Mr. Hays, Thank you for your email. I certainly hope you can find the funds necessary to do the right thing, which is to dredge the Great Salt Lake Marina. I also hope that you and your staff have impressed upon the powers that be that the State of Utah has a very large liability exposure relative to providing rescue resources on the Great Salt Lake. Even if the marina is closed, which it seems will be the likely outcome, there will still be many users on the lake. For example, swimmers, rowers, SUP users, swing keel sailboats, dinghy’s, duck hunters, brine shrimpers and the occasional airplane crash that will require rescue resources. Further the Great Salt Lake is in the flight path of commercial and military aircraft. Heaven forbid one of them might crash into the lake, but it is very possible and would require a massive response from the Great Salt Lake Marina (not the Utah Lake Marina). What will be your position when there is a fatality on the lake due to the fact that Utah was unable to provide rescue services because the rescue boat as well as other rescue resources were unable to leave the marina and access the lake. It will happen. I sincerely hope you and your staff have planned for the worst case scenario. It is much more than just sailing on the Great Salt Lake. Fred Austin From: Fred Hayes [mailto:fredhayes@utah.gov] Sent: Monday, March 02, 2015 1:09 PM To: GSLsailor@aol.com; gonzofun.dg@gmail.com; natasha.Hardman@zionsbancorp.com; fmaustin@comcast.net; tsowles@fierofp.com; lgoldner@sage-env.com; henry.boland@gmail.com; jakeut@comcast.net; Dennis Hartley Subject: Dredging Hello folks; Over the course of the past week or so, I have heard from each of you about the current situation regarding the dredging of the Great Salt Lake Marina. I wanted to provide you an update on our ongoing efforts. Please understand that we are sympathetic to your concerns and are trying to find resources to address the need. We have continued to work with legislators in an attempt to find additional money to facilitate the dredging of the GSL marina. Whether or not those efforts will bear fruit will play out over the course of the next 10 days as the 2015 Legislature winds to a close. I trust that each of you have visited with you own elected Representatives and Senators in a similar effort. I know that some of you have visited with Governor Gary Herbert's office, as have we, in an effort to gain their support for additional appropriations. I know from my own conversations with Governor Herbert's staff that the Governor is concerned about the situation. Unfortunately, the decision is out of his hands as the Legislature is the body that has the ultimate authority to establish the state's budget. In the event that language in the appropriations bill is not modified to identify funding to go to GSL, the much discussed $1.5M will be used as proscribed in the appropriations bill to dredge the Utah Lake Marina. However, I have our construction and maintenance coordinator, our financial manager, and our senior staff looking at every pot of money that we have access to in an effort to identify funding in our current appropriation that might be redirected to the GSL marina. I am hopeful that these folks will be able to find enough that we can at least do some dredging at GSL to help alleviate some of the low water problems there. With tight budgets, however, coming up with extra cash is a pretty tall order, and the likelihood of finding the full $1.2M is pretty slim. Please continue to work with your legislators. Impressive and amazing things can happen during the waning days of the session. Personal contacts generally work better than group emails. If you are uncertain as to who your elected Senators and Representatives are, you can find that information at www.le.utah.gov Fred -- Fred M. Hayes Director Utah Division of Parks and Recreation 1594 West North Temple Salt Lake City, Utah 84114 801-538-7336 (Office) 801-699-0811 (cell)