Posted: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:31 AM - 10,011 Readers

By: Bob Robuck

If you want to make it out to the lake this summer, you better hurry.

Only two public boat ramps remain open on Lake Travis, and one is coming dangerously close to having to shut down as well. The ramp in Jones Brothers Park in Jonestown is being monitored day by day.

The only other boat ramp open is in Mansfield Dam Park. The park's ramp is now down to two lanes instead of four, severely limiting the number of boats that can be launched off the ramp.

Public ramps aren't the only ones having trouble with low water levels. Public marinas are feeling the burn as well.

At Emerald Point Marina, they are using forklifts and heavy duty four wheel haulers with reticulated arms to launch their boats. This proves to be a tedious task, and is also strongly limiting the number of boats the marina can actually launch into the water.

Even in these desperate times, private marinas like Emerald Point are not open for public use.

"Time involved in launching the boat limits us to handling our own customers. So if we have a customer in our dry stack that wants to launch a boat, certainly we can do that, but we just don't have the time to open it to the general public," Doug Powell with the Emerald Point Marina said.

Emerald Point will have to continue to launch and haul boats this way until the water rises, which at this point could be quite awhile.