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Families seek to build private body of water in Portage County
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Tuesday, May 06, 2008
FREEDOM TWP: An unusual body of water is on the drawing boards in northeastern Portage County.
The proposal calls for a lake, up to 9 feet deep, covering 101/2 acres. It would be long — 2,300 feet, nearly a half-mile — and skinny — only 200 feet wide. There would be two circular areas at each end.
The lake would be private, used by three families of devoted water skiers.
The families, two from Portage County and one from Summit, have formed a company — MFL Properties LLC — to build the lake.
''We are all water-ski nuts . . . and maybe we're a little obsessed,'' said spokesman David Brode of Shalersville Township, who is involved in the project along with Larry Lang of Ravenna Township and Mark DePew of Hudson.
The families have 13 water skiers among them, said Brode, 50, who's an assistant Portage County prosecutor.
An Ohio Environmental Protection Agency hearing on the proposal was held April 28. Before the lake can be built off Nichols Road, the company needs approval from both the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Creating the lake would have an impact on 2.19 acres of wetlands and 340 feet of streams that drain to Sand and Hinkley creeks.
The 96-acre site is now a farm field. It's north of the Ravenna Arsenal and south of state Route 303, just west of the intersection with Smalley Road.
Brode said that location was chosen because the land was among the flattest and most reasonably priced that the three families could find in Portage County.
''You don't want to move mountains of dirt if you don't have to,'' he said.
No house is planned there — just the lake, which will not be open to the public, he said, adding that the site might be used for water-skiing tournaments.
Detailed plans were prepared by Hammontree & Associates Ltd., which has offices in North Canton.
MFL Properties would rely largely on rain water and melting snow that now goes into roadside ditches to fill up the lake. No stream would be dammed, and there's no nearby water source to tap.
The lake would be 9 feet at its deepest. It would step to 6 feet of water and then to 3 feet of water. Brode said that design would reduce waves — the No. 1 enemy of water skiers — and minimize shore erosion.
The water skiers would be towed by a 19-foot ski boat with a V8 in-board engine with up to 350 horsepower, he said. The lake would have a slalom course in which skiers would negotiate around six balls.
The three families currently water ski on a private lake in Deerfield Township in southeastern Portage County and at West Branch State Park east of Ravenna.
There are a few other water-ski lakes in Northeast Ohio, including one in Norton, one in Trumbull County and several in Geauga County, Brode said.
He declined to say how much money the families were investing to build their own lake.
''We're all pretty crazy about water skiing,'' he said. ''It's something we enjoy and something we all spend a lot of time doing. . . . We'd all be out skiing every day if we could.''
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
FREEDOM TWP: An unusual body of water is on the drawing boards in northeastern Portage County.
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