By Laura Lane, For the Times-Mail
llane@heraldt.com
Shanon Mundy is driving a pontoon boat to work these days.
Lake Monroe a few weeks ago approached its record-high level of 18 feet above its regular depth. For Mundy and her family, who for 18 years have been the proprietors of Pleasurecraft Marine at Cutright State Recreation Area, with the flooded lake combined with $4-a-gallon gas, the 2008 summer season is pretty much under water - literally.
"It's awful," she said. "It's really hurting us this year, and we're just getting the season under way."
Most years, boaters and others visiting the lake flock to the lake store for gasoline, snacks and more. Business is down about 60 percent so far this year. And keeping her shelves stocked hasn't been easy. Mundy motors out to the Ind. 446 causeway to meet vendors who help her load chips, soda and other supplies - just a fourth of what she would normally buy - onto the boat.
Her family has been conducting business this way the past three weeks, ever since the lake flooded the road to their store. But she is hopeful - once the lake level falls a few more feet, they can park the boat and resume automobile travel.
And, hopefully, welcome their customers back.
Indiana Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Brent Bohbrink foresees a slower start to summer than usual at Lake Monroe. "This holiday weekend is supposed to have nice weather, but it will be interesting to see what will keep people away - the high water or the high fuel prices."
The lake level was at its highest ever back in 2002, when it crested over the lake's spillway. Lakeside businesses suffered then, but it was nothing like this year. "Because of the economy, with these high gas prices ... we've never seen it like this," she lamented.
Weekend revelers who enter the gate at Paynetown State Recreation Area might be startled by a big red and black sign at the guard shack. It warns of an "extreme danger," and urges visitors to be cautious and to please not wade into the lake from the shore because of steep drop-offs caused by high water levels.
"People will come out and see a nice place for kids to play knee-deep, not realizing the next step is a 15-foot drop-off," said DNR reservoir specialist Phil Wilson. "There's no way we can man the entire shoreline"
And the lake itself is turbid and a bit more rough than usual. Boaters need to be aware that shoreline debris and trees have been displaced; there's lots of stuff floating out in the lake that boats should try to avoid. For instance, Bohbrink this week hauled in a 6-foot-long piece of driftwood that could have spelled trouble for a boat propeller. He also hooked a rope onto a 15-foot-section of bench that washed out from the Paynetown Nature Center amphitheater.
"They need to slow down and be aware what's in front of them," Bohbrink said. "It's just like driving your car on the roadway in that regard."
Parking lots are under water; basketball hoops jut out of the waves, the lower edge of their nets just a few feet above the surface. Most sanctioned picnic areas cannot be accessed except by boat. "That area over there, called the Paynetown Peninsula, is usually full of people picnicking," Bohbrink said from his patrol boat, pointing toward some picnic tables stranded on what is now an island.
Both Fairfax and Paynetown beaches will be under water and closed for some time, until the high water recedes and once again reveals sand. Most boat ramps are flooded, but just a few are closed, including under-water Cutright.
Many people will have to take a boat to get to their boat this weekend. The DNR is running a pontoon shuttle out to flooded docks, where stairs lead down into the water. Electricity has been cut to some areas, including the Paynetown fueling station, because utility poles are partly submerged.
So far this spring, there have been no water-related tragedies at the lake. But there also haven't been many people around. "We have been blessed by cool temperatures, which have kept people away from the water," Wilson said.
That all changes, though, when the sun comes out and the water temperature warms.
Wilson figures many boaters will change their habits this year, given the cost of gasoline to fuel their craft. Boats use a lot of fuel - a 22-foot runabout has a 60-gallon gas tank. Pulling a skier, that boat would burn about a gallon of gas an hour. "As prices go up, people will buy less fuel. My wife and I still boat, but we don't do as much on the lake. We anchor."