Toho’s homeowners continue to absorb noise from airboats
ST. CLOUD — When Joan Gennrich retired here from Wisconsin 12 years ago, she imagined enjoying quiet hours outside on her back porch with her newspaper and a lakefront view.
But that’s not exactly how it has turned out. Some days, the peace and quiet is interrupted by the window-rattling roar of airboats, which bring groups of tourists out on Lake Tohopekaliga for a close-up view of the alligators, birds and wildlife.
Gennrich and a few of her neighbors struggled to identify the nuisance boats and worked with Osceola Commissioner Cheryl Grieb to pass an ordinance requiring commercial airboaters to display a unique identification number on their vessels so they could be easily reported.
Now they can identify boats they believe are coming within about 50 yards of her home, and potentially breaking the county noise and wake ordinances, when they report violators to the sheriff’s office or code enforcement.
“If I was out here on the
phone, it would interrupt my phone conversations,” said Gennrich, 80. “This is a nice, peaceful, beautiful place to be, but that noise from the airboat is just intrusive.”
The law was passed unanimously in March and went into effect last month. But, she said, the noise in the neighborhood on the eastern shore of the lake and east of Florida’s Turnpike continues. Gennrich said she’d recently complained to code enforcement and wasn’t sure if her neighbors had done the same. She’s made cards to distribute with information on whom to call.
Sheriff’s spokesman Angel Sepulveda said the agency hadn’t received any complaints or issued citations yet.
“I’d like to see that somehow the airboat tour companies would stay away from populated areas,” said Gennrich, a retired physician. “There’s plenty of wilderness areas out here they can take their tours to.”
Her primary complaint is with Wild Willy’s Airboat Tours, which operates from a private marina about a half mile south of her home.
The company — which is rated 5 stars on Trip Advisor with nearly 5,000 reviews — runs 1-hour tours several times each day.
Often the boats turn south from the marina where there aren’t many homes, which creates just a murmur of noise for homeowners, but sometimes the tour boats come north and bring the thunderous noise past the neighborhood in search of alligator nests.
Another neighbor said the roaring motors have woken him up from naps and are much louder than airplanes that fly over the neighborhood on their descent to Orlando International Airport.
Wild Willy’s, which declined to comment for this story, now has the required ID numbers plastered in white on the wings of its boats.
Grieb said the ordinance wasn’t targeted at a specific business but was meant to hone in on boaters who violate the law.
“We’re trying to have that balance of people who live by the lake … and keep those two entities from banging heads together,” Grieb said. “We’re trying to make sure we allow those operators to operate but have them be less impactful to the people who live on and around the lake.”
Airboating is a booming business in Osceola County, and some tourists head straight to the docks from the airport to ride them, said Dave Johnson, president of the Osceola Airboat Association.
Osceola County spokesman Andrew Sullivan said the county has agreements with Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures and Marsh Landing Adventures to operate from its public boat ramps. But some other companies operate within the county from private ramps and marinas, Grieb said.
For about as long as the boats have glided Florida’s waterways, drivers have dealt with noise complaints, Johnson said.
“There’s always going to be somebody saying ‘I don’t like the noise,’ ” said Johnson, who’s been involved in the local airboating scene for decades.
In a March county commission meeting, Jane Karlsten, who also lives on Lake Toho, urged officials to approve the law calling it a “low cost, high benefit” move, adding that it would help the county and other observers correctly identify which boats can operate on the lakes.
And ever since the ordinance went into effect, Gennrich has kept a pair of binoculars within arm’s reach in hopes of documenting a loud airboat that cruises by.
“If they go south, I think it’s a better tour. I’ve been on that tour — it’s a nice, interesting tour,” Gennrich said. “I’d like them to stop going past here.”
“We’re trying to make sure we allow those operators to operate but have them be less impactful to the people who live on and around the lake.” Osceola County Commissioner Cheryl Grieb