DNR Adds Life Jacket Lending Station on Hartwell

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

Next time you go boating on Lake Hartwell and find yourself short a life jacket or two, no worries.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division has installed a life jacket lending station at the Tugaloo Mega Ramp in Tugaloo State Park in Lavonia.

On Friday DNR officers, along with rangers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others gathered at the mega ramp for a ribbon cutting to unveil the lending station.

DNR Law Enforcement Colonel Greg Weaver said life jackets are a big part of staying safe when on Georgia waterways.

“Everyone needs to wear a life jacket when out on the water,” Weaver said. “We’re pretty progressive in this State. Our law matches the federal law. Any child under the age of 13 must wear their life jacket on a moving vessel.”

The life jackets will hang on a wooden kiosk near the mega ramp boat dock and are free to borrow and then return at the end of the day.

DNR Law Enforcement officer Craig Fulghum said the lending station is based on the honor system.

“They could walk off and we’ll have to replenish these life jackets as we see fit,” he said. “It’s the honor system. We hope the public understands that we’re trying to keep people safe and if they keep the life jacket then someone else can’t wear it tomorrow.”

The life jacket kiosk was built in memory of Brian and Nathan Keese, a father and son who drowned while fishing on a lake in Missouri in 2010.

Fulghum says since then, Brian’s Dad, Craig Keese, who lives on Lake Hartwell, has been working to make sure no one else loses a loved one because they were not wearing a life jacket.

Keese has put life jacket loaner stations on lakes and waterways across the country, but the one at Tugaloo State Park’s mega ramp is the first one on Lake Hartwell at a State Park, and Fulghum said they hope there will be many more.

“We’ve already had one drowning on Lake Hartwell this year and it could have been prevented if the victim had been wearing a life jacket,” Fulghum said. “We hope to make this a movement to create more awareness. A life jacket is just what it sounds like, it saves lives.”

Keese said since Lake Hartwell was formed, some 350 people have died on the lake.

“350 deaths, 70% were drowning deaths,” Keese said. “I don’t know what to say except they could have been prevented.”

Much of the money to purchase the life jackets Fulghum said was donated by the Home Depot of Hartwell.

Fulghum said they hope to put one more life jacket lending station on Lake Hartwell and to one day have them on every major waterway in the State.