If your family enjoys the outdoors and being on and around the water, you are going to love this new event hosted by Meadow Park Lake.

The first annual Meadow Park Lake Waterfest & Family Fun Day will be held on Saturday, July 7th, from noon until 4 p.m. Organizers are busy putting together the details. More information will be available later, but for now, here is a line-up of some of the activities.

“There will be activities for every age,” Marlene Potter, Meadlow Park Manager said. “We are planning several different kinds of boat races utilizing canoes, small boats and kayaks. We are busy getting the boats now. The boat races will be team events, and we are hoping to pair up fathers and mothers with sons or daughters.”

There will be ample food and soft drinks available as Clark Annis will provide the pulled pork and hot dogs, cooked on his rolling smoker.  There will also be displays and booths for native species and animals found in this region of lakes and creeks. “Ramble” The Racoon, the Cumberland Mountain State Park mascot, might put in an appearance at the Waterfest.

The event is sponsored in part by the Obed Watershed Conservation Association. They are giving people a formal introduction to the City-owned Meadow Park Lake, which covers about 300 acres, and will become larger as work now under way will make the dam taller, causing the lake to expand. There is an abundance of wildlife living in and around the lake. “We have Beavers, Water Otters and even a Bald Eagle living around Meadow Park,” Mrs. Potter added. “The beavers can be quite destructive on our trees, but we feel like they are under control. We also have a big population of water otters,” she said. “They make a mess around the shore and eat a lot of our fish, but people like to watch them.”

Everyone who goes out in a canoe or boat, must wear a life preserver, which will be furnished. Also, boaters must sign a waiver before they can get into a boat. A $5 insurance premium will be charged for each boater, but this fee will be covered by the organizers, not the boaters themselves. This short-term policy relieves the city of any liability in the case of an accident. There will be sponsors who help pay this fee as well.

So make plans today to bring your whole family out to the Waterfest and Family Fun Day at Meadow Park Lake (City Lake) just off south Lantana Road. That date again is Sat. July 7th beginning at 12 noon. For more information, call volunteer June Zettelmeyer at 788-5022.