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Cedar Lake
Cedar Lake Improvement District meeting notes from January 17, 2017 at the New Prague Public Library
Attendees: Marie Jaeger, Jon Nordrum, Dave Nielsen, and Gary Morrison
Agenda Items Discussed:
Marie brought the meeting to order.
Dave presented the treasurer’s report covering November and December income and expenses.
Dates for CLID events were scheduled as follows: Lake Clean Up (weather and lake condition dependent) is Sunday March 12, Annual Meeting is Tuesday April 11, and the Carp Kabob is May 19-20 (weather dependent).
Gary Morrison, chair of the Leave No Trace lake cleanup, noted that success from the first clean-up in 2015 was aided by handing out garbage bags to each of the ice houses for use in cleaning up each area. While the ice was not stable enough to hold the event in 2016, he was able to pass out the garbage bags the weekend of the ice house removals. Gary then went out to pick up remaining debris and found minimal amount overall. In both years, it seemed like there was a lot less debris left behind. We heard this from many residents. The board decided to disburse the bags at the end of February to get them to those fishermen who leave a week earlier than the DNR deadline. It was agreed that Dave would purchase the 40-gallon garbage bags to disburse to fishermen and Marie will purchase the bags to hang on ice houses with garbage bags and notification of cleanup information inside. She will also revise and get those notifications printed. Everything will be brought to the February board meeting to assemble and give to Gary for eventual disbursement. Marie will draft a notification to put on the website regarding the event and volunteer opportunity.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, the board met separately with Melissa Bokman of Scott Water Management Organization (SWMO) and Patrick Selter of PLM (lake treatment company) to discuss continued control of curly leaf beyond the approved treatments in the Lake Vegetation Plan. All were agreed that spot treatments of discovered curly leaf pond weed would be necessary or it would just take over the lake eventually. A plan was discussed for locating and eventually treating those areas. Additional funds would need to be budgeted in the previous year and approval given by the DNR for treatment. Melissa and Marie attended a meeting with the DNR in St. Paul in December to discuss the possibility of getting approval for spot treating new areas beyond the designated and approved areas. It was agreed that all three organizations (DNR, CLID and SWMO) had already invested a lot of funds into cleaning up the curly leaf and it would be necessary to keep monitoring the lake and treat pockets as they are found. The DNR representatives at this meeting approved of the plan and will seek further approval within the DNR where CLID board members/volunteers would locate the curly leaf in late spring as they surface so Melissa and/or the DNR could verify the areas for budgeting and treatment the following year. This was very good news.
This last fall SWMO had hired a company to insert radio transmitters into 20 carp in Cedar Lake in an effort to learn more about the carp activities and to also locate them this winter in order to remove them as they pool together in the winter. Melissa has gone out on the lake a couple times to locate them. A commercial fisherman will bring a crew and sein with large nets to remove as many carp as possible from the lake. It is difficult to know when that will occur in January or February but we hope to get a little advance notice so it can be posted on our website.
Board directors whose 3-year terms expire in April are Gary Morrison and Jon Nordrum. Jon will be retiring. Gary would retire if there are volunteers to replace him on the board. Marie will contact anyone who has completed an application and has indicated they are interested as an opening occurs. Jon has a couple recruits that he will verify if they are interested as well.
The next board meeting will be Monday, February 13, from 6:30-8 p.m. at the New Prague Public Library.