Minutes of Horseshoe Lake Public Inland Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District Annual Meeting

Meeting Date: August 19, 2017

Call to order at 9:05 AM by President Craig Nackerud with approximately 35 people in attendance.

Healthy Lakes program, grant options
Marie Hauser discussed the many best practices owners can do to keep the lake clean. Rain gardens, native plantings (benefits include less water, better adapted, survive winter, feed wildlife), runoff diversion strips, and French drains (infiltration trenches) drains. If property owners are interested, there are Wisconsin's Healthy Water grants available from state, with applications due by February 1. See: http://tinyurl.com/healthylakes. Potential cost-share grant award is $1000 per project, with a maximum of $25,000. Lake district will reimburse up to $100 for planning costs and $200 total on DNR approved projects. Dave Blumer has names of people to help with planning. Contract Marie Hauser if interested and maybe get ½ day of person to visit interested people.

Boat landing inspection and Clean Boats/Clean Waters grant
Pam Nelson explained that we were able to get this grant in 2017, with new grant available in 2018. This is a real plus, because boat inspections are our first line of defense in keeping invasive species out of the lake and we need to do the boat inspection anyway as part of our lake management plan. We need 50-100 volunteer hours to be able to cover our expenses with the grant, but we need another 40 hours of commitments through mid-September on Friday, Saturday, Sunday - first thing in morning, 4-6 in afternoon. Contact Jack Sullivan to volunteer for weekend coverage. Also Zebra mussels are becoming an issue in MN/WI. See Can use a 10% bleach would kill mussels. (Lake Pepin is biggest source). Live wells and bilges are key culprits for spreading pests. Big McKensey lake has zebra mussels and concerns about deer lake. Also looking for people to help Peralas identify purple loose strip and clean out plants. Beetle collection in the spring is part of the control options.

Summary of the 2016 water quality testing
Dave Blumer gave a recap of last year's projects. Sampling showed tributaries were pretty high for nutrient inflow, so we are looking at that again. Internal load analysis through UW-Stout helps evaluate where nutrients go back into the lake. Trying to determine how much of green we are seeing in the lake is based on nutrients (phosphorous) already at the bottom of the lake? Working on future recommendations and can look at what key priorities are and what grants may be available (grants for plant surveys). Remember - with grants, volunteer hours are important to minimize the amount of cash we need to spend vs what we get back. Remind people to pull milfoil if they see it.

2017 Expenses
Key variance was the remaining 2016 grant expenses we need to pay (didn't get bills in 2016) and are waiting for reimbursement. While we treated fewer acres for Milfoil that we planned, we had to use higher rates due to deeper water, but still slightly under budgeted amount. We also had good interest income as CDs matured and were transferred to Lake District accounts. Current Balances: HLIA Checking: $367.06; Lake District Money Market: $11,704.75: CDs: $10,112.06 (not counting remaining 2016 cost share due from state)

Communications
Trying to determine the best way to communicate with lake owners. We now have a Facebook page plus our hlake.org website. Our email list and directory information is going to be harder to keep current (depends on counties, by for address only). It was discussed that we should do an updated directory in 2018, probably send out a request for information in the spring when we send out the summer schedule.

New Business

Tom stark was named our parliamentarian.

Discussed whether to fund a dock at the boat landing. Originally this was going to be a donation, but that fell through. Motion and seconded to approve $5000 to purchase a dock. Liability would be assumed by Beaver Township (agreed at one of their 2016 meeting). Key points where that the dock would help getting boats in and out of the lake, but might also increase boat traffic from off outside of the lake. Someone would also need to be responsible to maintain and adjust. Motion failed.

Speed signs on S Horseshoe. Concerned that we will continue to see increased traffic due to the construction in Turtle Lake. We have seen state patrol more actively present. Polk County Sherriff could put a electric sign up again if needed.

Election of new commissioner. Tom Ludy was the only candidate to agree to run (Craig Nackerud is not running again). He was elected by unanimous vote. Please consider volunteering to run in the future as we elect one commission each year. (Steve Eichman term up in 2018, Joe Waldo in 2019.)

Discussed 2018 proposed budget. No major changes, other than we are assuming we will get Clean Waters/Clean Boats grant in 2018. The 2018 tax assessment would be $9300 (average of appr. $39/property). Motion was made and seconded to approved the budget. Motion was carried. The approved Lake District budget for the 2017 calendar year is shown below:

        

Formal meeting adjourned at 10:35.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Joe Waldo - Lake District Secretary/Treasurer
Horseshoe Lake Public Inland Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District

Note: After meeting, it was discussed forming a committee to plan social and public relations functions. Group feels it is important to make sure we continue to boat parade, park cleanup, picnic, etc, but question whether this is part of Lake District function. Pam Nelson and Sam Lindquist will gather volunteers and suggestions, then it can be presented and discussed at a future committee meeting.

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