WILMINGTON STAR (N Carolina) 06 May 06 Yes, alligators. Next question? New signs ‘can’t get much clearer than that’ (Majsan Boström)
New signs that popped up around Greenfield Lake this spring are explicit:
“Yes! There are alligators in Greenfield Lake. Please do not feed or harass.”
“It can’t get much clearer than that,” said Edie Skipper, who had just finished a lap around the lake Sunday afternoon. “I think the city should take pictures of the alligators in the lake and post them next to the signs.”
Some people speculate the signs – eight in all – came about after a man swimming in the lake was bitten by an alligator last summer. Lloyd Masters miraculously survived the attack after the alligator let go and swam off.
City officials say the new signs are part of an effort to revamp signs in the parks and have nothing to do with Masters’ debacle last summer.
“We get calls all the time from people wanting to know if there are alligators in the lake, and ‘Yes, there are alligators in the lake,’ ” said Richard King, public services director for the city of Wilmington.
King said signs around Greenfield Lake had warned about alligators for many years, but there were only two. They were located in the water, worn out and hard to read.
Signs or not, it’s not the potential threat of an alligator attack or the fact that it’s forbidden to swim in the lake that has kept Skipper from jumping in.
“There is no way I’d go in that lake,” she said, making a face in disgust. “That water is way too nasty.”
The number of alligators that make Greenfield Lake their home varies each year, King said.
“Recently I’ve heard of three that are there,” he said, adding that they were all small, about 5 feet long.
Witnesses described the alligator that attacked Masters last summer as being 10 feet long.
King, who has worked for the city for almost 30 years, said he wasn’t aware of anybody but Masters who had been injured by an alligator at Greenfield Lake. And as reported by the Star-News last summer, Masters is one of two people on record with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to have been attacked by an alligator.
Masters suffered injuries to his chest, stomach and hand and was treated at a local hospital. At the end of last summer Masters asked the city of Wilmington to pay his medical bills, a claim that was denied by the city’s insurance carrier.
“Our investigation revealed that you voluntarily entered Greenfield Lake and in doing so assumed a degree of risk, to include the possibility of an encounter with a wild animal,” the letter from the insurance carrier stated.
“He was at least in part responsible for his own injuries,” city attorney Tom Pollard said.
Skipper felt the city was right to deny Masters help with his medical bills.
“There were signs before, and there’s always been talk about it,” she said.
King said the signs were posted not only to protect people, but to protect the alligators, too.
Yes, alligators. Next question