Weekend boaters will be able to shove out onto Sheridan Lake once again this weekend, now that the Dakota Fire is well under control.  Restrictions on boating on Sheridan Lake have been lifted, except for the inlet leading to the dam itself, which will still be used by tanker helicopters for water bucket loading.  Sheridan Lake Road has been re-opened as well, and the north shore marina will be open again Saturday.  The manager of the Sheridan Lake Marinas says the fire has cut seriously into business, but he's confident the summer boaters will return.  Mark Ruddeforth says, "It does have an impact on business. We've probably lost a couple of thousand dollars in boat rentals. People have been very understanding. I've had to issue some refunds which is unfortunate. But I'd like everyone to know we're going to be open for business again Saturday morning."  Dakota Fire incident commander Rick Seidlitz says the fire on the north shore of Sheridan Lake will be 100 percent contained by Friday night.  Rick Seidlitz says, "If everything goes as planned; no major wind events. Wind is our killer. We're anticipating to be one hundred percent by...working our night shift; end of shift; midnight tonight."  More than 220 firefighters are still on the scene, performing mop-up duty.  Many of them will be re-assigned over the next few days to other wildfires burning in the West, such as the fires down in Colorado. Most say they expect they will be earning lots of overtime this summer.  Meanwhile, the mop-up continues on the Crow Peak Fire that burned on the southwest slopes of the mountain near Spearfish.  Firefighters said the fire was 100 percent contained at 6:00 Friday evening.  Eighty eight firefighters were still working on mop up Friday morning.  But Friday evening, control of the fire was turned over to the Northern Hills Ranger District, which will continue to monitor the fire area in the days ahead.

Al Van Zee