e-mail to New Mexico State Parks re marina

The New Mexico Sailing Club hopes to replace the drought-damaged "A dock" portion of our marina at Heron Lake State Park this coming spring with a new dock. (It will have the same number of slips but will have several improvements and be designed to resist damage from possible future groundings.)

We think this is good news not only for the sailing club, but for Heron Lake State Park and all the boaters who use the lake, which in its cool mountain setting is one of New Mexico's pristine treasures.

As most of you know, the recent drought caused many economic and personal hardships in the Chama Valley. The A Dock replacement and other possible improvements, which will require a large financial investment and sacrifice of time and effort by the club and its members, will be our contribution to re-building facilities and services and bringing visitors back to the area.

Naturally, we want to work with the State Parks to coordinate our plans and to get word out when the improved facility becomes available. To that end, we plan to visit and consult with Anthony Marquez at Heron Lake State Park about the new marina and other ideas for supporting park users and the park. We also expect to resume a full and active schedule of activities at the marina in the coming summer. We look forward to working with the park, the Friends of Heron and El Vado Lakes, and other local groups to support park projects, promote water safety, and publicize the park as a destination.

Please contact me with any questions, comments, requests, or suggestions.

Pat Byrnes
New Mexico Sailing Club officers and board of directors for 2006

Commodore, Pat Byrnes, HC 75 Box 1006, Rutheron, NM 87551-9700, rgsc@zianet.com, http://desertsea.blogspot.com

Vice Commodore, Richard Koch,
Secretary, Eddie Dry,
Treasurer, Roger Vinyard,
Past Commodore, Lisa Carlson,

Directors at Large
Meg Meltz,
Rich Strasia,
Giles Pennington,
Ken Mitchell,
Dan Hoyer,
Tom Riggs,
Bob Hopper

NMSC Club mailing address:
New Mexico Sailing Club,
PO Box 1795,
Bernalillo, NM 87004

NMSC Website: http://www.nmsail.org