Milton city officials and homeowners along Locklin Lake met Tuesday to find viable options in restoring the historical property which is now dealing with overgrowth and pollution. The homeowners voiced their concerns about finding a way to keep the lake’s weeds down and find a solution to stop littering and pollution runoff. Some residents claimed they are beginning to see dead carpe floating in the lake. The group offered a solution of organizing to have a united voice.
City of Milton Mayor Wesley Meiss made it a goal at the meeting to work with the homeowners in finding a solution to restore the lake.
“The lake is major part of Milton, it’s the beginning of Milton,” Meiss said.
The lake is credited to eventually leading to the formation of Milton in 1829. According to previous article in the Press Gazette, the lake was formed by Benjamin Jernigan, who built the city’s first water-powered saw mill.
Meiss, who offered the city hall facility to house future restoration committee meetings, felt confident the meeting’s were making progress towards finding a solution.
“They want to get the committee back on its feet and elect some officers,” Meiss said. “Once that happens and they are organized they start looking at how to pay for this and that’s working with the state legislatures.”
Following the conclusion of this week’s monthly meeting, residents are hopeful about the Locklin Lake Restoration Project, Inc. becoming up and running again, which will allow the residents to have a united voice on behalf of the lake.
“It’s something that needs to be done,” said Julia Mathis, who has lived near the lake since 2001. “Hopefully people will come and say they want to be a chairman or co-chairman (of the committee).”
Mathis said she previously served on committee designated to helping restore the lake, however after a lack of interest and loss of funding, the committee eventually stopped meeting.
However, after seeing the turnout from meetings, Mathis is hopeful the restoration will be revived.
“It’s exciting to see this many people come out and it’s nice to see the mayor holding this together,” she said.
In addition to possibly electing officials at next month’s meeting, Meiss also suggests residents reach out to Santa Rosa County Commissioner Bob Cole, who represents District 2, to attend future meetings.
In future meetings, residents hope to invite Florida wildlife experts in order to learn options in keeping the weeds from growing.
The homeowners would also like to invite Milton Police Chief Greg Brand to learn about what is being done to keep individuals from trespassing on private property in order to access the lake.
All of the residents have one goal in common and it’s bringing Locklin Lake back to life.
“There used to be a total sand base from what I was told and it used to look like the beach,” said Robert Little, who has lived near the lake for the past two years. “The old timers that have been here for 20 or 30 years said it used to be gorgeous.”
Robert Dye, a long time Milton resident, remembers a very different view of the lake.
“Back in the sixties Locklin Lake was a happening place,” Dye said. “People would come up here and we had white sandy beaches, families would come up here and have picnics.”
Like all of the residents, Little wants what is best for the lake.
“If we fix the lake all of our property values will go up,” he said. “I love it there, that is why we purchased the place.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: 'Something needs to be done'