Wausau park closed for submerged vehicle recovery operation

By Shereen Siewert

A Wausau park is closed Monday morning so workers can recover a partially submerged vehicle from Lake Wausau, according to the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department.

D.C. Everest Park, 1800 S. Third Ave., and the park’s boat landing, will remain closed for several hours.

The department, along with the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources and Marathon County Parks and Recreation, also issued a water safety alert for the lake.

Once the recovery operation is completed the park and waterway will reopen to the public.

The vehicle has been in the water for months after breaking through the ice.

Sheriff’s officials say the vehicle was not removed Saturday as planned because the towing company didn’t coordinate the operation with the appropriate authorities. Police say tow cables under heavy loads can sometimes break and whip around with considerable force, causing damage, injury or even death if a person is struck.

For that reason, the recovery operation was postponed until Monday.

“Due to the hazardous nature of this type of long distance towing operation in open water, certain safety measures such as closing the park and positioning patrol boats on the lake were needed to ensure public safety by keeping the boating public from potentially running into the tow cable,” a Marathon County Sheriff’s Department Facebook post reads. “Additionally, the park needed to be closed to keep citizens on land back and away from the towing equipment in case the tow cable broke under stress.”