People live all around Marion County Park and Lake, but commissioners have their doubts about people living on it.

Parks and Lake superintendent Steve Hudson approached commissioners Monday with a request from an individual to put a houseboat on Marion County Lake.

“My feeling is if he puts a houseboat on a lake, that is like taking an RV and putting it on Marion County property,” Hudson said, saying that if commissioners would allow it, the individual should still be charged.

“If he does it during the day and doesn’t plan on staying overnight, there shouldn’t be a fee,” Hudson said, “but if he does plan on staying overnight, there should be a fee.”

Hudson also was not in favor of people being able to live on the lake for a small fee. Chairman Randy Dallke agreed.

“Personally I’m just not in favor of it,” Dallke said. “Someone would have to convince me. I just think that with the beauty of Marion County Lake, it’s not needed.”

Commissioner Lori Lalouette said that before there were any decisions made, commissioners should receive more information about the specific houseboat.

“If we allow it, we’d have to limit certain sizes and how many because that lake is not very big,” Lalouette said.

Holub strongly objected to allowing houseboats a permanent stay on the lake.

“It’s not the nature of that lake,” Holub said. “We’re gonna have another trailer park, only this one in the water.”

While no decision was made, commissioners agreed to seek more information and study the request presented by Hudson.

“We don’t want to run these people off,” Dallke said. “I guess we’d just need to know more about it than what we’re looking at.”