The Hopkinton Police Department announced that boat patrols of Lake Maspenock and Lake Whitehall have resumed after a “long hiatus.”

Boat patrols of Lake Maspenock and Lake Whitehall has resumed after a long hiatus. Officers from HPD have been trained to identify and enforce boating regulations on the water. Our mission is to ensure the safety of boaters, swimmers and property of the residents of the lakes. pic.twitter.com/a1bogPwbib

— Hopkintonpolice (@Hopkintonpolice) July 23, 2020

According to an HPD tweet from Thursday, “Officers from HPD have been trained to identify and enforce boating regulations on the water. Our mission is to ensure the safety of boaters, swimmers and property of the residents of the lakes.”

Parks & Recreation Commission chair Dan Terry and director Jay Guelfi appeared before the Select Board on Tuesday and discussed their concerns with parking issues at the Sandy Beach parking lot, and that led to a discussion about safety issues on Lake Maspenock due to overcrowding. Guelfi noted that more people are staying local and using Sandy Beach and the lake rather than traveling to more well known beaches and bodies of water due to the pandemic.

“I feel like it’s a ticking time bomb down there, that there’s going to be another incident on that lake that we’re all going to be really unhappy about,” Guelfi said.

Select Board chair Brendan Tedstone said he knows from firsthand experience as a volunteer firefighter that jet skis can cause serious damage.

“For us to have a public beach out there with a couple of buoys, where these jet skis are going 60-70 miles an hour, it’s not a recipe for success, that’s for sure,” he said.

Guelfi concurred that he is very concerned about a jet skier driving over a swimmer.

“I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when’ right now.”