Lake Washington Association Board Meeting May 8, 2012
Board Members Present:

Kim Winter John Fink Ken Klehr Mike Wosmek

Sandy Wosmek Cathy Klehr Bill Ooley Tom Hauer

Rick Fernstrom Steve Ullom

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

Laura Hardstad a reporter from “Dockside Magazine” attended the meeting because Lake Washington will be a featured lake in the next edition.

Treasurer Report: Invasive Species Fund $57,855.89; General Fund $53,566.00

1)  Meeting called to order 7PM – by Ken Klehr

2)  Secretary’s April 3rd Report – Report was approved for publication with minor spelling changes.

3)  Treasurer’s April Report – Total amount in our accounts as of May 1 is $111,424.78. Report for fiscal year 4/30/2011 to 5/1/2012 showed expenses to be $6,560.68 more than our income for the year. This was the result of treating nearly 70 acres of milfoil. Ken K shared that over the years we have spent about $160,000 on milfoil treatments.

4)  Election of Officers – the following officers were elected on a voice vote:
    President – Ken Klehr,
    Vice President – Rick Fernstrom,
    Treasurer – Lyle Walker,
    Secretary – Steve Ullom

5)  LWIA 2012 Budget (5/01/12 – 4/30/12) Lyle Walker, Treasurer, prepared a budget for the fiscal year of that was approved by the board. This included the treatment of about 70 acres of milfoil for this year.

6)  Annual Meeting Review/Improve – Counted 121 people attending the meeting. Tom Lyke’s presentation on Purple Martins was very interesting and well received. The food was outstanding – Thank you John. Kim W. will check with B&B Sports about helping with the cost of the pulled pork for the Aug. Pot Luck.

7)  Spring Newsletter Mailing – One box of spring newsletters got missed for the initial mailing and didn’t get sent out until May 2. This is the first time this has happened and Kim W. will check with them about being sure to get all the newsletters sent on time. More people are interested in advertising in the newsletter, some have already paid for the whole year. Board agreed the way Rick laid out the newsletter looked great.

8)  Recording Ice Out – The Board approved giving Dean Ganer special recognition for his many years of recording ice out on Lake Washington. We will give him a Lake Washington mug. Kim W. will order this. Jenna & Terry O’Brien – Jenna is Dean’s, daughter have volunteered to continue recording ice out dates.

9)  Cormorant & Pelican Committee Update – Rick F. reported that a letter has been sent to the DNR and politicians from our area on state and federal levels (copy of the letter is in the newsletter), and have not received any responses. Rick F., Milt L., Ron B., Tom H., Bill O, and Ken K have continued to work with other lake associations in the area to gather and present data that accurately represents the impact cormorants can and do have on our lakes. George Cramer from Collinwood Lake has been working with Rick to gather information on numbers of fish per acre in our lakes. The UM is doing a count of cormorants on Pigeon Lake, by taking pictures of the island. The DNR will be doing its fish survey in July, with results available in early winter.

10) Invasive Species Committee Update – The committee will be going out on the lake this week to begin regular inspections of areas recently treated and targeted areas for future treatments. They will be asking Trevor from PLM to join them. The committee is working to get our GPS way points to correspond to PLM’s and the DNR. We are waiting for PLM to get us way points that we can use and by having them join us during some of the surveys they can better coordinate way points with all parties involved. The permitting process was made easier this year and ours is in the mail for 70 acres for 2012. There is more grant money in the pot this year ($1.3 million) and we know we will be getting some grant dollars. There are new rules about putting boats, lifts, docks, etc. into waters from infested waters: you need to keep this equipment out of the water for 21 days before installing. DNR will be doing vegetation survey of Lake Washington in May and again in July or August to help better identify native and exotic species locations and numbers in our lake.

11) Shoreline Captains Committee Update – Cathy Klehr has scheduled a Shoreline Captains meeting for Saturday May 19^th 10 am at her house. We are still in need of shoreline captains for the south side. Cathy is looking at an end of the year party and of ways to recognize these people. She is looking at caps or mugs with Shoreline Captain on them. Cathy is sending a thank you note to people who contributed $50 or more to the lake association. She is printing these at home and the board approved paying for ink cartridges for her printer.

12) LWIA email address Crime Alert & Lake Communication – Rick F. asked Mike Engle to update features on our website so Steve G. can add information. Ron Bubony has agreed to help improve the website. There was a discussion about emailing newsletters out to people that have given us permission to send electronic copies to them. Rick will check with Mike Engle about how LWIA can send out mass emails. The Crime Alert appears to be working well.

13) Membership Survey class=e>Committee Status – Steve, Kim W., and Pat Hansen will begin meeting in June to look at questions we want to ask, formatting, data collection, and how we can use this information to improve our actions as a board.

14) Website Activity – Tabled for next meeting.

15) Minnesota Waters Forward Info Board Members – Board approved three memberships in MN Waters, with Ken forwarding their newsletters and updates to all other board members. (Update – on May 14, 2012 Minnesota Waters placed their organization in a dormant state and are no longer operating.)

16) Open Discussion – There was a discussion about the large number of tires that are along the County 14 and this led to looking at LWIA sponsoring a clean up day. Bill Ooley and Kim W. will explore potential partners and how we can undertake such a task. LWIA did sponsor a clean up day about 10 years ago that was very well received.

   There was a question about when the port-a-potty would be installed at the Ellsworth Landing, it was not there on the week of April 30. Kim W. will call DNR about this.

   Cathy K. is keeping track of houses that are for sale on the Lake. She will keep this current information for the Shoreline Captains.

Next Board meeting June 5 – 7PM at Dassel Rod ‘n Gun Club