Volunteer Spotlight: Paul Heinmiller

In 2019, my wife Helen and I envisioned a plan to visit five different lakes in the next five years and pick one for our future retirement home. To start, we rented a house in the Isle of Pines neighborhood at SML. After that rental, we liked SML so much that we abandoned the five-year plan and moved ahead with purchasing a house on the lake, closing on our house on Gill’s Creek at the end of February 2020.

In 2023, a Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB) caused the Blackwater arm of SML, including Gill’s Creek, to have a swimming advisory for much of the summer season. We were very happy to hear of the creation of SMLA’s Dock Watch program and signed up to volunteer. Our dock is one of five docks, out of 23 total, collecting year-round samples.

I am glad that the Dock Watch program was created, and that I am able to support it. The Dock Watchers are a great group of people and the data that they have provided for the last two years is beginning to give us a good baseline on the health of Smith Mountain Lake.