Dane Bay became the last part of Fountain Lake where stubborn remnants of winter ice finally melted away Wednesday morning, April 2. This fact was confirmed by Bill Malepsy, the city’s official lake observer. Thus, this will be the date to be recorded for the 91st time for ice-out dates on Albert Lea’s centerpiece lake.

Last year’s ice-out date was recorded as April 9.

The recording of ice-out dates for Fountain Lake is reportedly the third-longest in the state, according to the State Climatology Office at the University of Minnesota.

The earliest ice-out date recorded since 1912 was recorded on March 7, 2000. The latest recorded ice-out date for this lake is April 30, 1953.

Malepsy has observed and recorded the ice-out dates for Fountain Lake since the spring of 1969. He’s continuing a local tradition started over nine decades ago by John Edwin &uot;Pop&uot; Murtaugh.

Murtaugh started recording the ice-out date in the spring of 1912. He was then the operator of the Casino, a lakeside dance hall and canoe and row boat rental service located at the north end of Newton Avenue. The melting of the ice cover on Fountain Lake was a prime business concern for Murtaugh. He would reportedly paddle a canoe all the way around the lake’s shoreline, including the bays, to check on the status of the ice cover.

Murtaugh recorded these ice-out dates in a small notebook. This notebook, incidentally, is still being used by Malepsy.

The rule used by Murtaugh, and later by Malepsy, since 1912 to determine the actual ice-out date is based on the day when there’s only water visible

on all parts of the lake, including Dane and Edgewater Bays.

“Pop” Murtaugh died in 1969. His friend, Bill Malepsy, then took over the local tradition of establishing and recording the yearly ice-out dates.

Malepsy bases his yearly observations on reports from several friends, plus personally driving around the lake to check several places where remnants of ice like to linger on for just a few more days. And one place where winter ice seems to linger the longest is Dane Bay near the Blackmer Bridge.

Bill Malepsy and his son Mark operate Bill and Mark’s Barber Shop on East Clark Street.