Lake Washington Association Board Meeting April 3, 2012
Board Members Present:
| Ken Klehr Cathy Klehr Lyle Walker Mike Wosmek | Sandy Wosmek Rick Fernstrom Steve Grotbo John Fink | Pat Hanson Rick Johnson Kim Winter Tom Hauer |
Board Members please let someone know if you are not able to attend.
Meeting was called to order by President Ken Klehr at 7:00 p.m.
Guest speaker was Ryan Anderson from the Marshall, MN office for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). Anderson spoke about the discharge from the Darwin wastewater treatment facility and its impact to Lake Washington. The Darwin facility discharges from its holding pond twice a year – once in the spring and then in the fall to Lake Darwin, which is connected to Lake Washington. The discharge is monitored by the MCPA for compliance to state and federal guidelines. It takes approximately seven days to completely discharge the wastewater from the facility. The city of Darwin is contracted with a New Ulm certification company. The Darwin facility has a capacity of 50,000 gallons and has a life expectancy of 50 years. Anderson said the Darwin facility is doing very well and has had only two minor violations in the past five years. In 2008 it had a 1.3 phosphorus rating. Anderson compared this to driving 55.1 miles per hour in a 55 MPH zone. This phosphorous level should be at 1.25 and did not require a correction. The second violation was in 2011 when we had received a lot of rain in the spring, which brought the FECAL level higher than it should be. Again this was not a serious violation. Anderson assured us, after checking all the data on the Darwin facility, it is doing well and is not harming the environment of Lake Washington.
Motion was made by Steve Grotbo to approve the minutes of the LWIA March 13, 2012 board meeting. Motion was seconded by Kim Winter. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report by Lyle Walker showed a balance as of March 31, 2012 with the FSB checking account of $4,409.21 and ING Savings of 103,091.00 for total funds of $107,500.21.
Motion was made by Kim Winter, seconded by Steve Grotbo to pay for an audit to be done by Piehl, Hanson, Beckman accounting firm. Motion carried.
Board also approved to pay $200.00 to the 2012-2013 membership to Minnesota Waters. Three contacts will be listed: the President, Vice President and Secretary of the LWIA. This payment will be made at the end of the month of May after election of officers.
Motion was made by Steve Grotbo and seconded by Kim Winter to approve the treasurer’s report. Motion carried.
Vice President Rick Fernstrom gave an update for the Cormorant and Pelican Committee. On March 27 of this year he sent a letter to Lee Sundmark the supervisor for the Hutchinson Fisheries Management Area expressing concern of the damage being done to fish population in Lake Washington because of the increase in population of the Cormorant and Pelicans on Pigeon Lake. Fernstrom in the letter, requested something be done to reduce the popultion of Cormorants to minimize their impact on fish populations in Lake Washington and surrounding lakes. Copies of the letter were also sent to Senator Scott Newman, Representative Dean Urdahl, Commissioner Tom Landwehr, Jack Lauer DNR Regional Manager and Steve Lewis of the USFWS. Fernstrom said he hasn’t gotten any response from the letters and plans to do a follow-up letter to Commissioner Landwehr. Fernstrom is also planning on attending a meeting in Plymouth on April 5 and will be meeting with Belle Lake representative to talk about the Cormorant problem. Sen. Newman and Rep. Urdahl both have given their support of our taking care of the Cormorants that are infesting Lake Washington and other area lakes.
President Ken Klehr gave a report for the Invasive Species committee. The plan for 2012 is do chemical treatments for Eurasian Watermilfoil on 70 acres on a rotational bases around the lake. The association has received a grant of $150/acre (approx. $10,500 total) to do the treatment. Klehr attended the 2012 MN AIS Symposium on March 19th & 20th near the state capitol in St. Paul, which covered the latest research on aquatic invasive species (AIS) management and the policy and legal implications of the approaches available today. The DNR Aquatic Invasive Species Group will be conducting two-point intercept vegetation assessment in Lake Washington, one in May the other in August. This assessment defines vegetation types and quantities in our lake. It will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2011 and 2012 chemical treatments of 70 acres of Eurasian watermilfoil along with impact on native vegetation.
Fernstrom reported that LWIA member e-mail addresses have been updated.
Cathy Klehr said she will take care of distributing the remaining 15 Lake Association Directories.
Fernstorm said the Lake Washington Spring ’12 Newsletter is completed and he will take to the printer at the end of this week. The newsletter will be 8 pages (81/2 x 11) and 450 copies will be printed (378 to members, 30 to politicians, leaving us with 32 extra copies). Included with the newsletter will be membership postcards with self-addressed return envelope.
The LWIA Annual Meeting is set for Saturday, May 5 at the Dassel Rod & Gun Club with social hour starting at 5 p.m. and pork chop dinner starting at 6 p.m. Board members and workers are asked to be there by 3:30 p.m. to get setup. Guest speaker will be Trevor Varilek, PLM. He will talk about the water quality of Lake Washington. A meat raffle will also be conducted. Kim Winter said she will obtain boat stickers for inspections from the DNR to distribute to LWIA members. Each of the LWIA Committees will give short reports followed by the election of board members. Up for re-election this year is Mike and Sandy Wosmek, Bill Ooley, Steve Ullom, Cathy Klehr, and Lyle Walker.
There was no report from the Membership Survey Committee.
Steve Grotbo reported on the LWIA website activity and talked about the addition of using Facebook on the web. He said we had 39 unique visitors in the month of March.
The LWIA board agreed on the date of March 20, 2012 as the official “Ice Out” on Lake Washington. The earliest ice out was on March 15, 2000. The average ice off is April 12. Hazel Gayner kept ice out dates since 1954. Since Hazel Gayner passed away, records have been kept by her son, Dean Gayner. Ice out is the date that 90-100% of the ice is off the lake.
Meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
The next LWIA Board meeting will be Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 7 p.m. at the Dassel Rod & Gun Club. Please advise if you are unable to attend.
Presented by
Tom Hauer, substituting for secretary Steve Ullom