Morgan (Isabella Golf Maintenance) & Samuel Scott, (Senior Lakes Technician) work to save carp trapped at the Santa Maria Golf Course (Hot Springs Village)
Carp rescue and storm debris cleanup in Hot Springs Village
From day to day, you never know what will happen in Hot Springs Village. Each day is unique in our natural wooded environment nestled with golf courses and other amenities and brings new challenges for staff. Wednesday, May 17, was no different, nor was it the same when the HSV Lakes Department and Golf Department received pleas from concerned Villagers to save a group of stranded fish from a golf course pool of water.
Katy Harmon, Hot Springs Village POA Lakes Supervisor, explained, “Due to the recent flooding, grass carp were washed over the Lake Maria Spillway and traveled down to a pool under a bridge on Hole #5 of Santa Maria Golf Course. Lakes Management, along with Isabella Golf Maintenance, were able to successfully capture all 15-grass carp and get them placed back into Lake Maria. Lakes Management would like to thank Isabella Golf Maintenance for helping with these efforts.”
Some very fortunate carp just received a reprieve from a dire demise thanks to the expeditious response from HSV staff.
Apart from that, when the Lakes Department was not busy in the past several days with life-saving missions for aquatic creatures, they could be found on Lake Balboa cleaning up the debris in the aftermath of the torrential rain. Lakes, Dams, Common Property, and Forestry Superintendent Todd Noles referred to the rain event as a disaster.
In an update on Lakes Department’s recent activities, Harmon said, “Lakes Management has been working on cleaning up debris from the recent flood. Some of our activities were removing debris from all boat ramps, resetting boat docks, replacing missing boards on boat docks that drifted away with the high-water levels, resetting buoys that broke loose, and removing navigational hazards from all the lakes.
Lakes Management asks that all boaters please use caution while on the lakes as they continue their efforts to get to each lake to remove any remaining navigational hazards.”
It’s all in a day’s work in Hot Springs Village.
By Cheryl Dowden; Images Courtesy of HSV Lakes Supervisor Katy Harmon
