{"id":23317,"date":"2016-08-12T14:33:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T21:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/alligator-tale-strikes-kents-lake-meridian\/"},"modified":"2016-08-12T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T21:33:03","slug":"alligator-tale-strikes-kents-lake-meridian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/alligator-tale-strikes-kents-lake-meridian\/","title":{"rendered":"Alligator tale strikes Kent\u2019s Lake Meridian"},"content":{"rendered":"

The uproar this week around Kent\u2019s Lake Meridian<\/a> appears to be more of an alligator tale than tail.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A resident reported seeing a possible alligator-like reptile on Tuesday in the lake, according to a written report to the City Council by Derek Matheson, city chief administrative officer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

City crews posted signs at the lake to alert people about the sighting. The city called it \u201can unconfirmed sighting of an alligator\/crocodile-like reptile.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur primary role at this moment is public notification, ensuring that people know there may be something in the water that they should be aware of,\u201d Matheson said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife told the city the creature does not likely pose a human threat. Buy Matheson said the city wants residents to use caution while at the park. Signs were placed at the park and boat launch and emails were sent to the Lake Meridian neighborhood. Residents should report any other sightings to state Fish and Wildlife at 1-877-933-9847.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

City officials also posted the possible alligator sighting message on the city of Kent Facebook page, which led to more than 900 shares of the posting and numerous comments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

One more thing, Lake Meridian Park will be the site of a triathlon on Saturday, Aug. 13, which includes swimming in the lake.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The uproar this week around Kent\u2019s Lake Meridian appears to be more of an alligator tale than tail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":23318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23317"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}