Lake Washington Association Board Meeting March 10, 2015
Board Members Present:

Ken Klehr Sandy Wosmek Cathy Klehr

Pat Hanson Ron Bubany

Skip Sustacek Steve Ullom

Board Members please let someone know if you are not able to attend.

Treasurer Report: Invasive Species Fund $35,526; General Fund $66,647

PAID MEMBERSHIPS: 2

1) Call Meeting to order 7 PM – President Ken Klehr

2) Treasurer’s Oct-February Financial Report – tabled until the next meeting when Lyle can update the board on our financials from Oct. thru Feb.
   Approved using Piehl, Hanson, Beckman to do LWIA’s 4/30/15 year-end financial review and required tax reporting.

3) Open President Position – Ken K. will continue serving until new election of officers in June.

4) Shoreline Captains/Membership Committee Update – Cathy will send a mass email asking about new people on the lake. She will order 250 thank you cards and envelopes.

5) Cormorants & Pelicans Committee Status – tabled until next meeting.

6) Membership Survey Committee Report – Steve will be putting together an article for the Spring Newsletter providing more information on the action plans developed from the survey.

7) Website & Facebook Activity – tabled until next meeting.

8) Invasive Species Committee Update – Ken and Tom attended an AIS meeting in January. Tom wrote a very informative article for the Dassel Cokato Dispatch. The Committee met with Nick Brown and talked about continuing LWIA’s plan of treating 70 acres per year. Nick may want to do a more comprehensive vegetation survey once we have started our monthly vegetation survey. Applications have been submitted for grants to treat AIS, that is dependent on verified EWM infestations. The committee will be contracting with Lake Restoration to do EWM treatments this year. Ron B. shared with us how to use a concrete block tied to a rope off the end of the dock to look for zebra mussels.

9) Watershed Committee Report – Skip S. reports the new holding pond looks like it is functioning very well. He will be checking with Ahlgren about the tile intakes being redone. Skip is going to meet with Joe Norman (Meeker Co) to look at other areas of concern around the lake. We know there are 16 intakes on the lake.

10) Watercraft Inspection Committee – tabled until the next meeting. Ken reported Tom has submitted a grant to the DNR for water craft inspections.

11) Communications & Public Relations – Ken will check with Lyle regarding scheduling the Spring meeting on May 2 and August 1 for the Potluck @ the Dassel Rod ‘n Gun Club.

12) Spring Newsletter – Cathy has 3-4 people to advertise in the Newsletter. We talked about others that have advertised in the past. Ron B. will be putting the newsletter together so all ads and articles should be sent to him. The Board wants the newsletter to be in the mail April 15 or `16^th. Ron and Cathy will meet with Crow River Printers before we send the newsletter to coordinate enclosing membership cards and envelopes.

13) Overhead Projector Dassel Rod & Gun Club – Ken K. delivered the screen to Dassel Rod ‘n Gun Club and they will put it up.

14) Board Members with Term Expiring 2015
   Cathy Klehr   /   Skip Sustacek   /   Lyle Walker
   Steve Ullom   /   Mike & Sandy Wosmek   /   Replacement for Mary Braaten

15) MCAL Board Meeting January 15th Update including AIS Committee – Ken attended the January meeting and they want to focus on projects and paying for AIS treatments through the County AIS Committee. There next meeting is in mid April.

16) Aquatic Invaders Summit 2015 – The Meeker County AIS Committee has a plan they have submitted to the State regarding the moneys they are receiving. The Committee is in the process of brainstorming stages and ideas for what to do with the monies. They are looking at AIS treatments, Education, Supporting the DNR, …….

17) Water Quality Testing Review – Ken presented a summary of PLM’s water quality report from 2014, that included water quality testing and secchi disk readings at five sites on Lake Washington. Ken reported PLM would be raising their rate to $3000 for doing the water testing for 2015. Ken presented the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s water quality reporting for Lake Washington. All of the testing we have done that was submitted to MPCA is online. The overall condition of the water finds it suitable for swimming and wading, with good clarity and low signs of algae levels throughout open waters. Mercury levels in fish tissue exceed the water quality level for specific fish consumption. The trophic state index of 56 places Lake Washington in the eutropic range. This is similar to other lakes in this region of Minnesota.
   Ken K. put together a Plan for doing water testing: two sites (in the middle and at the culvert) we would do a secchi reading, temperature, and water tests for phosphorus and chlorophyll. The other three sites we have been doing water testing, we would do only temperature and secchi readings two times per month. The plan included LWIA signing up for and accept Citizens Lake Monitoring Program, that is administered by the MPCA. This would involve LWIA getting water samples to a certified testing lab (RMB Environmental Laboratories, Inc. near Brainerd) at a cost of $42 per site for each sample. The Board was unable to get a majority vote on this motion at this time. This was tabled until the next meeting.

18) Open Discussion – Skip will talk to B&B Sports about paying for the pork chops for the spring meeting. Crow River Watershed District is looking at getting involved with the county AIS committees.

   George Cramer – is looking at developing fish sticks (putting dead trees in the lake) to encourage pan fish habitat in their lake.

Next Board meeting Tuesday, April 7th @ 7 PM – looking to have it at the Dassel Rod ‘n Gun Club