Lake Washington Association Board Meeting February 19, 2008
Board Members Present:
| Bill Craig Kim Winter Jenna O’Brien Jen Kjell |
Dennis Westendorp Steve Ullom Cammy Moses |
John Fink Jim Wending |
Board Members please let someone know if you are not able to attend.
Treasurer Report:
Exotic Species Fund $51,263.24
General Fund $24,817
Interest 2008 $179.21 rate is 2.3% / for 2007 $2,547.42
Cookbooks sold 334 profit $1481.17. Jenna reported many businesses in the area have been very helpful with selling the cookbooks. She did get them a gift as a token of our appreciation.
PAID MEMBERSHIPS:
Patrick from Professional Lake Management reviewed the water testing from 2007. They did some testing of outlets and inlets. He noted the inlet from Stella in August had a higher rate of phosphorus. The test results showed Lake Washington falls within the average range for other shallow lakes in our eco-region. These results are shared with the MPCA. RMB Laboratories does all of their testing. Things they are looking at and have concerns about are endocrine disruptors which are things like atrazine. PLM is redoing their website with more links that can be of more use to lakes. He shared with us lakescaping can be decorative plants and does not need to be native plants to the lake. “It can look nice and slow runoff.” Patrick shared maps of milfoil they surveyed last fall. It showed about 200 acres of milfoil in various areas of the lake. He did note that lakeshore owners can treat in front of their property and are responsible for up to 150 feet in front of their property. Each property owner would need to get a permit that costs $35 but people could go together and get with a maximum cost being $750.
Discussed Lake Vegetation Management Plan: Recreational treatments by PLM would run $455/acre. We would need an updated Lake Improvement Plan and do a vegetation survey when presenting a Vegetation Plan to the state when applying for permits and grants. The board discussed developing a 3-5 year plan that would target rotating treatments on different parts of the lake each year. This plan could be to treat a percentage or certain number of acres of the milfoil or target specific areas of the lake each year. This plan would allow for some flexibility in how much and where we would treat each year. This type of plan would provide us with a means of doing some longer range planning and give us a dollar amount to include in these plans. Patrick offered PLM would do the point intercept vegetation survey of Lake Washington, at no additional charge, if we were willing to commit to having them do the treatments. They are going to be on the lake and could do this point intercept while doing their survey and testing. The board voted to accept this offer from PLM and commit to a service agreement for treatment of exotics at $455/acre, this includes a guarantee, that they will come back if the treatments are not effective. The Board approved water monitoring for 2008 at a cost of $1900. Board agreed to having Patrick (PLM) ask for a permit to treat 100 acres this year. We would target areas that are nearer property owners. Bill Craig will apply for grant money.
Old Business:
Minutes from Oct. 4, 2007 meeting and treasurers report approved for publication.
New Business:
John Fink reported Spring Fling is scheduled for March 30 at Peter’s in Litchfield. We will send out postcards announcing this, Kim W. will get the card to Jean Ward and Jenna will get labels printed. We will include information about where to purchase cookbooks.
Updating Lake Improvement Plan….Steve update this as other members provide information to be added. Bill has already submitted information that is included in the plan. Steve will get this out to others for their feedback. We need this done by mid March so it can be included with the grant application which is due April 16.
Spring newsletter: We sent out about 410 newsletters last fall, suggestion was to print up 450 for this spring, allowing for some extras to have at the spring picnic (May 3) and to share with interested parties. Rick F. will send out newsletter template, with the expectation that all committees will have their information included by the next meeting (April 1). This will give us time to get the newsletter out the first part of April.
The Board suggested we form a committee to explore the formation of a Lake Improvement District. Steve will gather information to share with the board and assist with planning.
The Board decided, because this meeting was so late in February that we would not meet on the first Tuesday of March.
Next Meeting:
April 1, 2008 7:00 pm – Rod ‘n Gun Club