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FEDERATION OF ONTARIO COTTAGERS ASSOCIATIONS 23 Member association Peninsula Lake Association PLA made a submission to the Town of Huntsville in March 2015 in opposition to a planned watercross event. The event was billed as two-days of snowmobile watercross races planned for the Fathers Day weekend of 2015 and described by one opponent as the Indy 500 on water. After one-on-one meetings with each member of Huntsville Council and the Mayor Huntsville Town Council denied the request to suspend the noise Bylaw to permit the event. PLAs written submission to Huntsville Council included the following concerns The proposed snowmobile watercross event will a Violate the Peninsula Lake communitys right to a quiet and peaceful summer weekend b Negatively impact our tourist economy c Willfully pollute Peninsula Lake and its waterfront d Expose participants and spectators to safety risks. PLA approached the local resorts and concluded in their submission that none had been given notification of the proposed event which would take place only a few hundred yards away. Furthermore PLA took issue with Peninsula Lake watercross MEMBER STORY organizers claims of huge attendance records at previous events intended to represent tourism dollars for the local community by reviewing YouTube footage of past races. They also challenged the environmental wisdom of the event noting in their submission that The watercross organizers say they expect that 100 snowmobiles will sink during the 2-day event. The snowmobiles have 2-stroke carburetor engines that mix oil with gasoline. Mercury and Evinrude stopped making these dirty kind of marine engines a long time ago. A pit row will be built along the Hidden Valley Resort beach. Gasoline tanks will be lakeside. There will be special waste containers to dump the contaminated gasoline pumped from sunken snowmobiles. Watercross is a relatively new event in Ontario. We submit that Huntsville Council should not endorse any watercross event until it can be proven that such events are environmentally sound. Congratulations to PLAfor this concerted effort and carefully drafted submission to Council