Lake Washington Association Board Meeting March 8, 2016
Board Members Present:
| Ken Klehr Mike Wosmek Sandy Wosmek Cathy Klehr | Pat Hanson Ron Bubany Skip Sustacek Steve Grotbo | Rick Fernstrom Steve Ullom David Rathe Dave Goff-property owner |
Board Members please let someone know if you are not able to attend.
Treasurer Report: Invasive Species Fund $40,521; General Fund $66,040
PAID MEMBERSHIPS: 1
1) Meeting called to order at 7 PM by President Ken Klehr at Mike and Sandy Wosmek’s thank you.
2) Secretary’s October Board Meeting Report – published on website in Oct. 2015.
3) Treasurer’s Oct-Jan Financial Report – Board approved treasurer’s reports for Oct. 2015 through January 2016.
4) Membership/Shoreline Captains Committee Update – Cathy K. reported one new membership already this year. We are short Shoreline Captains and need volunteers to help out. Cathy will put a call for help in the spring newsletter. She has some names and is working on a plan of reducing the numbers (30+) on some Shoreline Captains roster.
5) Cormorants & Pelicans Committee Status – Scott Mackenthun is the new Fisheries person at the Hutchinson DNR office. The committee will be reaching out to him and schedule a meeting to continue the dialogue regarding area lakes concerns about the cormorant population.
6) Website & Facebook Activity – Steve G. reports we are getting about one hit per day to our website, this compares to 3 per day during the summer. There are 89 likes on our Facebook page.
7) Invasive Species Committee Update – Surveys done by the committee in late summer and fall showed there were no zebra mussels found. The committee will be going out starting in May to do monthly vegetation surveys looking for milfoil, zebra mussels, and native vegetation densities. Our lake plan is to chemically treat about 70 acres of milfoil every year if needed. The DNR vegetation survey in 2015 found many sites of native plants, but no milfoil was found at that time. Dave R. reported the UM has a protocol for identifying zebra mussels, this involves using (zebra mussel settlement plates). Dave will talk to the UM about the cost and/or getting samples of the metal plates.
8) Watershed Committee Report – Skip S. reports there will be some more rocks added to the intake from the fields on the southwest pond built last year. Skip and Joe Norman (Meeker Co. Soil and Water) are looking at about 10 other tiles/drainage areas into Lake Washington. Skip showed the board a model of a tile outlet filtering system that is being looked at. Joe N. reported talking to the land owner about the ditch flowing into the lake near Ellsworth Landing, and the owner is looking at ways to slow the runoff into the lake. Also, other property owners around the lake are receptive to helping decrease the flow of runoff into the lake.
9) Watercraft Inspection Committee – Lake Washington is contracting with Environmental Sentry Protection, LLC out of Maple Grove for a ILIDS video monitoring system at the Ellsworth Landing. There is video announcement triggered by vehicle traffic and will monitor those using the landing.
The company does monitor the video and the committee will have access to these videos. The unit is solar powered and costs about $10,000. We have a grant that will help pay for this from Meeker County AIS Committee. There was a discussion about all the trash/litter left at the landing and the question was asked if there could be a garbage can at the landing?
10) Communications & Public Relations – Spring Newsletter articles are due to Ron Bubany by April 6.
11) Water Quality Testing – The Committee will begin testing in May. Testing will involve 1 water sample in the middle of the lake and secchi disk readings at 5 sites around the lake. There was a discussion about doing water testing at the inlet sites the Watershed committee is considering for some form of project. This information of before and after the project would help us know how effective our projects are.
12) Ron�s Fishing Contest 2016 – this is not happening.
13) 2016 Grant applications
Organization Dollars Description Status
MCAL 2500 Watershed Approved
AIS Com 4600 ILIDS Approved
AIS Com 5400 Chem. Treat. Approved
Meeker Cnty 300 Water Quality Test Approved
State 4999 Chem. Treat. Pending
14) Financial Support Sign Dassel Rod & Gun Club – tabled
15) Lake Management Plan Update –Dave R. has updated the management plan and will email it to board members to make comments.
16) Open Discussion –Dave G. new property owner on Lake Washington had some questions about how the Association works.
Next Board meeting Tuesday, April 5, 2016 @ 7 PM. Location to be determined.