Chairman Billy Barber and President and CEO Tom Waits of the Lake Seminole Association discussed the organization’s purpose during a Wednesday address to the Bainbridge Lions Club.

“We are concerned about the environmental and historical preservation of the lake,” Barber said in beginning his comments. “We also want to make sure that navigation, hydropower and energy needs are met.”

The organization is made up of members from the four counties that touch the lake—Decatur and Seminole in Georgia and Gadsden and Jackson in Florida, Barber said.

“We are also very concerned about promotion of tourism. It is said that when bass anglers come to compete in tournaments on the lake, they spend between $150 and $250 a day. It is also said that each dollar that is spent locally turns over seven times,” Barber said.

Barber also told the Lions that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the lake, has worked very well with the association.

“The U.S. Corps of Engineers, which operates the lake, has worked with us very well,” Barber said.

Waits agreed, pointing out in his remarks that the Corps of Engineers has bent over backwards to make things work.

“We are not mad with anybody,” Waits said. “We are just a concerned body of businesses and individuals who live or have interests on the lake. I live in Tallahassee, but I have a place on the lake, which I come to pretty often.”