Horseshoe Lake Public Inland Lake Protection Rehabilitation District Commissioner Meeting

Meeting Date: March 14, 2020 at Beaver Town Hall

Call to order at 9:30 AM by Commissioner Steve Eichman with Steve, Joe, and Roxy in attendance.

Minutes were approved.

Financial Report
Current balances are: $7,256.48 in Lake District Checking plus $17,711.02 in CD ($357.06 on HLIA account) and $22.00 in cash. We received a $750 advance from the DNR for 2020 Clean Water/Clean Boats grant (but will have to pay back 2019 advance) plus checks from the Town of Almena and Town of Beaver from tax payments.

Clean Boats/Clean Waters Grant.
We have been approved for a 2020 Clean Water/Clean Boat grant. Jack Sullivan is willing to coordinate again; we should try to find a co-coordinator. Also discussed checking with Boy Scouts, 4-H or FFA groups to see if this is something they could do as a project (and would help us with volunteer hours). Another potential option is contracting with LEAPS for some hours (our cost would be $15/hr, which would be cost-shared as part of our grant).

Purple Loostripe – We need to try to find someone to coordinate this effort as well. Would be good to stay on top of this before it gets out of control. Jeanne Perala has done this in the past.

Dam Cleanout
Thanks to everyone who helped with the beaver dam project and culver cleanout last fall. It allowed the lake level to drop a few inches before freeze up. Also thanks to Barron County who spent three days with a backhoe cleaning out the channel between Horseshoe and Echo lakes. A local trapper ended up getting several beavers back in November, but will have to keep an eye on them next spring again.

Water Gauge
Polk County is again asking us to put out a lake level gauge (which we did not have in 2019). Their surveyor would come out and set this for us and there would be no charge – just a requirement to do weekly readings. Tom Ludy volunteered to have it put in by his shoreline. We will let Polk County know.

Floating bogs
There were two blocking entrance to Mud Lake last fall, which were impossible to move. But when the lake level went back up a little this spring, they moved back out of the channel.

Boat Landing
At last meeting - it was agreed to pay for a load of gravel to clean up boat land approach at the Town Park. The township will take care of spreading it. We could not get it done for fall, but hope can get this done first thing in the spring.

2020-21 Planning grant
We have been approved for a two-year education and planning grant. This does not cover treatment, but does cover all of the activities we need to accomplish for developing our new five-year lake management plan due in 2022, as well as some additional activities we could and should do. Dave Blumer attended meeting to help discuss all of the projects involved over the next two years. We will discuss this further at our next board meeting. February if approved. Again - we will to find volunteers to help with the various projects that will need to be complete to help cover our share of the grant requirements).

Echo Lake Coordination
2019 was a reminder of how the ecosystems of the two lakes are linked and both lakes had similar issues from the storm. Echo Lake Association wrote a letter of support for our grant and we wrote one for them. We talked about having a joint board meeting with them at sometime this spring/summer and look for ways to work together. We might even include Upper or Lower Turtle Lake groups. We are a member of PCLAR (Polk County Lakes and Rivers) groups. No current group for Barron County, but we would be interested in being part of that if ever established.

New Business

2020 Milfoil Treatment Plan
The good news is that based on the fall survey, we have less than 1.5 acres of milfoil that would need to be treated (mainly in four areas in and outside of Buckwalls Bay). The bad news is the DNR denied our permit, because our lake management plan said we would only spray if more than 5 acres. LEAPS will do a pre-treatment survey to finalize how many acres. As the infected areas are in fairly shallow water and our current plan is to have an “Milfoil Education Day” some Saturday in mid-June (which would include manual removal of as much as possible).

Shoreline Restoration
While it is too late to get grants for 2020, we do want to try to provide a list of resources available for removing trees/stumps, finding new trees and erosion control mats for protecting lake from runoff for disturbed and reseeded areas. We will also do an update shoreline assessment sometime this spring.

Fish Sizes
We discussed whether to make a recommendation to DNR on fish size limites for the lake. Decided we would just add this to our annual meeting agenda to get owner thoughts on it.

The following dates were established for 2020:
- Annual spring cleanup at boat landing (may or may not be required – Roxy will check)
- July 4th Boat Parade, 2:00 pm.
- We need to decide if we will try to do a picnic again or at least one or two social functions (maybe tie into education requirements for our grant.
- Annual Lake District meeting date will probably be 9:00 AM on Saturday August 15, 202 at the Beaver Town Hall for all property owners.

Next Board meeting to be held at 9:30 AM May 16, 2020.

Formal meeting adjourned at 11:10.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Joe Waldo - Lake District Secretary/Treasurer
Horseshoe Lake Public Inland Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District

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