Alligator spotted in reservoir
By Jamie Kennedy
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COWETA COUNTY, Georgia (WGCL) — A mystery is solved roughly three years after Coweta County officials received reports of something large and mysterious swimming in the B.T. Brown Reservoir, the reservoir’s own “Loch Ness Monster.”
Anyone using the reservoir will now see a warning sign that an alligator has been seen in the area.
“She did say that when the water’s really calm in the reservoir, that you could see something swimming, something large, swimming across the water,” said Mandy Sledd, Coweta County Water Authority Chief HR Officer. “One of our employees was doing some routine maintenance on our spillway and intake and he saw an alligator sitting on the spillway.”
The water authority contacted a licensed alligator agent through the Department of Natural Resources to remove the reptile, though the agent advised that this would not be a simple task.
“When you have a 330-acre lake with one alligator in it and you don’t know where the gator is, that makes it a much tougher gator to find and catch it,” said Jason Clark, a licensed alligator agent.
Clark estimates the alligator to be somewhere between 5-7 feet in length; he noted that it is unlikely the animal was a pet that had been released.
Although gators aren’t common in the area, it’s also not the first time one has been removed.
“Several years ago back in 2010 there was a seven-foot alligator crossing I-85 in Coweta County, and my dad actually went and caught that alligator for me,” Clark said.
Only one sighting has been officially confirmed thus far.
Local Scott Shelnutt lives near the boat ramp and told CBS46 reporter Jamie Kennedy that two weeks ago he heard splashing and slapping in the water, then a goose making a distressing sound before falling silent. It happened around 4:30 a.m. as he returned from work.
Shelnut immediately reported the incident to the DNR, believing he had just heard an alligator attack. He went down to the water to investigate, finding a large amount of feathers scattered across the surface of the reservoir.
As far as safety goes, Clark recommends not to go swimming at dusk or dawn when such animals are active, and to please leave the alligator alone and not feed it under any circumstance.
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