Hooligan Island not sunk yet

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — A waterborne play area for kids, which drew the consternation of neighbors and city and state officials when it was anchored near Coeur d’Alene’s City Beach earlier this month, has left the lake.

City and state officials were sent an email by sheriff’s marine deputies informing them Hooligan Island, an aquatic fun center that floated despondently for more than a week under gray spring skies, was pulled from Lake Coeur d’Alene at Higgens Point boat launch and hauled away.

“They packed up and left,” Steve Greenwood, Coeur d’Alene Parks and Rec director, said. “They pulled it out at Higgens Point and loaded it up.”

Jim Brady of the Idaho Department of Lands, which regulates some lake activity, received the same email.

Because it is not stationary and may not encroach on the lake bottom or bank, the floating fun center — with its two trampolines, water slide, swinging rope and flotation devices — may not be within the state department of lands' jurisdiction.

“We haven’t resolved that yet,” Brady said.

The play center drew the ire of lakefront neighbors as it floated near City Beach in early May, within 1,000 feet of shore and within the city’s jurisdiction. City administrators told its owners they needed to comply with city rules if they wanted to run the play center as a business in town, but a meeting to resolve the differences between city officials and owners Rob Riley and Clint Kauer never transpired. Rather than cause a backlash, the Hooligan Island owners opted to pull the floating rig from the water.

“We pulled it off, and put it away,” Riley said.

The island will return, however, Riley said. Maybe next month.

“Probably by mid-June,” he said.

Riley said he received the blessing of U.S. Coast Guard officials who inspected Hooligan Island, and owners hope to meet again with the city to establish a game plan to have Hooligan Island operational.

The 7,500-pound island can hold more than 40,000 pounds, which amounts to a lot of kids, co-owner Kauer said.

Similar floating play centers have made a splash in waterways across the West Coast, and the two men, who own four of the islands, have set up their latest Hooligan Island in a lake near St. George, Utah.

Riley has his fingers crossed that Hooligan and the city can iron out an agreement.

“This is so new, they don’t have a process,” Riley said. “They don’t know how to work through it.”

His experience is the islands are a win-win. By paying an entity to operate in its jurisdiction, the play area draws families, which in turn use services.

“Once we get it set up, everybody and their brother wants to be on it,” Riley said. “We’ll be out there this summer. Exactly when, that’s still to be determined.”