PARK TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Blake Lampen enjoys cooling off on a hot summer day by taking a dip into Lake Michigan.
This Hamilton teenager doesn't just tentatively stick his toes in the water off the Holland State Park beach: He and his friends dive, cannonball and flip into the water from a pier extending from the north side of the Holland Channel.
But they may not be allowed to do it much longer. Officials in Ottawa County's Park Township, where the park is located, may make it illegal to jump from the pier.
"That would not go over well with me," said Lampen, 17. "I'd be angry about it."
Pier jumping has been a popular pastime for decades at many Great Lakes piers, including the one at the state park. But because a number of pier jumpers have drowned or been badly injured over the years -- rip currents and large rocks are commonly found at the base of the structures -- some government officials have taken action to prohibit it.
The Army Corps of Engineers operates and maintains most Great Lakes piers and already prohibits diving or jumping from them, but the ban isn't enforced. The Coast Guard says 115 people drowned last year in the five big lakes, including 40 in Lake Michigan, and pier jumpers and other swimmers accounted for slightly less than every one in four deaths.
State Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, introduced a bill in June 2007 that would have banned jumping from piers, breakwaters and related structures in the Great Lakes and connected waterways.
It easily passed the Senate in October but stalled in the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Committee. The bill didn't have the support of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources because agency officials said it would be difficult to enforce.
The Oceana County village of Pentwater had a pier-jumping ordinance on the books for years but it "didn't have much teeth in it," said Police Chief Mike Schuitema.
After the Pentwater Village Council signed off on his tweaks to the ordinance in April 2007, his police department issued about 60 tickets last year. Another dozen or so have been handed out so far this year, including three while he recently was talking on his cell phone to a reporter for this story.
A violator faces a civil infraction of $25 for the first offense, $50 for the second.
About 18 Lake Michigan communities from New Buffalo near the Indiana border northward to the Leelanau Peninsula have contacted him for information about Pentwater's pier-jumping ordinance and how he enforces it with his small staff.
The South Haven City Council approved a somewhat more punitive pier-jumping ordinance in May. A first offense is a civil infraction carrying a $50 fine but a second offense within 90 days of the first is a criminal misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500, 90 days in jail or both.
"I hear so many questions raised at this point in time about how you can't legislate common sense," said Mayor Dorothy Appleyard. "Well, no we can't, but we can try to put some practical enforcement tools in place that just help us protect the public."
A reporter visiting the pier for an hour on a recent Friday afternoon saw no one violating the new ordinance.
The Park Township Board of Trustees voted 7-0 on July 10 to ask its lawyers to begin drafting an ordinance that would forbid pier jumping within the township, including at Holland State Park. The proposed ordinance is expected to go before the board at its next meeting on Aug. 14.
Township Treasurer Jan Steggerda, who had fun jumping off the pier as a teenager, said she expects the ordinance to be adopted. Violators would be ticketed with civil infractions.
Because she had mixed feelings on the matter, she gathered opinions from "at least 20 people" in a wide range of ages.
"I was really surprised. Even the young ones said, 'No, it's dangerous,"' Steggerda said.
While many local governments have banned or are considering banning pier jumping, some are shying away from it. At its July 10 meeting, the Berrien County Board of Commissioners spiked a proposed ordinance because St. Joseph officials such as Mayor Robert L. Rudd and Police Chief Mark Clapp were concerned about being able to enforce it.
"There's just absolutely no way we could have an officer at the foot of each pier 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and that's what we'd have to do if you really wanted to attack the problem," Clapp said.
Officials there also feared if the ordinance was on the books, they could face a liability problem in the event of a drowning or a related tragedy.
Clapp said the way the county ordinance was written, police wouldn't have been able to force jumpers whom they just ticketed to leave the piers.
"They stick the citation in their pocket, they jump again and they drown," he said.