Lakeside Park, with its Rose Garden and fountains that drown out the sound of nearby traffic, is probably one of the more tranquil spots in the city, not the place to go if you’re looking for excitement.

Lately, though, there’s been a buzz in the neighborhood about the goings-on in the pond. It involves something that has come to be called Lakeside Nessie.

Yep, Lakeside has its own sea monster.

Well, sea monster might be a bit of an exaggeration, but whatever it is, it’s big and it has features that in some respects aren’t exactly fish-like.

One of the people who has seen the creature is Hannah Ramsey. She was walking her dog a couple of weeks ago by the pond, near a small bridge next to a building, when she saw a large fish-like creature near the shore.

“It was really weird,” Ramsey said. “It had a snake’s tail. It was really long and really big in the middle and it had fish scales.”

Ramsey said she was only about 6 feet away from it.

“It stayed there for a couple of minutes, but it wouldn’t turn so I could see its face. It was acting like it was strangling a fish or something.”

Ramsey’s mother, Laura, said she believes it was a giant carp. People feed bread to the ducks at the pond and some of that food sinks, attracting the fish. In the past, she’s seen two gigantic carp near the shore in the pond.

But her daughter’s description of a snake-like tail makes one wonder: Is it something else?

Then there is the account of Larry Kenner, who is a photographer. Last summer, he was trying out a new camera when he happened to see a weird creature in the water near the pillars that surround the rose garden and snapped a photograph.

That picture shows a long, snake-like creature in the water.

“It looked bigger than a snake. It had a lot of girth,” Kenner said. “But it was long.”

“Some friends say, ‘Oh, that’s a carp,’ ” Kenner said, “but it kind of slithered through the water.”

The photo shows an animal that does seem to be slithering and bending its body, sort of like a giant snake.

Kenner posted the photo on his Facebook page, and suddenly friends who had lived in the Lakeside area for years started telling stories of the odd things they’ve seen in the pond.

So far, no one has reported seeing anything dramatic, like a duck disappearing into a hole in the water, a la Jaws.

We talked to park officials about the report, but they had heard nothing about strange sightings in the water. One official, though, jokes that tales like that might be a good way to keep people out of the pond. Swimming is prohibited there.

At the park last week, there was nothing odd-looking going on, just ducks lazily floating around. People who work at the park also reported seeing nothing unusual.

So, for now, we’ll just have to label it a mystery. There’s nothing wrong with mysteries, though. They add a little spice to life.

And if Loch Ness can have its elusive monster and Fulk Lake in Churubusco can have its elusive giant turtle, why can’t the Lakeside pond have its own elusive creature?