(Bits, Pieces and Announcements)
| Rodman's Level on The Web |
| E-Mail Bulletins |
| Who to Call for What |
| Membership in Save Rodman Reservoir, Inc. |
| Buckman Lock & Manatees |
| Free Flowing Ocklawaha?! |
Reservoir Depth Available on Line
We have always been able to monitor the reservoir level by looking at the level gauge at the dam. Weather has taken its toll on the gage face and it is hard to read. The level information is now on line with the U. S. Dept. of geodetic survey. Here is the URL for the web page:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/nwisman/?site_no=02243959&agency_cd=USGS
Once you get there you will see a table like this:
Click on "Real-time" and "go" and you can
get an hourly update of the reservoir level. You might want to save the URL in
your "Favorites" file to keep from having to type all that gibberish
every time you want to visit the page.
If you would like to be on our list of members to receive our E-Mail bulletins, send your E-Mail address to Bob Andry at andry@mfi.net or call (352) 546-5011.
We started our E-Mail Bulletin service during the last legislative session as a way to let our members know rapidly about events. It works! We plan to continue with the service whenever anything of importance happens at Rodman. It doesn't cost you a thing and it will help to keep you up to date.
(Who to call for what!)
Save Rodman Reservoir, Inc.
PO Box 2
Palatka, Florida 32178
| Web Page Comments: | |||
| Political: | Ed_Taylor | saverodman@rodmanreservoir.com | (386)326-1112 |
| Other: | Bob_Andry: | andry@mfi.net | (352)546-5011 |
| Save Rodman Reservoir, Inc.: | Ed_Taylor | president@rodmanreservoir.com | (386)326-1112
(386)326-1117 (FAX) |
| Rodman Review: | |||
| Publisher & Ads.: | Bob_Andry | andry@mfi.net
|
(352)546-5011
352)546-5458 (FAX) |
| Graphics: | Bob_Andry | ||
| Membership: | Charlie Lawson | ||
| Rodman Conditions and Tourism: | Bob_Andry | andry@mfi.net | (352)546-5011
(352)546-5458 (FAX |
| Buckman Lock: | (386)329-3575 | ||
| Office of Greenways and Trails Ocala): | (352)236-7143
(352)236-7121-FAX |
Our newsletter, The Rodman Review (not our web page) pays for itself by sell advertisements. Please take the time to look at these ads. The businesses that placed these ads. are supporters of Rodman. You too can help support Rodman with your patronage of these businesses.
If you would like to place an ad. in the Rodman Review, send your check along with a sample of the ad. to Bob Andry at 16891 NE 243 Place Road, Ft. McCoy, Fl 32134. Make your check out to Save Rodman Reservoir, Inc.
Ad. prices are as follows: (plus 7% tax)
|
Full Page $200.00 |
|
½ Page $100.00 |
|
¼ Page $ 50.00 |
|
1/8 Page $ 25.00 |
Our membership recruitment is plodding along - satisfactorily, but not great. It could use your help. Encourage your friends to join. We need all the members we can get before we get into any more confrontations with restorationists. Membership applications can be obtained from our office in Palatka, through any of the officers and from our web page. Click on "Application Form", print and send the application to us along with your dues.
If each of you can sign up three new members, we will have very respectable membership. If each of the three new members were to sign up two new members, we would be a truly formidable foe for the restorationists.
Category Fee
1 year member $20.00
3 year member $50.00
Lifetime Member $200.00
Executive Committee $500.00
by Dan Patton
The lockmasters do an excellent job of monitoring the manatee traffic through the locks in order to protect them. They even keep a daily log of the count through the locks. Here is the results from 1995 - 1999. No count was taken in 1996 because the locks were closed for electrical repairs.
| 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | Total | |
| Rodman Traffic Count | 29 | 69 | 36 | 40 | 174 | |
| Rodman lock/dam deaths? | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| So. Fl ./lock/dam deaths | 6 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 43 |
There have been 10 deaths of manatees attributed to Rodman over 25 years and 155 deaths attributed to South Florida in the same period. The recent addition of manatee protection devices installed on Kirkpatrick Dam and Buckman Lock should make Rodman Reservoir a very safe haven for manatees.
Did you know that the water that flows through the Rodman Dam from the headwaters of the Ocklawaha passes through three dams and locks before reaching the Kirkpatrick Dam. Well it does; the Apopka-Bouclair Lock & Dam, the Bunell Lock & Dam, and the Moss Bluff Lock & Dam. Guess what? There is now going to be another divergence at the Sunny Hill Farm, where the adjacent free flowing river is affectionately called canal- 231. Just south of State Road 42 a pumping station diverts, seasonally, between 30%-50% (depending on over-all availability) of the water flowing from Lake Griffin into the Sunny hill Restoration Area. This will provide a flood storage using nine miles of the historic Ocklawaha River channel. This water will be diverted back to the canal just before entering the Moss Bluff Lock & Dam. Is this a free flowing river? Those that wish to destroy Rodman say that doing so will allow the Ocklawaha River to again be a "free flowing river". We have just seen that this statement is false. Destroying Rodman will not change the fact that the Ocklawaha is a controlled river.