Sunny Weekend Was Great For Business

Monday, September 3rd 2007, 12:37 pm

By: News On 6

Businesses at many of Oklahomaâ€™s lakes celebrated the Labor Day weekend, thanks in part to the great weather. Lake business owners say for the past couple of months, they have had a rough and rainy summer. But as News On 6 reporter Steve Berg reports that unlike the July 4th holiday, the sun came to the rescue this holiday weekend.

You don't think of water hurting the lake business, but that was before the rains of 2007.

"July 4th was a bust. Water was still high," says Ann Davis with Paradise Cove Marina.

Davis operates Paradise Cove Marina on Fort Gibson Lake and she says in the 16 years she has been there, this summer ranks near the bottom in attendance.

"If there were normally, typically 500 boats out for July 4th, there were maybe 70 boats out. So we had a really, really bad weekend," says Ann Davis.

The water was so high at Fort Gibson Lake that many boaters had to launch their watercraft from nearby access roads.

"The lake level just was so high, the ramps were closed even. We couldn't get to the ramps due to the lake level," says boater Bobby Fugate.

But now that the water's dropped, boaters like Bobby Fugate have turned out in droves. Business owners say they are gaining back some lost financial ground.

"The campers are out, the boaters are out. People I haven't seen all summer are here," says Ann Davis.

"This is the first time we've had it in this summer up here at this lake," says Bobby Fugate. "Just gonna finish the season out and come down here and enjoy what time we have left."

The Fort Gibson Lake was just two feet above normal this holiday weekend. The week after the 4th of July holiday, it was 28 feet above normal.

Watch the video: A Shot In The Arm