With the ongoing drought drying up the county's recreational revenue, Lake San Antonio will close to the public July 1.
The County Board of Supervisors voted to shutter the South County reservoir for the 2015-16 fiscal year because the lake, at less than 40-percent capacity, isn't drawing the campers, fishermen, wake-boarders and other recreationalists needed for a sustainable revenue stream.
The county has been subsidizing the two South County lakes as revenue has fallen in recent years. Lake San Antonio reportedly saw about 97,000 visitors last year, compared with about 269,000 in 2012.
Mark Mariscal, new director of the Monterey County Parks and Recreation Department, says county officials had to shift $2.5 million from the general fund into the county parks budget last year because they didn't lay off the 14 employees they had pink-slipped—and the rain they hoped would bring more revenue never came.
"I cannot be a good government administrator and continue to say we're going to have 11 percent of all those campsites rented in the high season, and think that's going to be enough money that we're not going to be bleeding public tax dollars," he says.
The closure, he adds, will save the county $65,000-$100,000 per month.
Lake Nacimiento, next to Lake San Antonio, will stay open. Mariscal says that reservoir has shrunk from about 18 miles of water surface to about 13, but it's still big enough to take a half-hour to motor across.
County Parks staff are calling all the campers with reservations at Lake San Antonio this summer and referring them to Nacimiento, he adds.
"People think the lake [Nacimiento] is closed," he says. "It's totally not."
Mariscal says he plans to ask the Board of Supervisors to retain a couple of staffers at Lake San Antonio to do baseline maintenance, so if the rain returns this winter it'll be easier to re-open the reservoir next summer.
He also hopes the closure won't scare out two large events that happen at Lake San Antonio: the Wildflower Triathlon and the Lightning in a Bottle (LIB) electronic dance music festival.
LIB drew nearly 20,000 people this year, he says, grossing the county about $175,000.
"A major reason [LIB] has been successful is because of the drought," Mariscal says. "It's allowed them to camp and put some of the stages where the water would be."