By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Another Monday meeting, another disagreement over the county lake.

Lake resident Dick Fanter brought county commissioners a plan to patch the lake’s heated fishing dock.

“The heated dock needs some repair,” Fanter said. “It’s kind of an attraction to Marion County with only four left in the state.”

Fanter suggested that he and other volunteers add 25 sheets of marine plywood to the lake side of the dock.

“The dock needs some major repair, and that’s going to cost major bucks,” Fanter said. “What we’re going to do is put on a Band-Aid.”

Fanter said that he wasn’t qualified to do the complete repair needed, but that he and other volunteers could apply a new layer of plywood as a partial repair to extend the life of the dock for a couple years.

Before commissioners made a decision on Fanter working on the dock, they listened to his suggestions on regulating fishing and stocking the lake.

“People come here to crappie fish,” Fanter said, but many are having trouble landing them.

He asked commissioners to stop having wipers stocked in the lake and set a 10-inch minimum length limit and a creel limit of 10 for crappies.

“Let the crappie population come back up,” he said.

But commissioner Kent Becker said a state wildlife biologist determined what to stock in the lake.

“And there’s the person who needs to fall off the boat,” Fanter replied.

Fanter asked that commissions talk to Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism headquarters instead.

When commissioners said they wanted to contact the biologist for the region, Fanter got up to leave, telling them to do what they want, but “don’t bother me.”

“At least we’re consistent,” he said. “We got to the meeting and had an argument about the lake.”

After Fanter’s departure, commissioners decided to send a letter to Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism Department headquarters to ask what fish were being stocked in the lake.