March Meeting Agenda

BOARD MEETING MINUTES
MARCH 16TH, 2020

Members on Go-To-Meeting: 

Brian Wallace, President
Dan Larson, past President
Mike Bialka, Secretary
Bob Nelson, Treasurer

Board Members:

AIS: Dan Larson
Fishery/Water Quality: Derek Hendrickson
Communications: Bill Samardich
Water Level/Shoreline Care: Loren Beilke

Meeting called to order 7:05 p.m. Motion by Dan, second by Loren, passes unanimously

Brian: Been visiting with Bob about treasury and bylaws, Bob copied bylaw example from West Battle Lake Association, also copied articles of incorporation from there, changed to WSLA, discussion if we should decide to become a 5013c

Brian: Membership committee might be biggest committee

Brian: Tim Plude, offered to come to the 2020 annual meeting, earlier evening works best for Plude, Loren offers his backyard again as an annual meeting location. 

MOTION TO SET MONDAY JUNE 15, 2020, AS DATE OF ANNUAL MEETING, MIKE MOVED, DEREK SECOND, MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY

NEXT BOARD MEETING IS SET FOR MONDAY, APRIL 20. BRIAN WOULD LIKE TO HAVE ALL COMMITTEE MEMBERS AT THE APRIL 20 MEETING. DATE AND SITE PENDING DUE TO CORONOAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Bob: WSLA has switched bank account to Bremer Bank, current checkbook balance $7,690.90, WSLA has an EIN, budget was discussed, what are expenses, what is income, Brian and Bob have talked about finding sponsors for newsletters as part of WSLA revenue stream, email as many lake residents as possible, Bob is gathering email addresses, Bob has a Square account, people can pay dues by credit card, hoping raise $6,000 thru association dues, possibly increase annual membership dues to $50 from $20, big expense will be AIS control, if have ability to clean up lake more would be nice to have contingency fund for that

$50 base membership, hoping members join at higher level, could raise approximately $6,000 based on 140 members at $50 apiece

Loren moves to table budget until April board meeting, seconded by Bill, motion passes unanimously

Dan: Never has cost WSLA for DNR stocking lake, in 2011 there were 4500 fingerlings stocked, stocked every other year, stocking done in pounds, about 600 pounds being stocked, now stocking 3 fish that weigh about a pound apiece, bigger fish but fewer numbers, on 4-year cycle

Dan: WSLA eligible for $3,000 grant from Crow Wing County in 2020, have to conduct survey to justify treatment, have to complete application for invasive permit, need to have map where going to treat, how much acreage, all of this has to be approved by Plude before treatment can commence, have to send invoice to CWC, show that treatment was performed, record of invoice paid, CWC will reimburse

Looked into a DNR grant but that is more involved, more complex, WSLA could have received up to $7,000 from DNR, but that grant wouldn’t pay for complex treatment process, surveyor can’t do treatment, treated 5 areas on lake in 2019, WSL is about 1.7 acres, treatment guy believes he got good treatment in all 5 affected areas, he doesn’t expect we’re going to have treat those areas much more, noticed on maps, Ron Duy of Central Minnesota Aquatics, Inc., did sporadic treatment of plants along shoreline on about 60-70% of WSL, AIS was not in a big cluster, Plude probably wouldn't give WSL permission to spray, alternative is hand pulling of AIS, if hire dive guys they charge $300 hour, maybe year away from dealing with it, would have to get permission from each household if wanted to do hand pulling, 70-80 households on WSL, Plude willing to training volunteer divers, Dan recommends we go with hand pulling by volunteers

Dan: Talked to Plude, we could conduct survey justifying treatment, Duy didn’t think WSL would have to do extensive survey which in 2019 cost $2500, Duy thought would be less in 2020, put in newsletter and WSL Facebook page a need for volunteer divers, also emails to all households WSL has email addresses for, will need number of boats, someone to run boats, boats would dispose of materials, would need to keep other boats away from divers, Loren volunteers to dive, believes he could find more from MN School of Diving

Dan: WSL will see 70% increase in number of inspection hours at WSL access, average 2 inspections per hour, inspections will increase from 300 to 520 hours, DNR hiring 60 people to do inspections, also hiring lead inspector

Derek: Fisheries and water quality: Want to meet with DNR to discuss fishery of lake, how to get WSL fishery back into better balance, Derek was on 2 areas of lake this winter, not lot of garbage left by ice anglers, lot of holes drilled, so was lot of pressure, Derek didn’t get to west side toward Harrisons, was lot of traffic there, hoping to walk around weekend of March 21-22, many houses by Pecariches

Loren: Discussion again about having Red Sand residents join with WSLA, Brian Twamley lives on RSL, Loren knows him best, would like to get to know gentleman that has Ditch 10 outflow running across his property, 

Bill: Website will be new venture for us, new product builder based website hosting, format that has huge database, it’s like self-building program, allows users to make changes, can cut and paste, point and click, many companies do this, Bill’s opinion 9 sites worthy of calling professionals, he narrowed them down to 3, each has pros and cons, Squarespace, Wix and GoDaddy, Bill recommends Squarespace, has unlimited space

We have 68 emails of WSL residents

Website: Squarespace Business Commerce plan, domain name could be whitesandlakemn.org, Bob moves, Derek seconds, motion passes unanimously, cost is $350 annually

Loren: Ditch 10, there are 40-50 years of data regarding lake levels, has been 9-foot variation in last 30 years of WSL, lake level in RSL is more stable, trend we see is levels are merging, flow of surface water, Loren convinced Ditch 10 very critical to our lake, 10 feet during highwater, low water level will see WS drop down 6 to 8 feet, critical we maintain 10 feet for water level, about 3 inches low right now but that’s before snow melts

Bob moves to adjourn, Bill seconds, adjourned at 9:05 p.m. March 16

ALL COMMITTEE CHAIRS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS SHOULD ATTEND THE NEXT MEETING.

Here is what I have so far. Please recruit other people if you would like and add them to your committee. (I will invite all that I have info on) The more the better from my perspective.

AIS:  Dan Larson (Chair)
Chuck Rodgers
Rosalie Rodgers
Jim Hunt

Membership:  Matt Pecarich (Chair)
Dinah Sundberg
John Zemke
Rebecca Souhrada
Others...

Fishery/Water Quality: Derek Hendrickson (Chair)
Mike Zauhar
Joel Clough

Social: Jennifer Pedersen (Chair)
Jim Verville
Mavis Verville
Mary DeVahl
Rebecca Souhrada

Communications: Bill Samardich (Chair)
Grace Larson

Water Level/Shoreline Care: Loren Beilke (Chair)
Hal Leland
Bud Reponen
Lauren Mizner