Conservation Commission.
Most of the users of the pond are kayaks and small fishing boats, said Selectman Doug Dawes, a member of the Fish & Game Assn.
When the motorized ski boats, which travel at 34+ mph when pulling a skier, are on the pond, other users cannot safely use the area.
The SelectBoard voted that chief Sedgewick and Officer Skane should limit the skiing to weekdays, leaving the weekends and holidays for non-motorized boats.
Normal licensed motor boats could still operate on non-ski days per state law. The town cannot prevent that, Shreder said.
The ski course, laid out by the permit holder, are defined by buoys that are deflated and sink to the pond bottom when not being used. ♦
