Lake Washington Association Board Meeting September 3, 2013
Board Members Present:
| John Fink Ken Klehr Sandy Wosmek Lyle Walker | Cathy Klehr Pat Hanson Tom Hauer Ron Bubany | Skip Sustacek Rick Fernstrom Steve Ullom |
Board Members please let someone know if you are not able to attend.
Treasurer Report: Invasive Species Fund $15,517; General Fund $66,461
PAID MEMBERSHIPS: 216
1) Call meeting to order – by President Ken Klehr.
2) Secretary’s August Board Meeting Report – additions made to August minutes regarding about 58% of properties on Lake Washington are year round homes.
3) Treasurer’s August Report – board approved treasurer’s report for August. Liability insurance for the board is due to the Pierce Agency in Litchfield, the total is $1239.00 per year, and board approved paying this.
4) Shoreline Captains Committee Update – Lake Association memberships for 2013 is 216, we had 217 last year. Cathy has sent out 86 Thank you notes to people contributing $50 or more to fire department, invasive species, etc. Six more surveys were turned in totally about 226 which is equivalent to 69% return.
5) Cormorants & Pelicans Committee Status – We are waiting for Lee/Jack/Skip to get back to us about scheduling the next meeting. Rick F. will do a follow up email regarding when and where for the next meeting with the DNR.
The board had a discussion about an article in the most recent Dockside about all the birds in the area. We do have a question: Can we do water testing on Pigeon Lake?
6) Membership Survey Committee Report – Steve U. reported 25% of the surveys are entered on a spreadsheet. We have randomly numbered all the surveys and have a word document listing all the written comments correlated to the surveys by their number.
7) Website & Facebook Activity – Steve G. not in attendance, tabled until next meeting
8) Invasive Species Committee Update – They are working on completing assessment of the lake vegetation next week. The committee did an assessment with PLM in areas treated by them this year and found the treatments to be very effective. Noted they are also, looking at native vegetation and have noted there is a lot of clasping pond weed this year. Ken talked about MN COLA op ed piece looking at how and where money is being spent on inspections and decontamination of boats. It appears the present focus is on preventing spread of invasive on high rate/risk lakes. It has been reported there are zebra muscles in a Wright County Lake. Ron B. shared a graph with us showing the number of lakes with milfoil and how this number continues to increase at a very continuous rate. There are 163 lakes in Minnesota with zebra mussels and the inspection plan doesn’t focus on stopping the spread.
9) Watershed Committee Report – Ken K. reported Joe Norman, Soil and Water Conservation Meeker Co. has an engineering company from St. Cloud developing a plan for the area in the southwest corner of the lake.
New Grant of $124,200 to CROW, MPCA, LWIA and 9 other Lakes Focus on Non impaired Lakes has been awarded, this is a plan we talked about in the spring and as a board agreed to join in this study. CROW will do a “Watershed Analysis” looking at total maximum daily load = what contaminants can come in or are in the lake without affecting the water quality. We agreed to pay $500 as our share of this study.
A new culvert has been installed under 233rd Street on the west side of Cedar Point.
10) Fall Newsletter – Rick F. will send out the template so committees can have articles completed by Oct. 5 or 6, with the idea of getting the newsletter print ready by Oct. 15.
Next Spring the board will review ad costs at $40 1/4 page,$60 1/2 page and $80 full page
Email Newsletter – There was a discussion about when and how can we identify who we can send email copies of the newsletter. Presently Rick F. sends a mass email with the newsletter link. There was a discussion about how we can identify who chooses to get email newsletter. We do have this information on our membership cards and need to figure out how we can get this information updated to our mailing list. Rick F. and Steve G are continuously updating our email list. Board set a goal of sending email newsletters to those that want an electronic copy based on the 2014 membership cards.
Competitive cost for printing newsletter – Tom H. did some comparative pricing of four different printers for printing our newsletters and the board decided we would continue with Crow River Press.
Logistics Newsletter Printing to Mailing – Rick F. will notify Kim W. and Tom H. that the newsletter has been sent to Crow River Press. Rick will also ask Sara at Crow River to contact Kim W. and Tom H. when the newsletters are ready for stuffing.
11) Open Discussion
Next Board Meeting Tuesday, October 1 @ 7 PM Dassel Rod & Gun Club.