ozvena

Unger Park Lake is close to me. I own Supervee electric which I take to local lakes. I would be great to meet you! Have you made any progress finding a lake?

rageman

OZVENA, sorry, I have been on a hiatis and have not been working on the Unger Lake option for a while. I saw today a suggestion on a similar thread herein that we clear Ugger Lake shore line ourselves. I would not mind doing the work but this is a StLouis County property and I am sure it would be illegal in some fashion to do so.

I suggest that anyone interested start individually calling the StLouis County Parks Maintenance guy that I identified previously in this thread. The more voices he hears from on this the more likely he will respond with action and clear an area.

rageman

A call from you or any others focusing on the needed improvements to Unger Lake for RC boat use would help I am sure:

KENT THEILING, PARKS OPERATIONS OFFICE SUPERVISOR (MAINTENANCE)
[email protected]
314-615-8230

ozvena

I need to drive there first to see what the issue is. I am assuming there is a problem with access...

From the image here it seems there is access:

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en...00788&t=h&z=18

Here even pictures from different sources do show some usable access:

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=38.55....6&r=0&src=msl

rageman

The road access is fine. There is even a parking lot near the lake. It is the shore line and water near the shore that seems to me is the problem in that it is over grown with small to medium trees and brush. This would seem to make it quite difficult to retreive a disabled RC boat with a fishing rod and line, etc. unless it is directly in front of you. The path to the lake from the parking lot also is heavily wooded and could stand some clearing as well. I am interested in your more expert/experienced opinion once you see the lake. Maybe I am being too critical.

ozvena

I am not the expert but I wouldn't take my boat on such large lake with no backup boat to push it back to me. So far I have been lucky on small lakes with a fishing line. I do have a backup boat which I do not like to take with me.

Now seeing the issues with gas/nitro boats I am glad I got electric. I do not cause much noise and there are plenty of small lakes that I can do 30-40MPH with it. Now I see why it is so dead in St. Louis area. Sure there is that lake in IL but that is about 30-40 minutes drive for me.

rageman

You are not wrong. Untill KENT THEILING, PARKS OPERATIONS OFFICE SUPERVISOR (MAINTENANCE) [email protected]
314-615-8230 hears enough voices often enough requesting that he put Unger Park into a usable condition for RC boating it will not happen.

ozvena

The problem with boating in St. Louis area is that there is no internet presence of such activity. It takes quite some skills to find some info and this thread. If there is a presence you get people buying boats and wanted them using it. Now I doubt any boats sell in St. Louis area. With new people you can put some pressure on KENT THEILING.

A great place to start would be http://groups.google.com. We can have a new presence on internet and people using Google for example would find us with ease.

What about http://groups.google.com/group/StLouisRCBoats or even http://groups.google.com/group/MissouriRCBoats ?

rageman

I talked to Kent Theiling again today about Unger Lake. He remembered our previous conversations about improvements to Unger Lake that would be needed to make it usable for RC boating. He asked what would be needed and if there were any other places RC boats can be run. I advised that there are none in the StLouis County area that are legal other than Unger Lake. Rivers are legal but have the problem of the current carryiing away a disabled boat. I noted that the StLouis Thunder Boaters RC boaters club uses a park in Illinois. I described what was needed is a cleared shoreline on one side the length of the lake to allow retreval of disabled boats by fishing line and reel and an access path to this cleared shoreline, optimally from the existing parking lot. Kent indicated that would likely be best accomplished with a Bobcat bulldozer.

Unger Lake has been under water on and off much of the spring. Kent advised that is normal for this lake do to its close proximity to the Meramec river. Unger Lake began life as a pit created by sand harvesting. They have completed repair to the access road which was washed out this spring and removal of a large amount of silt deposited during the flooding. Now they are waiting for it to dry out so that they can get equipment in to mow.

Kent indicated he is willing to consider doing the improvements within his available resources. There has also been a request to adapt the park area for frizbe golf. Kent noted that the frizbe golf people were asked and would not mind the presence of RC boat activity on Unger Lake. So Unger Lake may still become a usable RC boat lake at soem point in time. TBC.

ozvena

Good job Rageman!

ozvena

I though that some of the readers would enjoy: http://groups.google.com/group/StLouisRcBoats/

rageman

I checked out Unger Lake last night. The park is open and the normaly mowed grass areas have been recently cut. The long period of being inundated by high water levels from the Meramec river has apparently been an advantage in that all the normal shoreline ground brush/weeds/grasses have been drowned and are non existant along the shore line. Unfortunately all trees of various sizes and tall brush remain in abundance along much of the shoreline. The grassy field on the one end of the lake that you see first as you drive in (not mowed) looks very accessable with only a number of partially submerged bushes just off shore to impead RC Boating. This area has immediate possibilities. A gas powered weed wacker could prove useful here. TBC

LouDog

Sent an email to Kent for ya

rageman

Thanks.

rageman

I called Kent Theiling again last week to learn that he has retired. I talked to his boss. She was not aware of the Unger Lake issue and said that it would be discussed with the Director of Parks and someone would get back to me. I received a call this week advising that they would have the site administrator for Unger Park inspect the lake and make a specific recommendation for action. They said that do to Unger lake having been summerged by the flooding this spring that additional drying out of the area would be necessary before heavy equipment (brush hog, etc.) could be brought in to clear any of the shoreline. They said that they would only be clearing a portion of the shoreline. I again described why cleared shore line is necessary, retreval of disabled RC boats by fishing rod, and that clearing 1/2 of the shoreline would be optimal but any would be appreciated. They requested that we be patient.

TCHedOff

I feel for you ragemen.... just an FYI on the guy Ron referred you to.... when members sign up on forums, the box for recieving emails from moderators is checked by default, but getting emails from members is not.... so I'm guessing he never got your emails. Sending PM's is a better choice.

rageman

Thanks, I appreciate the FYI>

rageman

OK, everyone in the Saint Louis Metro area wake up. I need input form those of you that are knowledgable about the needs for lake access to run a RC Nitro boat. I will be meeting with the Saint Louis Parks department at Unger Park lake Monday next week to discuss what needs to be done to make this lake suitable for running RC Nitro boats. Tenatively (Eastern two thirds of) the southern shoreline of the lake is believed to be the most suitable since it is a gently sloping grassy field now that you can see on the following ariel maps:

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en...00788&t=h&z=18

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=38.55....6&r=0&src=msl

The current brush that is in/at the water line would be removed and the grass would be kept mowed shorter than now along this section of the lake as the lake water level raises or falls. Most of the rest of the lake's shoreline is steeper and close to sgnificant numbers of trees and bigger brush which at higher lake water levels would make RC Boat operation problematic unless removed ( a significant project for the Stl County Parks Department ). Since the existing parking lots are a considerable distance from this particular shoreline they are considering allowing RC boaters to either park along the side of the road near this shoreline and/or drive down to this shoreline (condition of the soil permitting) to off load equipment. This is based on the current assumption that there would not be a huge number of people running boats at any given time.

Now let it be known that I am a newbe and have yet to run my first RC Nitro Boat. So I am soliciting comment/suggestions from knowledgeable Nitro RC boats as to what else needs to be done/considered to make Unger Park Lake a usable RC Nitro boating location so I may communicate this information to the parks department next week.

rageman

I met with the StL County Park Supervisors responsible for the Unger Park facility. They clearly want to make Unger Park Lake suitable for RC Boat running. Based upon input from a number of RC Universe menbers as to what is needed in that regard (thank you all very much for the guidance) the following was agreed upon.

The brush along the Eastern two thirds of the southern shoreline of the lake along the gently sloping grassy field will be removed. The grass in this area will be kept cut low as well as a path from the road to this shoreline at the shortest distance between the two. A special parking area will be added along side of the road at this point sufficient for a few vehicles to start with and posted with "Parking For RC Boaters Only" signage. See the following ariel maps for reference:

http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en...00788&t=h&z=18

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=38.55....6&r=0&src=msl

These improvements will be accomplished over the winter and are to be completed by spring 2009. This timing is do to the fact that the brush to be removed is still partially submerged by the lake's continuing high water level making removal more difficult and the fact that current demand for the improvements is limited to...........me..........and my boat will not be ready to run until spring at the earliest.

The Parks Department appears ready to provide the facilities appropriate for the demand. Right now it would appear that demand will be a few locals wanting to play with their boats so the proposed improvements are scaled to that demand. Should demand increase significantly the Parks Department indicated that they would respond and make the improvements to the grounds needed to support that as well. A clear example of this is nearby Buder Park which has a first class airfield facility for model airplanes and which gets a lot of use/demand daily.

Comments, suggestions, etc. please advise.

TBC

ozvena

This is a great news!

I know of few local people with boats too and I point them to this forum. There are quite few boat communities in the area and this effort should be promoted within the groups and local hobby shops. I have already approached few of them and formed a new community of RC boaters to promote RC boats in St. Louis and Missouri.

This effort will increase an interest in RC boating and will be beneficial for local economy on the long run.

TCHedOff

Congratulations Rageman!!

THEguzzler

Congratulations. Just goes to show what people can do if you just speak up. [&:]

FastBoater

My Feedback: (3)

Hi, I have been on and off with the st.louis thunderboaters since 1978,I am glad to read this great news, Great job Rageman!! I would love to help, if we could get a good race layout in there we will have more boaters back in st.louis, not in east st. louis. I was the president of the st.louis thunderboaters in 1993, I had a 3.5 stock tunnel hull points series race for 2 years, it was a blast. I will give credit to Bill Zuber for helping me. We had 20+ tunnel for 2 years, if we could get something like that going again it will make the club grow and have some IMPBA RACING, if possible. Let me know what you think about that.FB

rageman

Hey Fastboater, good to hear from a local "pro". Your help would be greatly appreciated. Up front I should say that my primary interest is to get the only public St Louis lake where it is legal to run a nitro boat into a usable condition. I am not realy interested in taking on the job of starting up a club. I am a true beginner with my Thundercat 31 RTR still in the box awaiting assembly completion. I would be glad to help set up a bouyed course though. A generic course with bouy location in approximate locations rather than precisly located per the rule book requiring a formal survey by transit would be fine with me. Especially since Unger Lake is subject to yearly flooding by the Meramec River that will likely require resetting bouys yearly. I am looking for play time. If someone else would want to start a club out of Unger Lake that would be fine and I would be glad to help with the facilities improvements on Unger Lake for that end.

bassfish

MISSISSPPI RIVER ? [sm=spinnyeyes.gif] >>>-> Bassfish