ATVs plunge into Eagle Lake; drivers escape without injury
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
Kansasville Fire Chief Scott Remer has a simple message for visitors to area lakes right now.
Stay off the ice. It’s not safe.
The latest example of unsafe ice came Sunday evening, as two ATV riders went through the ice into Eagle Lake. Both riders got safely out of the water, but the two ATVs sunk to the bottom of the lake and had to be retrieved with special equipment Monday.
“I think there were some people who didn’t make some wise decisions,” said Remer. “The lake is not safe.
“People should be staying off the ice,” he added.
Other incidents this winter include more than a dozen cars parked on the ice going into Lake Geneva, and two snowmobilers landing in open water on that lake as well. One of the two snowmobilers died as a result.
In the Eagle Lake incident, one of the two drivers went into the lake off Church Road, while the other was about 500 feet from the Minnetonka boat lunch on the western edge of the lake.
The areas were initially coned off, and a retrieval company got the ATVs out Monday.
“We had 48-plus hours where we had temperatures above freezing,” Remer said. “That’s not making ice.”
The ATVs weren’t the only thing to break through over the weekend. An ice shanty ended up in the water on Saturday, and others went through the ice on Wind Lake.
Remer said the lake had anywhere from open water to seven inches of ice. However, the ice depth varies widely and isn’t reliable or clear.
Conditions are similar on Echo Lake in Burlington, where the Kiwanis fundraiser car remains on the ice – but that car is not at full weight.
With highs for the week expected to be at or above freezing – and on Saturday, a high of 50 degrees being predicted – the danger level is high.
“What we have out there is not clear, thick ice,” Remer said. “It’s deteriorating.
“We ask that people stay off the ice,” he added.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Warden Mike Hirschboeck said Tuesday that anyone going near ice right now should check with the locals, and that shoreline ice is starting to break up.
He related ice safety to hunting on private versus public property.
“Ice is the same thing to me,” Hirschboeck said. “If you don’t know, don’t go.”
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