Is the South Cove launch ramp finally ready?
If you read the article I wrote last week about the South Cove launch ramp situation on the opinion page, you know how critical I was  and still am  over the situation on the only launch ramp on the east end of Lake Mead. The revolt, as I call it, started when I started calling and texting to people far and wide, advising them of the pending closure of the ramp at South Cove that is vital to recreational boaters, anglers and the business community in Mohave County. Obviously, those calls were productive, because it didnt take the people at the Lake Mead National Recreational Area long to respond. The chief of staff at LMNRA is Greg Hauburger. Myself and a lot of other folks complained about the inaction and the failure to live up to a promise that LMNRA made during meetings in Meadview and Kingman in 2018. Residents and several elected officials were promised that an alternative launch ramp at South Cove would be built. We were told plans had been made and money set aside to keep the South Cove area open. Construction was to start in 2020. But the plan never came to fruition and now theres a crisis. Last Saturday evening, the largest team striper event of the year, the Stripe-R-Rama, was set to go. Without some corrective action on the existing ramp, that tournament, which had a permit from LMNRA, couldnt be held. After a meeting in Boulder City a crew of maintenance people were sent to South Cove. The pipe mat that had previously been put in place was moved. Some ramp grading was done. The ramp repairs, in some peoples opinion, caused the launch/recovery issue to still be as bad or worse as it had been before. Because of the angle that the pipe mat was moved to, some watercraft even sustained damage to the lower ends of their motors and even to propellers. Trucks  even 4x4s  were getting stuck in the loose soil in front of the pipe mat, and at times other 4x4s had to pull them off the ramp just to keep it open. Many boats had to be winched onto the trailers. In other words, it was still a mess. That resulted in more phone calls and texts to Hauburger and Sarah Creachbaum, the superintendent of LMNRA, from unhappy watercraft owners. More needed to be done and done quickly. Hauburger subsequently called me and said that on Monday, June 14, the ramp at South Cove would be closed from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. so the maintenance people from the LMNRA could repair the launch ramp. Next week, Ill have photos and will let you know what was done. Hopefully, this time they will get it right. Not only are there a lot of recreational boaters and anglers that want to continue to enjoy Lake Mead this summer, but the trickle down effect for Mohave County businesses which support outdoor recreation is tremendous. As Christie Vanover, the former public information officer of LMNRA said at a public meeting in Meadview in 2018: We know that Meadview depends on lake access.  However, it isnt just Meadview that lake access is important to. To the communities of Dolan Springs and Kingman, and to the many visitors that travel to South Cove, access is also important. And it is up to the LMNRA to keep it open.