Lake Yale Boat Ramp Permanently Closed

    A popular access to Lake Yale has been closed, and is expected to remain so. Lake County officials this week confirmed that the Lake Yale boat ramp lying at the end of Lake Yale Boat Ramp Road has been permanently closed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
   "FWC has closed the ramp and is reverting the property back to the landowner," said Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione. Campione said the FWC has operated the ramp via an easement with an adjacent property owner. That agreement has been in place for decades, but is now ending. Campione said the closure was an FWC decision.
   According to Lake County property records, both sides of the ramp area are owned by Lake Yale Lodge, LLC, and activity around the ramp had become intrusive.
   “The easement has no allowance for parking,” Campione said. “Folks were parking on private property.”
   On top of that, the ramp had been attracting inappropriate behavior during certain times.
   “There has been a lot of unwanted activity at the Lake Yale East ramp,” Campione said, “the property owners requested FWC to release the easement.”
   Additionally, the ramp had fallen into disrepair, according to the county.
   Going forward, public access to Lake Yale will remain open at Marsh Park, located off CR 452 north of Eustis, and at the end of Thomas Boat Landing Road, located at the northwest corner of the lake. Campione said both of those ramps have been improved.
   “The county has two other boat ramps on Lake Yale. We have made significant improvements at Lake Yale West and marsh Park to improve boating access to Lake Yale.”
   Requests on Monday for comment from the FWC remained unanswered at press time Tuesday evening.