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| 10/16/2009 5:09:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Wellington Lake closed to recreation
Mike Potter
Staff Writer
Wellington Lake, southeast of downtown Bailey in Jefferson County, is closed to recreation effective Oct. 9 on a decision by the board of directors of Thornton-based Wellington Reservoir Co.
Wellington Reservoir Co. owns the water in the lake and the Castle Mountain Recreation campground on the land that surrounds the lake.
Della Powell, the former manager of the recreation area is being retained as the lake tender, but other, part-time employees are being fired, said Wellington Reservoir and Ditch board attorney John Akolt.
Akolt said the board made the decision to close the lake to recreation activity so it could conduct a long-term assessment on the land and any possible recreation use in the future.
He said the purpose of the reservoir has always been water consumption, and recreational use was a secondary use.
"The board wants to assess whether the lake can sustain the level of activity that it has grown to," he said.
He said some improvements to infrastructure could be implemented, and the lake could be reopened to recreational use.
When asked why the recreational impact on the lake couldn't be studied with the lake still open to the public, which it has been for almost two decades, Akolt said the board wanted to look at the like while it wasn't in use.
"They just wanted to take the time to assess it without any activity going on up there," he said.
But not everyone is buying the explanation.
Powell said that she was given no notice of the operational changes to the lake, which were to be implemented immediately.
She was instructed to accept no new reservations and compile a list of people who have made reservations and give it to the board, who would refund any deposits on the reservations.
Powell said the cancelation of the reservations could impact between 300 and 500 people over the summer months, and if the lake remains closed to the public, many more in the summer.
"In the summer, we see thousands," she said.
She also expressed concern for how the closure would impact Bailey, the nearest town to the lake.
"I send people there constantly through the winter," she said. "They get a lot of their business from people who come up to the lake. It's going to be difficult for everybody."
Powell said the closure comes on the heels of one of the most lucrative summers she's seen.
"The lake is doing really well financially because a lot of people are visiting," she said.
Powell said she has worked and lived at Wellington Lake for 17 years. And many of the employees who were let go had worked for a number of years at the lake.
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