Macon-Bibb Commissioners address Lake Tobesofkee safety following recent drownings

Macon-Bibb County Commissioners addressed safety at Lake Tobesofkee Tuesday following two recent drownings.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Lake Tobesofkee is a place many Maconites go to have a good time during the summer months.

Unfortunately, it’s also where drownings occur. Two happened at the lake within the last month.

Macon-Bibb County Commissioners addressed the issue during its Committee of the Whole on Tuesday.

“Our director of Tobesofkee asked us to draft up something and give him more authority and control of things there,” Mayor Lester Miller said. “In this situation here, it’s unsupervised minors.”

Assistant County Attorney Sara Davis explained that the director’s request is why the mayor sponsored a plan to give the director power to enact new rules at the lake and its parks.

“He asked for more authority to issue rules related specifically to safety,” Davis explained. “Not to fees being charged or anything like that, just the safety of visitors at the site.”

Currently, the lake’s director can not create new rules related to safety. He also can’t decide on penalties for violations or enforce rules related to unsupervised minors at the Tobesofkee recreation areas.

Several commissioners took issue with the idea of the director creating new rules without having checks and balances in place. Commissioner Elaine Lucas suggested revisiting the rules that were already in place.

“I just don’t feel comfortable saying to a department head that you can put in place any rules and regulations that you want,” Commissioner Lucas said.

Commissioners decided to strike the part of the ordinance that gave the director the authority to create rules on the spot. They approved two other parts of the ordinance, which allows the director to decide on penalties for violations and enforce rules related to unsupervised minors. Mayor Miller says inaction is not an option. He says the ordinance was already on the books and ready for a vote after the first summer drowning several weeks ago.

“It’s certainly something we’re going to revisit in the near future,” he said. “But I think we do ourselves a disservice by getting technical on a lot of these issues instead of trusting in the process and giving them the tools they need for a few weeks.”

Commissioners plan to revisit the ordinance in August. Commissioners will vote on the approved part of the ordinance next Tuesday July 19, during the county commission meeting.