State officials on Thursday announced that life for Buckeye Lake residents and business owners can finally get back to normal.
For more of the past 14 months, the water level in the Buckeye Lake has been intentionally lower to allow repairs to the lake's dam.
On Thursday, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced that progress on those repairs is nearly a year ahead of schedule.
That will allow water levels to be safely increased to a near normal depth, and that's great news for local businesses like Boat Boys, which does boat repairs and sales. Employee Terry Holycross said they’ve had to rethink how they do business to stay afloat.
Read: Ohio To Let Buckeye Lake Rise To Usable Level Amid Dam Work
“We have to use our own creativity and go after the services that we can provide that are out there," said Holycross. "We’ve done a lot of sales, sold a lot of boats for people that would normally be boating.”
Other Buckeye Lake businesses haven’t seen as much change. Lester Foster who co-owns a restaurant called Our Lakeside Diner says he only noticed a small decrease in customers. Of course, both Foster and Holycross hope that rising water levels will lift all boats.
