Boat launch access now available to Wickham Lake

Only electric-powered motors, row boats, kayaks, canoes and sailboats will be permitted Warwick - Town Clerk Meg Quackenbush announced the opening of a passive boat launch to access Wickham Lake for residents and non-residents. The gated launch area is located on Simpson Lane (off Airport Road). This action by the town will restore a long tradition of allowing public access to Perry’s Pond, as it was known going back to Revolutionary War days, for public fishing. In the late 1800s, a group of private citizens acquired a lease from one of the landowners who owned the largest portion of the land abutting the lake, which lease purported to give this private anglers club exclusive rights to catch fish from the waters of the pond which they rechristened Clark’s Pond using the name of one of those large landowners. Charged with fishing on Sunday Things came to boiling point when the angler’s club attempted to bar local residents from the lake. Local residents rebelled and had the president of the exclusive angler’s club, a Mr. B.J. Moses of New York City, arrested on charges of fishing on Sunday. Moses was arraigned in local court before Justice Wisner, was found guilty and paid a fine, but threatened to appeal to a higher court. It isn’t clear whether that appeal was ever perfected. In the 1930s the Wickham Lake Development Company, Inc. purchased a substantial portion of lake front property, and, it is reported the lake itself, for development for the benefit of the people of Warwick for swimming, fishing and other sports. Around that time the company leased to the Town of Warwick certain portions of its land for the purpose of developing an airport. That lease is still in effect - the Warwick Airport. Lack of adequate roads for access prevented further development of the property until a subsequent owner Wickham Lake Homes Corp. began to develop the between Kings Highway and Wickham Lake in the 1990s. As part of that development’s approvals, the Town was deeded ownership of a substantial portion of frontage on the lake as well as the lake itself. The Town has plans to further develop its holdings as a lake front public park as soon as economic times permit. In the meantime, in the late 1950s and early 1960s land on the westerly side of Kings Highway was approved for development as “Wickham Village.” In order to accommodate the needs for sewage disposal from so many homes, so close together on small lots a sewer treatment plant was constructed. This plant emptied into Wickham Lake and over time polluted the lake so that it became unfit for fishing and swimming. Coming full circle The town took a giant step forward in the 1990s abandoning this primitive sewer treatment plant and constructing a new one on the far side of the lake so that sewage bypassed the lake. Over time, the lake has been regenerated so that fishing is now safe once again. And so we come full circle, to the point made in the first paragraph of this article: Public fishing is now possible once again on Warwick’s beautiful Wickham Lake. Editor’s note: Many of the historical facts contained in this article were developed with the assistance of Sue Gardner, local history librarian and archivist for the Historical Society, and Town Historian Dr. Richard Hull. Visit the Warwick Valley History Web site at: www.albertwisnerlibrary.org, click on “Warwick History” for more information. To get a permit Warwick residents and non-residents wishing to use the boat launch may come to the Town Clerk’s Office, 132 Kings Highway, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to obtain a season permit. The permit holder will be issued a non-reproducible key to the gate and two stickers which are to be placed on the permit holder’s boat and vehicle. The cost for permit and one key is $6 for residents and $10 for non-residents. Extra vehicle stickers are available at a cost of $1 each. Proof of residency as well as the make, model and license plate number of the permit holder’s vehicle(s) are required.