FOMC has taken advantage of the Internet and created a web site just for the boaters of Chicago. The information you can retrieve from our site is overwhelming. Safety first, you can file a FLOAT PLAN on the site to be filed with an agency that does just that. You can find out the weather; your harbormasters phone number, view the lake from the Planetarium's Sky Cam and get water conditions. Need a phone number that relates to boating in Chicago, you will find them there as well as their web links. Also web site links to other marine related places like BOATUS, West Marine, Boaters World, Overton's and more.

Take the time to research, as well as, play on the FOMC web site. If there is something we do not have, e-mail the FOMC HOTLINE and tell us what it is and we will add it, so other boaters can share in what we may have missed. FOMC wants to have the best web site for boaters, anywhere. Please give us a hand to make it that way.

Visit our web site and get in touch with all your boating needs as well as news that will concern you as a boater on Chicago's lakefront. Rumors do fly quickly and the correct information is on the site. FOMC is in all the places that require us to stay informed and/or need attention. FOMC sits on the most important committees and boards for the Lakefront. We are recognized as your voice by Chicago's Mayor and his offices, the Chicago Park District, Westrec, Marine Police, DNR and the USCG. We continually attend these meetings so we can be updated monthly. If you want to be brought up to date on an issue or just want to have an issue worked on before it becomes a problem, contact us through our web site HOTLINE at hotline@fomc.net. We are looking forward to your suggestions and input to improve the biggest and, if we work at it, the best harbor system in the country, if not the world. However we need your HELP!

If you did not already know, as a member of FOMC, (a not-for-profit 501C3 Corporation) you are entitled to 50% savings on your BOATUS yearly membership and/or renewal. Just use this Co-op number GA83967B when filling out your membership papers and deduct the amount from the dues. This discount is only for dues and is not for up grades on towing, etc. BOATUS can be linked to from the FOMC web site for membership applications, as well.

For years lives have been lost from boats hitting the breakwalls, not only in Chicago but anywhere they exist. The ability to have the breakwalls lit were cost prohibitive, not to mention the problem when it came to not having them confused with the USCG aids to navigation lights.

A few years ago FOMC made a presentation at a CYA meeting to the Commodores, USCG and Westrec for a possible way to light up the breakwalls. We used Fiber Optics Cable about the diameter of a wood pencil. The presentation was well received by all and we were asked to do a test presentation on the lakefront. With the help of Westrec, who funded the purchase of a roll of Fiber Optic Cable five hundred feet long and a theatrical lighting company, Chicago Spotlight Inc. and their design engineer, Kathy Zukasky, the test was preformed at the Belmont Harbor entrance breakwall. Using a laser light to fill the fiber cable with extreme brightness, the test was accomplished. It was a complete success. The problem was the cost of the lasers and the weather that would confront the lighting system on a breakwall. While a study was being preformed, to find a low cost laser and solar driven power units, Kathy Zukasky past away. The project came to a halt. Technology needed to change, in order to get the job done, efficiently and affectivity.

FOMC's approach was to combine safety with some lakefront ambiance. We hoped that moneys needed to fund such a project would come from the City, Navy Pier, state and federal funds by enhancing the beauty of the Lakefront with safety as our driving factor. The Army Corps of Engineers, who owns the breakwalls, would need to be with us on this project as well. Also lighting engineers would need to create something never done before. They would have to invent a whole new type of low power, weather resistant lighting system while coupling Lasers to Fiber Optic Cable. This could lengthen the start up time, as well as, increase the cost of the project.

Sometime last year the CYA formed a committee, headed by their past commodore, Fred Poppe. He took this task very seriously, since we had lost more lives to the breakwalls. His approach was different than that of FOMC's. FOMC wanted to, not only, light the breakwalls but also make them a part of the viewable excitement of our city's waterfront. Both on the water as well as from the shore the a rope effect would look like neon running along the sides of the breakwalls. There was no confusion with the USCG Aids to Navigation with this artistic approach. With time running out and lives being lost, Fred Poppe went in a commercial direction. He searched out a contractor who led him to a new manufacturer, of a solar powered, LED lights, who have been making and marketing their lights in Canada for ruff weather, marine use.

Fred wanted to get the job done without incurring the obstacle that FOMC encountered. Cost was a big factor. However the availability of an existing light played a major factor in a lower cost and getting the job done, quickly. Now that he found a desirable light, he needed to get the USCG to approve the color, blue. This color was not a concern to the USCG nautical aids.

Fred pursued the contractor, light manufacturer and the USCG to comment on their feeling for lighting the Chicago breakwalls. They all stated their concerns. With their input, Fred invited the USCG, as well as many other groups on the lakefront to see, touch and discuss the lights at an informal get together. Once this was completed, Fred was asked to demonstrate the lights on the breakwall. An actual test, for visibility against the city lights in the background was preformed on the breakwalls.

A discussion took place right after the nighttime test. All were present, USCG, USACE, DNR, Marine Police, FOMC and other interested individuals. Fred even had to contact the FAA to react to the potential of blue lights in the glide path of Megs Field's runway. Funds are now being sought through grants from various governmental agencies and companies. Only time will tell if there will be a test next summer. All these concerns need to be decided on, since the breakwalls are due to be restored around 2004 by the Army Corps of Engineers.

When they are installed you will be able to view a blue light 360 degrees; placement will be about 200 to 250 feet apart and approximately eighteen inches from the top of the breakwall. They are self-contained, solar powered lights that will stay operational for years and will come on at dusk. All we can hope for is that the lights save at least one life by allowing boaters to see the breakwall that seem to disappear into the night waiting for a catastrophe to happen.

B-O-A-T is now an acronym. (A group of letters that means something when it is spelled out). It started with the Mooring Tax issue this year. Boating Organizations Against Taxation was the first of such reach out acronyms for Chicago's boating community. Another is Brighten Obstructions Avoid Tragedy, refers to the lighting of the breakwalls. You will also see Boating Organizations Acquiring Trees, the Chicago Christmas Ship project which was created to purchase Christmas trees so they can be given to the less fortunate. There are more acronyms to follow. They can all be found on the B-O-A-T web site at b-o-a-t.net. Or it can be linked from the fomc.net web site.

Years ago in a land not so far away, there was a family of, sea-firing merchants from, yes you guessed it, Chicago. They sold Christmas trees they brought down from the north end of lake Michigan to the docks of Chicago, every Christmas from the decks of their ship. Until one day their ship went down off the coast of Two Rivers Wisconsin in a severe storm.

A little girl, Ruth Flesvig, with her father waited and waited on the wharf, that cold Chicago night, with so many others, awaiting the arrival of the "Christmas Tree Ship". An evening shared many times before, until that stormy night. When she was told they had to leave the dock, that November 23, 1912, the ship was not coming, her father stated, Ruth cried out! "Without a Christmas Tree there is no Christmas". She cried all the way home.

The Boating Community of Chicago recreated this maritime tradition with the help of the USCG. This is our third year that freshly cut Christmas trees are being given to the less fortunate. The families and organizations are picked by a third party, the "Community Resource Network, a United Way partner agency. The trees are distributed from the decks of the USCG Cutter Mackinaw, where it docks on the wall by Navy Pier near the original location of the original "Christmas Tree Ship ", the "Rouse Simmons".

If you would like to share in this maritime tradition, be at the Big Red Boat, the USCG Cutter Mackinaw on December 7, 2002 between 8:30 am until noon and see it all happen. Last year we gave away 1500 trees. However, this year we are only able to give 750 trees. Please do your part to improve this wonderful tradition and give to this worth while cause. Please do this NOW, for next year, we want to be prepared to surpass our greatest expectations. One hundred percent of the funds collected go to the purchase of the trees for the less fortunate. Visit the fomc.net web site to read the Christmas Tree Ship story and donate to a cause that relates to your favorite pastime, your love of the water. Please make out your check NOW to the "Chicago's Christmas Ship". Send it c/o Chicago Council, U.S. Navy League, 402 N. County Line Rd., Hinsdale, IL 60521, and it is TAX DEDUCTABLE.

Since 1994, when the "Friends of the Marine Community" were formed, the boaters asked FOMC to speak on behalf of them on lakefront issues. Watching over issues before they became a problem was our task. Many boaters do not have the support of any organizations, like a yacht club, for example, if they did not belong and a majority did not. FOMC has no restrictions on its members, whether they belong to clubs or not. FOMC's supports all those who use the lakefront and waterways of Chicago whether Power, Sail, main powered pleasure or commercial boats, and we stand beside you and speak on your half. No other organizations can say this. However your support has made a statement that you may be able to fend for yourselves. Where would the boaters be, on the Mooring Tax issue, if FOMC had not defended your position? Through our involvement we kept the Marine Police in force, reduced the Mooring Tax to the boaters and through our insistence to privatize the harbor system the lakefront was renovated. There is much more to realize if you visit our fomc.net web site.

FOMC's involvement takes place fifty-two weeks a year, on your behalf. There is power in numbers and that is why it is so important you are a member of FOMC. Without our constant vigilance in lakefront matters your seasons would not have been as enjoyable. FOMC is an accepted, highly recognized and appreciated organization on Chicago's lakefront. We go where you cannot. We are where you would need to be in order to get the job done. And we are invited to assist and attend in meetings that concern the boaters and lakefront of Chicago all the time. We are asked to view and give input on new lakefront projects and improvements. FOMC knows weather it is a Westrec or a Park District project. This helps keep you aware of who is in charge of what. Gathering lakefront information is what FOMC is all about. It is knowledge that keeps the boaters of Chicago content and happy. FOMC is an all-volunteer organization. Without FOMC the boaters would not have a voice on the Lakefront.

This is why I request you join FOMC. The boaters in Chicago need FOMC. However we cannot exist without your financial support. Your dues pay for the printings, postage, keep our mailings going out, the web site up and running,, to mention a few cost related items. This is our only source of revenue. As a matter of fact, it would be greatly appreciated if you could support FOMC in other areas as well. We need a spokesperson from each harbor to help insure that they are running smoothly. Issues of harbor security, parking, facilities, dock maintenance and harbormaster attentiveness to his or her duties are just a few constant need to know areas. Once an issue becomes a problem then the work to resolve it becomes extremely difficult. Our best successes have been when we were made aware of a situation before it became an issue and we prevented a much larger problem. Your eyes and ears give FOMC an advantage. You should bring to us actual issues needed to help in each particular area of the harbor system. With your statements we now have someone to back up the concerns with actual observations. Hopefully you now realize the importance of an organization like the Friends of the Marine Community working on your behalf.

When you were asked to write the Mayor and Aldermen on the Mooring Tax, only two percent took the initiative to take the time to voice their opinion. Meeting dates were posted in each harbor, on this issue and you could not find the time to attend. Yet you still complain and carry on how bad we have it here in Chicago, compared to the other harbors. If you have concerns than voice them in writing to FOMC, the people who make the decisions can hear them first hand. With your support your concerns will never become a problem. However if your support does not improve this coming year, both financially, through an increase in our membership, and with both verbal, visuals, as well as written support, than FOMC will have no other choice but cease to exist. All that has changed on the Lakefront of Chicago was with FOMC's involvement. If you could turn back the hands of time, would you want what we had before? If your desire is to move forward than please support FOMC. Our application is on the web site, or you can send a check made out to Friends of the Marine Community for $20.00 and send it to FOMC, c/o Bob Rose, 111 Pfingsten Rd., Suite 300, Deerfield, Ill. 60015.

Thank you for your support in advance. Remember that the Friends of the Marine Community are dedicated to represent you, inform you and improve your access to Chicago's lakefront and waterways. As always, FOMC is your voice on Chicago's lakefront and waterways.