Lake Washington Association Board Meeting March 13, 2012
Board Members Present:
| John Fink Ken Klehr Pat Hanson Steve Ullom | Dean Shaner Tom Hauer Trevor Varilek-PLM | Mike Wosmek Sandy Wosmek Cathy Klehr Rick Fernstrom |
Board Members please let someone know if you are not able to attend.
Treasurer Report: Invasive Species Fund $103,047 ; General Fund $4,297.38
PAID MEMBERSHIPS:
1) Call meeting to order 7PM. Ken Klehr, President
2) PLM introduction new contact Trevor Varilek, Regional Manager. Review 2011 Water Quality Test Results. Discuss 2012 Water Quality Testing and 2012 Eurasian watermilfoil chemical application strategy.
Trevor will be our new contact person at PLM. He lives in St. Cloud, making it easier for him to connect with us. He reviewed our 2011 Water Quality report: All areas except TSS (total suspended solids) were within the normal/average range for lakes in our region. After a discussion about the unusually high TSS level 16 mg/l. (normal is 3-8 mg/l). The board asked for a price on doing additional testing of TSS in May, June, and August. Trevor will get back to us with the cost for this. He will also look in to the cost of doing sampling/testing of Lake Darwin. Ken will contact Trevor to set up meeting on the lake while doing vegetation survey, so GPS devices can be set up and coordinated so LWIA, PLM, and DNR can exchange way points and other lake data.
3) Dean Shaner covering the January 5th, 2012 Legacy Stakeholders Forum held in St Paul.
Dean reported on attending the three day Legacy Stakeholders Form and MN DNR Round Table in St. Paul, Jan 5,6,&7, 2012. The funding being talked about is the LCCMR (lottery money) and Legacy Amendment = 3/8th of 1% of the sales tax money. This amounts to about $270 million per year. The focus was on accountability of legacy amendment funds to the public. The Basic guidelines for the Lessard Sam’s Outdoor Heritage Council are: Restore, Protect, and Preserve wetlands, prairies, forests, and habitat for fish, game, and wildlife. These monies are intended to supplement and not supplant the work or monies of the MN. DNR. Gov. Dayton talked about the importance of Natural Resources to Minnesotans and the AIS (aquatic invasive species) we have to deal with in MN. Discussions and presentations were made on DNR strategic directions, budget oversight, the important part agriculture plays in all of this. With limited budgets, the DNR and other agencies have to rely on the work of private individuals and organizations to get things done. Some of the LCCMR money had been used to in the general fund to balance the budget. Dean reports most groups associated with the Legacy Amendment (Clean Water Fund 33%, Outdoor Heritage Fund 33%, Parks and Trails 14.25%, & Cultural Heritage Fund 19.75%) were at this forum and able to account for how the monies are being spent in MN. $40,000 to $4 million are earmarked for small projects, these can consist of groups or clubs getting together to use matching money or through a leveraged grant. The individuals to contact are John Schroers (Legislative Caucus Chair) Shakopee, MN; Gary Leaf (Executive Director) Bloomington, Mn and Jamie Gagaware DNR Specialist in Grant Writing.� New AIS person in Hutchinson is Nick Brown.
4) Secretary’s Report October 11 2011and February 14, 2012. with corrections approved for publication
5) Treasurer’s Report October, November, December 2011, January and February 2012. approved
6) Cormorant & Pelican Impact Committee Update.
Rick F. reported the DNR’s response to the cormorant and pelican committees was based on fish population data collected from the early 1990’s showing lower populations back then. The fish populations have gone up and down over time. Just because the fish populations are down for the last two surveys, they do not believe this is the result of increased cormorant and pelican populations at Pigeon Lake. But they are going to a fish survey in 2012, using the same survey techniques as in the past to gather more information. Rick pointed out as cormorant and pelican populations increase other birds in the area are on the decline. Rick has been getting lots of calls from people in the Howard Lake and Cokato areas with similar concerns about the increased cormorant and pelican numbers. As more people hear about the cormorant problem they are voicing support for limiting the population of these two birds. There was some thought that the UM would be doing additional data collection, but it appears their report is final. The local DNR have concerns that individuals might act on their own. It was reported Rep. Kline will soon be presenting a bill in Washington to take cormorants out of the Federal programs and leave it up to the states.
7) Approve PLM 2012 Water Quality Assessment @ $1901 & 70 acres chemical treatment @ $455/acre. This is the last year of a 5 year contract with PLM. Started to negotiate with PLM’s Patrick Selter.
This is the last of the 5 year contract for Water Testing and Treatment we have with PLM. We will be having discussion with them later this year about future contract.
8) MCAL January Meeting Update/ $4000 Grant Request.
Awarded LWIA $3500 for water testing and milfoil treatments for 2012.
9) Watercraft Inspection Grant Discussion. Did not pursue due to 2012 AIS focus by the DNR, such as addition of 150 watercraft inspectors and 3 Invasive Species Specialist, purchase an additional high pressure decontamination units and inspection stations. Not this year.
10) Distribution 2011 Directory Status. Cathy K. is working on delivering the last 15.
11) Update of LWIA member email addresses for notification/information/announcements.
Rick F. has contacted Mike Engel to update mass email lists for LWIA. Rick and Steve G can update individual ones, but when there are many changes it is easier to do a mass update.
Spring Newsletter- Rick F. will be sending out the template, with expectation that all committees will have their information in by the next board meeting April 3. We need to look at listing committee members. The committees are: Invasive, Communication, Social, Shoreline Captains, Financial, Cormorant, and Survey. Rick will update membership postcard and order about 400. Rick will get Steve G. to make copy of Jim Wendling ad from the directory so we can run it in our Spring newsletter. There is no charge for this because his number was blurred in the directory. Rick has others that want to place ads in the newsletter.
12) Membership Survey Committee Status.
Steve U. reports that there was some discussion about what kind of information we want to collect and how to collect this. We have many surveys to look at, that will help us decide what information we want to collect and how LWIA will use this information. Committee meetings will be scheduled in the future.
13) Identify projects and or programs possible Legacy Funding.
The board will continue gathering possible ideas for projects and programs. There was some discussion about projects around the lake to limit runoff.
14) Open Discussion.
Based on MN Waters it looks like the DNR are focusing on using fines more as part of the AIS program.
AIS Symposium at Kelly Inn in St. Paul March 19-20th, Ken K. will attend.
Ryan Anderson, MPCA – will speak at the next Board Meeting (April 3).
Cathy K. is working on putting together a welcome packet for New Lake members.
Spring Membership meeting – John F. will order pork chops and the usual other foods to go with.
Ken K. will invite Lee Sundmark to speak at this meeting May 5th.
The next LWIA Board Meeting will be Tuesday April 3rd, 2012 7PM Dassel Rod & Gun Club. Guest speaker will be Ryan Anderson MPCA Municipal Wastewater Compliance.