Lake Notasulga,
nicknamed “Lake Nasty” by residents of nearby Haralson Estates, is on the cusp of being cleaned up.
Orlando wants “Lake Nasty” to be nicer.
Formally called Lake Notasulga, the 1-acre body of water off Arlington Street near John Young Parkway is ripe with overgrowth and vegetation. It was nicknamed by some residents of the Haralson Estates neighborhood several years ago, as plants, trees and muck took refuge in the water, with garbage floating in it.
On Monday, the City Council is expected to award a bid to Central Florida Lake Management to clean out the aquatic vegetation and trees from the lake, in hopes of restoring it. The Clermont company’s $194,000 bid was $154,000 cheaper than the next closest.
“Our function is to return it back to a wet pond and rehabilitate the drainage system within the neighborhood,” said Richard Lee, Orlando’s stormwater assistant division manager. “The water is capturing all of the runoff from the surrounding area.”
This is the first step to cleaning up the lake, with the Orlando Union Rescue Mission in line to take over maintenance once it moves its men’s shelter to the nearby Parkwood Inn later this year. The city anticipates the plant and tree removal to be completed by January 2019, spokeswoman Jessica Garcia said.
Orlando also has plans to upgrade sidewalks and drainage in Haralson Estates.
The 1-acre lake hardly looks like a body of water from the working-class residential street.
A blue sign posted near the lake promises “Lake Notasulga Restoration coming soon,” but some longtime residents said they don’t recall seeing what’s behind the dense wall of weeds.
Ryland Thompson has lived on Arlington Street since 1993 and doesn’t recall ever seeing the lake.
“I don’t know much about that place,” he said as he sliced into a mango in his front yard.
He added that there were rumors of work being done down
“Our function is to return it back to a wet pond and rehabilitate the drainage system within the neighborhood. The water is capturing all of the runoff from the surrounding area.” Richard Lee, Orlando’s stormwater assistant division manager
there, but “nothing had been done yet.”
On a recent day, caution tape was strung between trees in an opening toward the lake. Embedded in the muck were some bottles and cans.
The manmade lake was a pit first made in the 1950s as workers extracted dirt for a construction project on Colonial Drive. In 1962, owner Robert Duncan granted Orange County an easement to use it for stormwater drainage.
It was named Lake Notasulga at some point, reportedly after the Alabama town where famed author Zora Neale Hurston was born.
Last year, the city acquired the lake from the West Colonial Inn and reached a maintenance agreement with the Rescue Mission, which works to bring homeless people to permanent independence.
Fred Clayton, Orlando Union Rescue Mission CEO, said it has finished work on its new chapel, kitchen and dormitory there, and is renovating rooms for long-term guests. Clayton said they expect work to be done on the 210-bed men’s shelter in September in hopes of being ready to move in by October.
Lake maintenance will be included in the service assignments the men are required to complete to stay at the mission.
That could erase the “Lake Nasty” tag from memory.
“We will include helping maintain the Lake Notasulga park as one of those assignments, which will enhance Haralson Estate[s],” Clayton said in an email. “We also will plan and conduct neighborhood work projects with neighbors in that community, as we have in Parramore and West Lakes.”