First phase of Islands' upgrades wrapping up

LAKE LANIER ISLANDS - A group of Hall County business leaders headed to Lake Lanier Islands' Legacy Lodge Wednesday morning to get an update on the multi-million dollar renovation taking place at the Islands.

The work began in January 2007, and Grier Todd, chief operations officer of Lake Lanier Islands Resort, told the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce's South Hall Business Coalition that Phase 1 almost complete. The Legacy Lodge hotel is finished, as well as the first part of road improvements.

A new clock tower is expected to go up soon, and Phase 2 of road improvements and other work will begin in January.

Todd also spoke to the group about the newly-formed 1071 Coalition, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing Lake Lanier back up to full pool, which is 1,071 feet.

With the lake hovering around record low levels, "it's a serious situation," Todd said. Todd said north Georgia's economy has taken a significant hit because of the low lake levels, and that the number of visitors to Lanier is down by 1 million.

He said people "wouldn't believe" the number of calls that Lake Lanier Islands has gotten from people asking if the resort is still doing its annual "Magical Nights of Lights" show; many have assumed it will be closed because of the low lake levels. The resort will be doing the show this year, and it will run from Nov. 22 to Dec. 30.

Todd told the group on Wednesday that 1071 Coalition is working to achieve two major goals.

The organization wants to commission a comprehensive economic impact study on the effect that Lake Lanier has on the entire north Georgia region. Todd said the study would cost about $200,000 and take about six months.

Kit Dunlap, president of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce and vice president of the 1071 Coalition, said they would like to get started on the economic impact study after the first of the year.

"Sometimes we take that great big body of water for granted," she said.

The second goal the coalition hopes to achieve is getting involved with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as it goes through the process of updating its operating manual, which is expected to take about three years.

For more information, visit www.1071coalition.org.

For more information about Lake Lanier Islands, visit www.lakelanierislands.com.