Rep. Gosar and Lake Havasu City Mayor Nexsen Secure Public Meeting on Proposed Havasu Boating Closures

Statement

Today, Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced late Thursday night that it would adhere to one of the requests made by the Congressman and Mayor of Lake Havasu City, Mark Nexsen, to hold a public meeting in Lake Havasu City, Arizona and allow for input from local stakeholders on the draft Compatibility Determination (CD) announced last week that aims to close down significant areas to motorized boating on Lake Havasu:

"Last night's announcement by the Service adhering to our request to hold a public meeting in Lake Havasu City on proposed Havasu boating closures is a victory for the people of Arizona. I applaud Mayor Nexsen for fighting this bureaucratic overreach and his successful efforts to give our citizens a voice in this flawed process. The Service will now have to defend this terrible proposal in front of the community and the people that will be most harmed by these arbitrary boating closures. I thank Director Ashe for responding to part of our request. However, I would like to restate our request for a 60 day extension of the public comment period, reiterate that we would like the public meeting to occur at a venue with adequate space, and once again, encourage the Service to stop trying to shut down water skiing and wakeboarding on Lake Havasu. The Lake should remain open for all users."

Lake Havasu City Mayor Mark Nexsen stated, "We are pleased that the Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to hold a public meeting in Lake Havasu City on the agency's new proposal to close significant portions of Lake Havasu within the Refuge to motorized boating. I want to thank Congressman Gosar for taking our request directly to Director Ashe in order to make this meeting a reality. While we are grateful that Lake Havasu City residents will now have a voice in this process, we continue to have serious concerns about additional boating restrictions which frankly are confusing and not warranted. Further, we are still hopeful that the Fish and Wildlife Service will agree to our request of a 60 day extension for public comments. Recreational users of Lake Havasu have peacefully coexisted for decades and we believe that this all could be resolved if the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to reverse the restrictions implemented in May 2015 and dropped this new proposal that unfairly targets motorized boaters."

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