Morrison Springs is Dead

[huntster70]

I sit here listening to all the comments and I think that it is sad that such a nice Dive site has been taken from us.....US as in Florida Citizens. Sure we don't vote int the county and it is the county who is flipping the bill.

This is like waiting for Christmas morning to open our gift....AGAIN. I'm not busting in on anyones parade but I, Like most of us here, would LOVE access to OUR FLORIDA natural resource... I mean, Did we have a bathroom LAST year? or the year before that? Sure the improvements of the park might necessitate the requirement of the bathrooms....... Question for ya ... If the doors are locked and signs posted for us NOT to use them to keep us taxpayers safe, wouldn't it allow the best use for the MOST people? What happens when there is a problem with the bathrooms and they need to be closed so that the electrician or plumber could make it out to the park to fix it... That has already taken MONTHS.... Will they CLOSE the entire park for that? We aren't looking for showers, they are NICE, by not required for our activities... We don't need bathrooms either.... We just wanna get wet! I have been there in the past checking on things from the boat ramp and saw MANY a local just as Tom describes our local "guard" ..... I laughed so hard... Good thing I wasn't drinking yet.... that would have been bad!!!

Probably alerted Homeland Security on his CEE-BEE. "Breaker Beraker One Nine - Some of them perps is a headed for the sprang!"

We could contact the county and open a Boat charter business... Morrison's Dive Charters...... The county could make money on THAT license too.....
Sure the park was built to keep all the Locals safe.... Some of them aren't safe from themselves... and US from the boats... They have a FANTASTIC place there now.... but all we are trying to do is use the spring to enjoy ourselves... We are NOT cutting down trees or heck... Jumping off the Nice wooden walkway and jumping 10 feet into the shallow water like the locals I have seen...... It's hard for me to see why things aren't better!!!! L is for their LOCAL government.

Ok, I'm done for now........ I'll sit back and WAIT with everyone else...

Oh, My charter business will use the LARGE 3 man inflatables... But it will be an Eco Tour so you will have to paddle.... Hee Hee

 

[mike_s]

taxpayers have to be upset about this. A bunch of divers from outside the county will NOT persuade the county.

they really aren't that interested in divers at all.

Seayoda and I were at the initial meeting at the site.


They invited the media (newspapers), and 3-4 fishermen, but they invited NO divers to the planning meeting they had on the site. We just happened to be there.

Anything we metioned in regards to diving they looked at us like they were surprised we said something.

But yet they hung on the words of the fishermen, who they knew well.

This park was redone partly to get a boat ramp for the fishermen. The fishermen didn't like getting blocked from their beach entry ramp. They would have never spent the extra funds on the boardwalk,etc if they didn't get $800k in grant funds

oh well....

 

[huntster70]

They might not like a Fee charged to get to that "nice" boat ramp, if it comes to that... Maybe we can get the fishermen all fired up about the possibility of a fee to use the park....

 

[denisegg]

To tell you the truth, I can see the reason why they don't want surface swimming from the boat launch to the dive area. I went with a buddy during Vortoberfest on Friday afternoon. It was getting dusk dark by the time we exited and there was a boat in the area between the ramp and the divesite. Thankfully, they were easing along and saw us and we were careful to stay out of their way. But if this had been someone motoring about not paying attention we could have gotten hurt. Also, we swam underwater to get back and when we surfaced there was a boat being launched and we had to make sure we were out of the way.
Lets be honest. It really wasn't the safest way to dive. Mat's suggestion of some type of boat(anything that is visual enough) really seems to be the answer until the park is opened and divers can safely access it from the shore or diving dock they built.

 

[Lone Frogman]

To tell you the truth, I can see the reason why they don't want surface swimming from the boat launch to the dive area. I went with a buddy during Vortoberfest on Friday afternoon. It was getting dusk dark by the time we exited and there was a boat in the area between the ramp and the divesite. Thankfully, they were easing along and saw us and we were careful to stay out of their way. But if this had been someone motoring about not paying attention we could have gotten hurt. Also, we swam underwater to get back and when we surfaced there was a boat being launched and we had to make sure we were out of the way.
Lets be honest. It really wasn't the safest way to dive. Mat's suggestion of some type of boat(anything that is visual enough) really seems to be the answer until the park is opened and divers can safely access it from the shore or diving dock they built.

Did you use a dive flag?

 

[photohikedive]

I spoke with MDB about this. She is in a particularly good position to get the dirt on the topic, being that where she works, she is in constant contact with the parks and rec guys.

First of all, one of the conditions of the grant, was that there would never be a fee for entry, so don't worry about that.

Second of all, the no diving signs are temporary. Obviously they intend to allow diving, they put in a lot of features that are scuba specific.


As an employee at a park that's undergoing construction, I can say this... Any part of the park that is under the care of the construction company, is off limits to the general public. It's not the matter of the bathrooms not working, it's an insurance thing. If a diver goes down there, and gets hurt while a contractor is "responsible" for the area, they can be sued. So, until construction is finished, they don't want ANYONE down there, including divers.

That being said, you will never keep everyone out. They signs go up, the cops and guards can be posted, but people will sneak in. They have to show a reasonable attempt to protect the public from themselves, in case of legal actions.

All that will happen, by having divers sneak in there before the operations are finished, is divers getting a bad name. The law makers will paint us with a broad brush, unlawful trespassers, unable to abide by the rules.

 

[frankc420]

I spoke with MDB about this. She is in a particularly good position to get the dirt on the topic, being that where she works, she is in constant contact with the parks and rec guys.

First of all, one of the conditions of the grant, was that there would never be a fee for entry, so don't worry about that.

Second of all, the no diving signs are temporary. Obviously they intend to allow diving, they put in a lot of features that are scuba specific.


As an employee at a park that's undergoing construction, I can say this... Any part of the park that is under the care of the construction company, is off limits to the general public. It's not the matter of the bathrooms not working, it's an insurance thing. If a diver goes down there, and gets hurt while a contractor is "responsible" for the area, they can be sued. So, until construction is finished, they don't want ANYONE down there, including divers.

That being said, you will never keep everyone out. They signs go up, the cops and guards can be posted, but people will sneak in. They have to show a reasonable attempt to protect the public from themselves, in case of legal actions.

All that will happen, by having divers sneak in there before the operations are finished, is divers getting a bad name. The law makers will paint us with a broad brush, unlawful trespassers, unable to abide by the rules.

Amen.

 

[mike_s]

Damn PHD.... what are you doing posting a post that makes sense?


Anwyay, yesterda I called Chris Mitchell, who is the "public information officer" for the County.

I asked him about the signs and he told me the same thing that PHD said about them. It's considered a construction zone and they don't want people in there diving or getting hurt.

I asked him if they were blocking fishermen from fishing in the spring. He couldn't answer that.

I reminded him of the federal waterways acts where you couldn't block access to a navigable waterway and how could you block fishermen or divers under the protection access by federal law. He quickly said that he couldn't answer those questions and reffered me to Comissioner Brannon.

I asked him about the sheriff and writing tickets and he told me he didn't know anything about that either. He said he would talk to the sheriff and find out.

I asked about the signs and if they had passed a county resolution by the county comission making it against the law to dive at Morrison, and he didn't know anything about that either and again reffered me to comissioner Brannon.


Mr Mitchell was polite the entire time that I talked to him. He understand that we want back into the spring.

Right now the county isn't even willing to set a date for a planned re-opening because they have missed so many other dates. They are still waiting on some permits for the water and a few electrical items. Oh and the picnic tables. They don't want to open without the picnic tables. (yes, that's a holding point it seems).


I still think this effort is being poorly managed by the commissoners office.

 

[denisegg]

Did you use a dive flag?

Because your point of entry and exit was the boat ramp and I had not been to the site since the ramp was built I didn't bring a flag because I didn't know there would be boat traffic between the ramp and the diving area.The boat we encountered however, was close to the construction/swim area. I just assumed that boats would not be allowed toward the swimming area and that was the purpose of placing the boat ramp further down so that the swimmers/divers would not be in harm's way of the boats but there is nothing in place yet to do this. If that is the case, will we have to use a dive flag when the facility is open?
I have also thought about what PHD said about construction liability issues even though the waterway is suppose to be accessible to everyone and wondered if that was their purpose for not allowing diving at this point.
So it seems that the bottom line is we shouldn't dive there until it is open...as sad as that is.:depressed:

 

[Flightlead]

Because your point of entry and exit was the boat ramp and I had not been to the site since the ramp was built I didn't bring a flag because I didn't know there would be boat traffic between the ramp and the diving area.The boat we encountered however, was close to the construction/swim area. I just assumed that boats would not be allowed toward the swimming area and that was the purpose of placing the boat ramp further down so that the swimmers/divers would not be in harm's way of the boats but there is nothing in place yet to do this. If that is the case, will we have to use a dive flag when the facility is open?
I have also thought about what PHD said about construction liability issues even though the waterway is suppose to be accessible to everyone and wondered if that was their purpose for not allowing diving at this point.
So it seems that the bottom line is we shouldn't dive there until it is open...as sad as that is.:depressed:

well, I'm just glad I got a few dives in there before we all became to politically correct. I just walked in from the road. Heck there were at least two schools holding classes there over the weekend I was down there, I saw cavern, ow, and rescue being conducted.

If you are going to dive there, and do an upstream swim or paddle from the boat ramp, I strongly suggest you do use a flag. not only because of the marginal safety from boaters, but because the man can sock it to you for violating that requirement even if he can't bust you for actually diving. The spring itself is NOT a construction area, only the park area right up to the waters edge. In fact, if you look you will see "do not enter - construction area" (or similar wording) signs on some of the trees at the edge of the spring facing the water. If the boat ramp is open, I don't see how they can stop anyone from diving the spring IF the diver complies with applicable laws such as using a flag.