Lake Lanier group removes abandoned houseboat

The Lake Lanier Association has removed another nuisance houseboat from the lake in the fourth such project this year. The group used part of a $25,000 fund provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to clamp onto the boat and pull the partially-exposed vessel from the Flat Creek area near the Forsyth County-Hall County line Tuesday. Hall County authorities matched the funds.

Association Director Joanna Cloud says the boat was one of a number of abandoned steel-hulled houseboats that they’ve removed. She said the older-model boats are subject to corrosion and eventual sinking if not maintained regularly. Cloud said a similarly decrepit boat was pulled from the Bald Ridge Channel of the lake in Forsyth County itself a couple of months ago.

Cloud said the latest operation cost about $10,000 and exhausts the money state officials set aside for the project in FY 2017.