A complete listing of the city ordinances, which relate to recreation on City-owned lakes, may be found in the Lake Regulations handbook. However, the Lake Regulations handbook is being revised and reprinted. You might check at a later date to see if the handbooks are available. For your convenience, these handbooks are available free of charge at the OCPD Lake Hefner patrol station. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the revised edition of the handbook when it becomes available.

The Wet/Dry Stall Rental Permit is a one-year contract that expires every April 30th, as does the ABC plan. Therefore, although you participated in the ABC plan last year, you still have to renew your permit/contract and re-enroll in the ABC plan.

Wet and Dry Stall Permit Payment Options

To provide payment flexibility, the Water Department is once again making the Automatic Bill Crediting (ABC) plan available to renters. For those of you who are not familiar with the ABC plan, the ABC plan is a convenient way for you to pay your annual boat stall rental fees over 12 months. The ABC plan allows you to pay your rental payment in equal monthly installments automatically, along with your other monthly utility charges for water, sewer, refuse and drainage. Your boat storage fees will be automatically deducted from your designated checking or savings account monthly. Choosing the ABC option requires that your utility charges be paid through the ABC option. In other words, your utilities will also be automatically deducted from your designated checking or savings account along with your rental payments. When you join the ABC plan, the Water/Wastewater Utilities Department, Utility Customer Service Division, will mail to you a notification informing you of the effective date that your payment will be automatically transferred. On the due date of your statement, your bank will automatically transfer the amount due to the City of Oklahoma City. Once a month, you will receive a statement advising you of the automatic transfer. You do not have to live within the Oklahoma City limits and use Oklahoma City utilities to participate in the ABC plan, i.e. if you live within Edmond city limits and use Edmond city utilities, you may still participate in the ABC plan.

If you opt to use the ABC plan, you MUST renew your annual boat stall rental permit BY Saturday, APRIL 29, 2006, to be effective May 1, 2006. If you do not choose the ABC plan, the full annual fee must be paid at the time of permit renewal by April 29, 2006.

When you sign a rental permit and ABC authorization, you are agreeing to pay the entire rental fee. The ABC plan is simply divided into 12 monthly payments. If you decide later in the year, i.e. in July, to cancel your rental permit, you are still obligated to pay the entire rental amount. Rebates and refunds are nonexistent.

Locks

For security reasons, the combination locks on the gates of the entrances to the wet and dry docks will be changed effective May 1, 2006. You will receive the new combination(s) to the gate(s) you use when you come to renew your Wet/Dry Stall Rental Permit. Please remember to keep the combinations confidential to help prevent thefts, vandalism and burglaries.

Failure to Renew Permit

Rental fees are due by April 29, 2006, to be effective May 1, 2006. If you do not renew your annual boat stall rental permit by April 29, 2006, the assumption will be that you no longer want to retain your wet slip and/or dry stall and the wet slip and/or dry stall will be made available to the public for rental beginning May 1, 2006. If you do not renew your annual boat storage permit, you must remove your boat/trailer by April 30, 2006, or your boat/trailer will be subject to impoundment.

Storing More Than One Boat in a Wet or Dry Stall

More than one boat may be stored in a dry stall at the same time as long as the boats, trailers and personal property are kept within the designated dry stall. In addition, proper notification and correct documentation for all boat/trailers must have been provided to the OCPD Lake Hefner patrol station.

The permittee may store more than one boat in a wet slip, BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME. The permittee must inform me of all the boats that he/she wants to store in his/her rented wet slip by providing me with all of the correct documentation. For instance, if the permittee owns six boats, he/she may store boat #2 in the wet slip one week and the next week remove boat #2 and replace boat #2 with boat #4. The permittee may not store boats #2 and 4 in his/her rented slip simultaneously.

If the wet slip and/or dry stall are occupied by another or different boat and/or boat trailer than that designated on the annual boat stall rental permit, the boat or boats and/or boat trailer may be moved at the permittee's expense and/or the annual boat stall rental permit revoked. Prior to storing a new or different boat and/or boat trailer in a wet slip and/or dry stall, the permittee must provide the OCPD Lake Hefner patrol station with the title to the boat and/or boat trailer.

Lake Levels

City ordinance 38-274(d) No guarantee or warrantee states, "As a condition of obtaining a dry stall or wet slip rental permit, the permittee acknowledges and agrees that neither the City of Oklahoma City nor the Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust guarantees or warrants lake levels for docking or conducting sailing or boating or any other activities on any City-operated reservoir. As a condition of obtaining a dry stall or wet slip rental permit, the permittee acknowledges and agrees that the City-operated reservoirs are first and foremost drinking water reservoirs and that any recreational use of the City-operated reservoir is subject to the City's interests in water quality and needs for potable water."

Electricity
A courtesy electrical service of 20 amps has been provided to each wet slip. The courtesy electrical service was designed to provide electricity for the intermittent operation of pumps, battery chargers, trouble lights and other occasional marine needs. The courtesy electrical service was not designed to provide continuous power for larger household appliances and generators. Please do not overburden the electrical service causing interruption of electricity to parking lot and pedestal lights and damaging the integrity of the system.  The City retained an electrician to correct these problems and labels were placed on the pedestals, which contain information on who to call in the event of electrical problems. Tampering with the components of the electrical system is a violation of the Municipal Code and may also constitute a violation of the National Electrical code, and shall be grounds for immediate revocation of all boat storage rental permits.

Transfer of Boat Stalls

If you sell your boat, the wet slip and/or dry stall do not necessarily transfer to the new boat owner, especially if the wet slip and/or dry stall are coveted spots. The wet slips and dry stalls are City-owned property, and, are, therefore, managed by the City of Oklahoma City. The renter cannot bequeath their wet slip and/or dry stall. If the wet slip and/or dry stall have a waiting list, the new boat owner will need to make other arrangements for the storage of their boat. If, however, the wet slip and/or dry stall are not on a waiting list, the new boat owner may retain the wet slip and/or dry stall. You need to make sure to inform the new potential boat owner of the above policy when you sell your boat.

Dry Stall Trailer Stickers

Since trailers are not registered in Oklahoma, I will give you two dry stall stickers to put on the tongue of your trailer, one on each side, for identification purposes when you come to renew your annual boat stall rental permit. Several trailers have been impounded in the last couple of years due to a lack of dry stall stickers on the tongue of the trailers and, therefore, I was unable to identify who the owner of the trailer was. Hence, putting the dry stall stickers on the tongue of your trailer is imperative and to your advantage.

LaTresa Wright, Police Service Technician
Harbor Master