Lake Washington Association Board Meeting September 6, 2011
Board Members Present:

Kim Winter John Fink Ken Klehr Lyle Walker

Pat Hanson Bill Ooley Milt Lueneburg Cathy Klehr

Steve Grotbo Steve Ullom Sandy Wosmek Mike Wosmek

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

PAID MEMBERSHIPS: 220

1) Call meeting to order 7 PM by President Ken Klehr

2) Introduction of Interested Candidates for open Board position – Sandy Wosmek attended this meeting and along with her husband Mike have volunteered to be on LWIA Board and serve out the remainder of the one term that is open.

3) Secretary’s Report August 3rd Board Meeting – approved for publication

4) Treasurer’s Report August – Invasive Species $74,835 General Fund 53,297 Total $128,132.

The annual premium for the Board’s liability insurance of $1216 is due. This is a $25 increase from last year. Pierce Agency of Litchfield is the agent and West Bend is the insurer. There was a discussion about the cost and exactly what is covered. Kim W. relayed that the policy protects the board from liability, possible medical expenses, and theft. She was going to ask around to see what others might charge for the same coverage. The board approved paying this.

2011 Directory Status – Everyone agreed the directories looked GREAT. The cost was $3430.11, LWIA had to pay sales tax on the printing of the directory. Lyle W. explained we are not exempt from paying sales taxes on this expense. We took in for advertising $3500 + credit of $75 from PLM and Crow River Printing.There are about six advertisers that have not gotten a copy of the book.One of the ads, for some reason the phone numbers were not readable.Cathy K. reported that Shoreline Captains have the directories. Chris and Steve UIlom and Cathy K delivered many books to the south side of the lake, because we did not have Shoreline Captains for these areas. Cathy K. attached the property owners names and addresses to ALL the directories. This made delivery much easier and we will be able to better track those that did not get their books.The goal is to have all possible books delivered by the next board meeting.Some people have already closed up for the season and others have left for the winter. It was talked about contacting people at their permanent addresses to facilitate delivery of the directory. Suggested we have Rick F. put out an email notice that the books are being delivered and if people did not get one to contact us.

Some suggestions of things to have in the directory were: copy of Membership card, request for donations, and LWIA’s email address. Board agreed we should add the email address to the top of our Newsletters.

6) Eurasian Water milfoil Treatment/Grant – 68.5 acres were treated on Aug. 23. There was some question about if this was too late for treatment? Joe Eisterhold (Invasive Species Specialist, DNR) and Patrick ( PLM) agreed that as long as it was actively growing, which it was, the treatment will have a positive impact on reducing the EWM population in the treated areas. The Post Treatment Assessment will be on September 8, Patrick and Joe are scheduled to be there for this inspection. There was some question about how this treatment might affect swimming, fishing, and using lake water for plants. Patrick (PLM) and the MPCA state that there is little to no affect on any of these activities from the chemical used for treatments. The cost for this treatment was $31,281. We have submitted the request for the $10000 grant from the DNR and Ken K will submit a request to MCAL for the $4000 they have set aside for LWIA treatments this year.

7) Cormorant Committee Status – Milt L. reported that they are continuing to work on scheduling a meeting with the state and Federal officials. He did note the Lake Waconia did get permission to kill about 500 cormorants, but this was on private property. Also, many more area lake associations are joining in on the effort to look at the possible damage cormorants are doing to our area lakes.

8) Pot Luck 8/6 Review – The board agreed the food was great and we had a very good meeting. About 77 people attended. A special thank you to B & B Sports of Hutchinson for paying for the pulled pork and buns.

9) PLM test results NW corner Lake Washington – PLM at the Board’s request did some additional water testing in the Northwest corner of the lake. They noted phosphorus and oxygen was within accepted levels, but dissolved solids were a bit high for our lake. PLM couldn’t explain this, but there is a culvert that comes into the lake in that area. Ken K and Bill Ooley volunteered to try and do a walk around in that area, in hopes of getting a better idea of where this culvert comes from across Cnty. 14.

10) DNR Decontamination Lake Washington – Joe E. from DNR Invasive Species is trying to get power washers to Lake Washington (Ellsworth Landing) for one day this year to power wash off boats coming and leaving the lake.

11) Fall Newsletter – We are looking at mid October for the deadline for articles to be submitted. Ken will contact Rick F. about sending out the template.

12) New Board Member Discussions – see item #2 above.

13) County Zoning Ordinance Change “Delete Hardship” – In the past, if a person applying for a zoning variance could prove a “hardship” it was virtually impossible to not approve the waiver. Now many counties, including Meeker are taking the “hardship” clause out of their zoning ordinances.

14) Open Discussion – LWIA’s meeting schedule for 2012 is: May 5^th Annual Meeting and Aug 4 Pot Luck Dinner, John F. will contact the Rod ‘n Gun Club to reserve these dates.

Website Update: Steve G reported in the last 30 days 46 new people have come on to our website. We get on average 60 people per month on our website.

Crow River Joint Powers are looking at sections of the North Crow River that are considered impaired. They are having meetings on Sept. 13 and 14 to talk about the testing they are going to do, to better assess the needs for action and development of a treatment plan.

There was a question, from a member, about using Pay Pal for membership and donations made to LWIA. The board decided not to pursue this for various reasons.

PLEASE NOTE MEETING CHANGE FOR OCTOBER

Next Board Meeting Tuesday 10/11 @ 7 PM Dassel Rod & Gun Club. Last meeting for 2011.