Patrolling the Pond: The Water Safety Blotter Edition.
Mike Miller, Vice President, Lake Lotawana Homeowners Association
If you have had kids in school over the past 10 years you have likely heard the term, “Growth Mindset.” A growth mindset is knowing that you have the capability of learning and growing because you believe you can. It’s looking at challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. A fixed mindset is just the opposite. Fixed mindsets see challenges as something to avoid. Growth and learning are limited by beliefs about the ability to learn and thus, those with fixed mindsets avoid opportunities to get out of the comfort zone. We can all grow and learn through both successes and setbacks. In fact, some would say that some of the greatest learning takes place when you learn from a mistake and then move on with new insights. Of course there are a lot of factors that go into developing a growth mindset. I could go on, but I won’t. All of this talk of growth mindset is to say that one of the goals of the new, “Water Safety Blotter,” is to learn from mistakes. Mistakes that may not even be ours but the mistakes of others. It’s also to encourage those who are learning simply by living the rules and regulations. Another goal is show the community that our Water Safety Team is doing what we asked them to do and doing it well. Finally, I want to applaud and encourage everyone for learning the rules and doing their part to BE the front-line of Water Safety. Yes we have a lot of rules but clearly, just looking at the data from YTD 2025, those who know and live the rules far outweigh those who violate them. So why is this important? I am hoping that, in the spirit of learning and community, we can all learn from each other, encourage each other, and by reviewing the citations given by Water Safety in 2025. We can all be contributors to Water Safety in 2026. Let’s see what happened out there on the Pond this past year!
Sometimes we get feedback that Water Safety isn’t doing enough to cite violators of the rules. Truth is they just can’t be everywhere or see everything. Even with the current structure of two people in a Water Safety boat, it’s still easy to miss something. I heard a story about a guy that was pulled over for speeding. He wondered how it happened since he was really just going the same speed as everyone else. Curiously he asked the officer, “Officer, why did you stop me for speeding? I was going the same speed as everyone else and in fact was being passed by other cars!” The officer asked, “Have you ever gone fishing?” Interested in knowing where this was going he said, “Yes of course.” The officer then coyly said, “Well son, have you ever caught them ALL?” True enough. I’ve been on the Pond and have witnessed violations of our rules. I’m sure we all have. It happens. Water Safety wasn’t in the area. They can’t be all places at all times, and they won’t catch them all! That’s why our safety system relies upon every one of us being Water Safety. The more we all practice safe water activities and follow the rules, the more we all benefit. So, if you’re ready for some growth and learning, here is a summary of this past summer’s citations issued.
Summary of Citations and Violations for YTD (through September 9, 2025)
Total Number of Citations written: 74
Total Violations (some citations have more than one violation): 107
Types of Violations:
Docks 20
Parkway 14
Water Violations 38
Vessels 23
Other 14
Deeper Dive
In reviewing the data on violations for 2025, there was a lot of what you would expect to see and then there were some surprises. One surprise was that the total number of violations was fairly low relative to the number of residents and the load of traffic we saw on the lake this summer. That is a WIN! This means our safety efforts and building awareness of the rules and regulations is working. It also means that most everyone respects and follows the rules. Violations of the rules are the exception. Excellent! Well done neighbors! That said, the types of violations cited were not surprising with two exceptions: Violation of Holiday rules and non-owners on watercraft, specifically PWCs (will share more on that in a minute). It’s important to note that citations are issued for both moving violations on the water and off water violations (docks, parkway issues, registrations, etc.). This week the focus will be on the water and vessel related citations and violations. Here is a highlight of some of the on-water violations from January until September 9, 2025 :
Total number of water rules and vessel violations: 51
Here is a list of the type of violations:
- Reckless driving, donuts, wake in a cove, no flag when towing, wrong way navigation, no PFD, non-resident, no resident present, underage driver, not yielding to Water Safety, abusive language to Water Safety.
- 19 Decals out of date.
- 10 violations committed by non-resident Guests.
- PWC violations for reckless driving and non-owner driving were common. These are both 6-point violations and can result in suspension of lake privileges for 28 days.
- 11 violations for not conforming to Holiday rules.
- Abusive language to Water Safety will get you 12 quick points and a 28-day suspension.
This list is not comprehensive. I was surprised by how many rules violations there were for breaking Holiday Rules. We post the rules in just about every possible communication channel available. We did extend the Holiday Rules to include ALL of the days of the three holiday weekends we have each year. In 2026 Water Safety will develop a communication channel to let everyone know if Holiday rules can be lifted on any given day of a holiday weekend. If low water traffic warrants it, Water Safety has the authority to do lift the restrictions. How we communicate it is important to make sure everyone knows. Water safety is working on it and will have a solution for 2026. I actually believe applying the rules to the entire weekend works better than only the Holiday as it brings more consistency across all three days of the Holiday weekend.
The biggest surprise was the number of guest violations. While it seems relatively low to how many guests visited the lake this summer, the fact that there are ANY is surprising. Everyone who owns property here knows the rule as it pertains to guests and operating watercraft. There is no way NOT to know these rules. Most violations on the water and off are because of lack of awareness of the rules vs. intent. Violating the non-resident rule as one of intent. There is no way owners don’t know this rule. They just choose to roll the dice. Why does it matter? Non-resident operation of watercraft presents the greatest safety risk on the lake. They are a clear and present danger to everyone on the water. If you think it’s no big deal you are wrong and are risking more than just your lake privileges. You put everyone at risk. I witnessed this myself this year when two underage, non-resident PWC drivers blasted down our cove full speed. When they realized they were at a dead end, they turned around full speed the other way. This is when we all become Water Safety. Just say NO to your non-resident guests who want to take your PWC for a spin or want to operate your watercraft without you present. You put everyone on the water at risk when you do this. Thankfully this number isn’t a huge number of violators but anything beyond zero is too high.
I want to thank our fabulous office staff especially Denise DiPiazzo for putting together the analysis of the data for this article. There is more to share around both on water and non-water violations. Stay tuned for that in the next issue. In general, my three biggest take aways from this analysis are:
- Nearly all of our residents know the rules, keep the rules, and violations are more exceptions. Well done! Thank you for being the front-line of Water Safety.
- Violations happen, are the exception (given the level of traffic on the lake) but stand out when they do. Water Safety cannot be everywhere on the water. If you see something, say something. Courtesy notices can be issued from observed violations when Water Safety is not present. Just get the Lot and Block number and specifics of the violation. Report it to the office. These reminders have been particularly beneficial for unintentional violations and building awareness of our rules.
- Non-resident violations particularly on PWCs present the greatest risk to everyone on the water. If you have violated this rule in the past you are not just risking your lake privileges by allowing this to happen, you put everyone on the water at risk.
Back to having a growth mindset. We can all learn from this data and from the mistakes of others to make positive change. We can all build awareness of the rules with our family members and guests. We can encourage our family members that they are all capable of learning and following the rules to keep our lake a safe place to live and play. Our residents take the rules seriously. Thank you! You are doing your part to be Water Safety! Until next time…See you on the Pond!
As always if you have any questions, comments, or ideas for this column feel free to email me at VP@lakelotawana.net
Safer Seven will return in the next issue. Stay tuned!