Page 52 - Discover Fall 2020
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What’s Up Doc?
By Tim Ernandes
Rick Pressl will tell you: he’s just an here to tell you what you are going to do’.”
ordinary guy. Like so many of us, he was drawn
to Smith Mountain Lake to enjoy the good life. Pressl is an affable gentleman who
Like some, he hit a few bumps in the road… greets people with a warm smile and a firm
and like only a few, his dream turned into a handshake. He seems unlikely to be the type of
nightmare. On the morning of December 3rd, person who would create a public nuisance, yet
2018, he looked out his window to see a barge he found himself being treated as such.
with several workers and a large backhoe The story begins with a couple who built
approaching his unfinished dock. In spite of their dream home on a waterfront lot at Smith
his protests, the crew set to work destroying Mountain Lake. They applied for, and received,
his yet unfinished dock and hauled it away, a permit to build a dock on their lot, at about
while Pressl argued with representatives from the time that AEP instituted its controversial
AEP accompanied by a Sheriff’s deputy. Shoreline Management Program. This SMP
“AEP showed up with two armed guards required that in addition to securing county
and one Sheriff Deputy with what they building permits, homeowners on the lake
claimed was a Court Order to rip down my would also be required to get a dock permit
dock. In reality, it was only an email from an from AEP.
AEPofficial, telling her employees to remove As was the case with most lakefront
my dock. The AEP guards refused to tell me property owners, they were not intimately
why they were removing the dock. Their quote familiar with the details of the SMP, which
was, ‘We aren’t here to argue with you, we are AEP assured us was just a necessary part
50 Discover Smith Mountain Lake FALL 2020
