PALM BEACH, Fla. — WPTV has not stopped searching for answers for boaters who use the Lake Worth Lagoon as the town of Palm Beach looks to clean up the Intracoastal Waterway.
WATCH BELOW: 'I'd like for someone to make a plan so we can stay,' Martha Gayle said
On Tuesday, WPTV Reporter Joel Lopez attended the Palm Beach Town Council meeting as they discussed an ordinance that would limit overnight mooring.
Voices from the water
At the meeting, boater Matthew Woods, who lives in Lake Worth, expressed his concerns.
"This affects a lot of people," he said.
A group of boaters who moor in the Lake Worth Lagoon gathered for a first reading, hoping to shift the tide on the push by the town council to remove illegal mooring buoys and other boats anchored without a permit.
"We've always been on the water we've always used the water," Martha Gayle, a boater from Lake Clarke Shores, emphasized.
"We're good people, we have the right to use the water for recreation," Woods added.
The proposed ordinance also targets derelict vessels that have been abandoned on the waterway and have posed a hazard when they break loose.
Palm Beach
Boat owners frustrated over plan to remove illegal mooring buoys from lagoon
"It's always the one bad apple, they're punishing the good citizens, average people like myself who have the right to use our state waters," Woods said, criticizing this approach, saying town council has their efforts misdirected.
He said he's also in favor of removing derelict boats as they also pose harm his boats.
Woods has two boats moored in the lagoon and voiced his frustrations about the lack of options.
"There's nowhere to go, I've checked within a 50-mile radius, there's nowhere that I can take my boat. Nowhere. The marinas are all full, there's no mooring fields," he said.
He continued, expressing that relocating to distant locations such as Miami or Jacksonville is not a feasible solution, stating, "that's not going to work, it's not fair."
A community concern
Woods, who is a member of the Palm Beach Sailing Club, explained the ripple effect these regulations could have on the community.
"At the sailing club, we teach little kids how to sail, little 7-year-olds," he said. "But when that kid becomes 17, 19 and wants to buy a 30-foot boat, where's he going to put it? It's not going to happen."
The town argues that the changes will prevent damage to the seabed, but Woods contests, stating that moors are a safer alternative as they screw into the waterway floor instead of an anchor and chain that can possibly damage marine life when it drags along the ground.
Martha Gayle, who relies on mooring as an affordable option, shared her own struggles.
"I can't afford a dock. I'm a retired schoolteacher and I don't have the income to afford that luxury," she said.
She expressed her fears that the town's initiative would force her to sell a boat that she has kept moored in the lagoon for 15 years.
WATCH PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Town announced plan last week to clean up Lake Worth Lagoon
"What do you hope is the outcome from today?" Lopez asked Gayle during the gathering.
"I'd like for someone to make a plan so we can stay," she replied. "I'm heartbroken. To throw us all out at the same time doesn't seem fair. It's been like this for decades, all of a sudden I don't understand why all the change."
Concerns from the community were taken to Mayor Danielle Moore, who declined an on-camera interview.
She told Lopez she isn't familiar with costs or availability of marinas and docks, but that state legislature does allow them to make regulations to clean the waterways.
"I'm just praying that things work out and that we're treated fairly," said Woods.
The meeting was ongoing at the time this story made broadcast.
