THEY SAVED TAILRACE FISHING

The Eyes And Ears of the TVA

EDITOR'S NOTE: Johnny Burch, of Florence, Alabama, owns a wholesale fishing-tackle distribution company and helped to implement the Lake Watch Program on TVA lakes.

QUESTION: What are your hopes for the Lake Watch Program?
BURCH: Lake Watch is a long-range plan. The program will not hit full force overnight. We'll have to try and keep it on a roll and build it over time.

QUESTION: In other words, you want to beef-up the Lake Watch Program and try to get more people involved and have more eyes and ears watching, right?
BURCH: Yes. People really need to get involved.

QUESTION: One of the unique things about Lake Watch is that TVA is actually paying for it aren't they?
BURCH: Correct. TVA is furnishing funds for this program. TVA's on a limited budget like everybody else, but TVA is dipping in a little and pulling out funds to keep it going. We've printed brochures. We've also put Community Lake Watch signs on all the major boat ramps in the area that we work.

QUESTION: How does someone join Lake Watch?
BURCH: We are putting up brochures and sign-up sheets in the local bait and tackle stores, and before long, people can sign up on TVA's website, which is still under construction

QUESTION: When you join, what do you get, and what responsibilities do you have?
BURCH: You'll get the brochures and pamphlets and a boat sticker with a 1-800 number to put on your boat so that the number always will be available. We just ask that you keep your eyes and ears open and watch for anything suspicious.

QUESTION: Do volunteers have to go to any meetings?
BURCH: No, but we have scheduled quarterly public meetings that they can attend.

QUESTION: Are you sending out a bulletin or any information to the volunteers?
CARTER: No, but we have had requests from volunteers to make up a pamphlet that publishes the volunteers' names and addresses. At the bottom of the pamphlet, we'll print the volunteers' interests and their hopes for Lake Watch. We already do provide them with brochures that have all the information about Lake Watch and how to contact our office and the TVA Police.

QUESTION: The TVA covers what dams and what water system?
CARTER: The TVA covers the Tennessee River system starting in Virginia at Bristow and it goes through Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and back up to Kentucky - 49 dams.

QUESTION: Where do you have Lake Watch Programs?
CARTER: Well the one at Fort Patrick Henry in Tennessee is still working. We have this one in the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, area which runs from the Elk River through Pickwick Lake. And, a program has started at Guntersville Dam in Guntersville, Alabama.

To learn more about the Lake Watch Program, call 800-839-0003, or write TVA Police, P.O. Box 1010, SB 1K-M, Muscle Shoals, AL 35662.