According to Newton Patch, a 28-year-old man drown in Crystal Lake just before 2 a.m. Wednesday.
Our condolences to his loved ones.
Man drowns at Crystal Lake overnight
by Gail Spector | Aug 1, 2018 | Crystal Lake, Public safety | 18 comments
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Many people enjoy Crystal Lake when the days are muggy but in the daylight.
This is very sad for the young man and his family and friends.
I hope people can continue to use the lake. Perhaps the police could patrol the area more after midnight.
@Colleen, this is a tragedy for sure, but could have been prevented if grown adults obeyed the posted signs prohibiting swimming in this area of Crystal Lake….any time of the day or night.
Colleen,
Would definitely prefer police to use their resources to protect us from harm rather than to protect us from ourselves…
In the early days (aka per-marijuana) of Village 14, freelance swimming at Crystal Lake was always one of the most frequently debated topics on this site each summer. This incident was late at night but it certainly raises those old questions about enforcing swim policies there.
The old swim policies allowed people with houses on the lake to swim whenever they wanted, but banned everyone else from the lake except for window of time the pool house is open (mid-June to mid-August with varying hours). Do we want to return to this?
This is very sad for this man’s family. But a decision to go swimming at 2AM is clearly a bad decision.
I’m of two minds on swimming at Crystal Lake. I think it is a wonderful resource and it was a shame when a couple of years ago, the NPD was spending time “policing” the swimming while we have drivers all over Newton running red lights and not yielding at crosswalks. I’m glad to see that policy has seeming been changed and people are able to enjoy the lake. That includes adults who get their morning exercise swimming in the lake and families who who frequent it on weekends.
I was there myself last Sunday. The hesitation I have is that since it is posted that swimming is not permitted, I’m uncomfortable with the message it sends to children that their parents ignore those signs. I think we already have too many Newtonians with an air of entitlement
To me the solution is to allow swimming with signs that it is as you own risk
Swimming is dangerous, period. While this unfortunate drowning sounds like an exceptional incident, it behooves law-abiding citizens of Newton to have so many young children and their parents swimming illegally in Crystal Lake. It is not the role of the city to spend our tax dollars policing people who can read posted signs (i.e. no swimming allowed) and who probably follow other rules in society. It is the role of these “citizen swimmers” to respect the laws set by our city elected representatives for their own good and use the supervised swimming area with lifeguards. And, yes, if they don’t, they need to suffer the consequences.
I take it, since this follows your statement that “it is not the role of the city to spend our tax dollars policing people who can read posted signs,” that in your opinion the “consequences they need to suffer” is death by drowning. Please, please, please tell me I’m wrong.
There’s absolutely nothing to be gained from enabling comments on a story like this. Somebody died. Nobody needs to hear smug kindergarten lectures about swimming after dark or with a full stomach and “obeying the law,” etc.
FYI – I was not speaking about the poor young man who drowned. I am not passing judgment on this tragedy. I was speaking specifically about preventing any incident related to the lake especially among the children who frequent with their ill-advised parents. I am an experienced outdoorsmen, kayaker and surfer, and know the dangers of water well.
Then there’s this angle (with which I completely disagree) , from a commenter on the Tab website: “The City of Newton is responsible for the tragic death of this young man. Shame on all of us.”
How can the City possibly have any complicity in this tragic, but all to common occurrence?? I don’t recall the City of Newton ever promoting the idea that people should be swimming there at 2 in the morning or anytime there aren’t lifeguards on duty. This past Sunday, I was swimming at Crystal for the first time since 1954. I was chased down by a lifeguard on a small boat for going outside some kind of invisible boundary a third of the way across the lake. My fault. Lifeguards and other staff friendly, but vigilant, particularly with so many kids swimming there. And the lake seemed a lot cleaner than I remember it in the 50s.
I only hope the loved ones of the poor individual who drowned are not reading or even aware of this thread. The timing, content, and tone reflect poorly on Newton as a community. But that is what V14 is all about.
My guess is that the Tab commenter meant that if the City had the will and/or tools to enforce the posted regulations with more tangible penalties, tragedies like the one that happened this week would be less likely.
@Bob,
As the mom of 2 veteran Crystal Lake life guards, I can assure you that your safety is their top priority.
This is a tragic. My condolences to the family and loved ones of this young man.
This is absolutely terrible. There’s been a lot of despair in the Newton community right now between this, the Horace-Mann parent, and the beloved Burr after school teacher that was critically injured in a motorcycle accident. I just wish there was more we could do as a community, but I feel so helpless.
It’s very sad indeed to have a life lost in any manner. The problem however is more likely to do with the timing and the group activities that preceded the incident than the fact that there was a choice to be in the water. The availability of this body of water may indeed save lives if not improve quality of life for a great many in the extreme summer heat when outdoor activity is limited due to the possibility of heat exhaustion. If the incident had taken place during the day there is a great likelihood that there would have been a rescue and far less potential for the tragedy in the first place. I regularly swim at Walden Pond, and have at times gently interceded when I saw a younger swimmer looking insecure, but pushing the boundaries of what was likely reasonable for them in order to follow their peers in deep and unsupervised water.
It’s an unfortunate reality as well that young people are more often the victims of their own decisions & risky behaviors. Hiking on a mountainside after dusk could be every bit as treacherous.. having inadvertantly been in this position in my youth, I speak from experience (underestimate of the round trip time). Crossing the street at night as well.. but we don’t outlaw these facets of life in the event of bad timing or other variables. Preventing people from enjoying the water during the day would not impact the potential of future late night accidents.
I have been a resident of Newton for 10 years and am so very happy that swimming is allowed in Crystal Lake. My grand daughter can read and wonders why I take her there to swim when the sign says “NO SWIMMING”. My grandchildren remember best, of all the things we did when they visited from another state, their time at Crystal Lake on a hot summer day. I thank the city for allowing the thousands of people who have enjoyed this city treasure this summer.
My parents moved to Newton back in 1963. As kids of that era we would regularly sneak over to Crystal Lake to take a late night dip during the Summer, and only one time can I remember being chased away by the Police. Perhaps more patrols around the lake are in order, especially during the weekends where even today you can hear the sounds of teenagers and young adults splashing around after hours.