Lake Lavon is for sale.  At least that’s the rumor spreading amongst some students in the area.  But the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which is in charge of the maintenance of the lake, is not selling a portion of the lake for funding. However, there is a new development regarding legal placement of the Corps’ funding that does impact the lake.

“We met with Our Lands and Waters Foundation to inform them that based on the legal review and determination they must immediately curtail expenditures of any funds generated by user fees,” Col. Charles Klinge said in a press release issued by the USACE.

In other words, an interpretation of the law now forces all fees collected from people using the lake and its parks to go straight to the Lands and Waters Conservation Fund of the U.S. Treasury. This means that the non-profit, Our Lands and Waters, can no longer collect and use the fees from the parks, so the USACE will now be maintaining the parks alone.

In the past, non-profit associations working with the USACE could collect the funds and then reinvest them to give the USACE funding to maintain the parks. Despite this new development, however, the USACE has no announced intention of selling Lavon Lake or the other affected lakes.

“We regret the circumstances that require us to discontinue our cooperative agreement with Our Lands and Waters Foundation and are working diligently to find alternative solutions to keep our recreational facilities open,” said Klinge in USACE press release 13-055.

While this will change the passage of funding, the plan according to the USACE is to run business as usual for the lake users. So, boaters and campers should still be able to find spots in the parks that weather has not yet closed.