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Cedar Lake
Cedar Lake Improvement District notes from our meeting on October 9th, 2012 6:30 - 8:00 pm at the New Prague Public Library Meeting Room -
Attendees: Tom Heid, Mike Speltz, Marie Jaeger, Lowell Mohn, Dave Nielsen, Brad Eller and guest Melissa Bokman - Sr. Water Resources Planner from Scott County Natural Resources/Scott Watershed Management Organization
Topics discussed:
Melissa Bokman, Senior Water Resources Planner for Scott County Natural Resources, advised of the following updates on Cedar Lake:
1. The first project is a 50-foot extension of the pipe that feeds Cedar Lake from the south which is several hundred yards from the inlet to the lake. This is part of a project to improve the south end of the lake for improving the quality of water that enters into the lake. The project includes digging a small creek with several curves in it from the end of the pipe to the lake. The project also includes adding stepping stones to walk on from around the area. The project is being funded by an LCCMR grant of $100,000 and a match of $100,000 from the WMO. The Parks Dept is the lead project manager for the project.
2. The second project is a reshaping of the north end of the lake along Cty Rd 64 to restore the area where people were pulling off the road and parking. The goal here is to again to improve water quality runoff, stopping erosion, and to make the area more like the natural habitat around it. This project is being funded from grant money left over from a BWSR grant which helped stabilize 900' of shoreline on the north side of Cedar Lake Farm Park. The project includes planting of a few hundred natural habitat plants, creating a rain garden and adding a cedar split rail fence to protect the area along the roadway. This is private property and the county is working in conjunction with the property owner and the Minnesota Highway Department.
There was no funds coming from the CLID for either of these 2 projects.
Melissa also brought the board up to speed on the lake plant study that is in draft stage by the DNR. The final version is pending and will be complete for presentation at our November 13 meeting. The findings from the late summer research indicate there are several types of native plants in the lake. Melissa indicated we will still need early spring and summer research to provide a full view of all of the plant life in the lake. The goal from this research is to fulfill a requirement of the DNR to be a part of the overall Aquatic Lake Treatment Plan being written by Melissa and a DNR lake specialist for approval for expanded lake spraying/treatment. Once the final draft of both the study and the plan are completed, we will add it to the website for all CLID residents to view.
Melissa indicated that the treatment plan is a requirement to help the CLID to obtain a variance to expand spraying above the typical maximum of 15% per year. She referenced Owasso Lake in Ramsey County in the cities of Shoreview and Roseville within the Grass Lake Watershed district that had received a variance. Melissa will use the CLID’s treatment proposal that was presented and approved by the residents at the annual meeting which indicates a more aggressive plan to enable the lake to be completely treated within the next 8-10 years, including treating each area 3 times as recommended to slow the annual spread of curly leaf pondweed.
The CLID would also have to provide regular monitoring of plant life and water quality to allow for changes in the variance after it was implemented.
Marie pointed out that the SWMO and CLID need to know when we need to submit the DNR grant request in order to get the lake treatment plan completed before that deadline. Melissa will check with the DNR as to when the requests are due but she thought it was in the December timeframe. There were also discussions on what section of the lake should be treated next. Many ideas were suggested for consideration with a final one to be included in the plan. Melissa added the DNR would have to make the final decision and we could discuss it more in depth with their representative at our November meeting.
Mike provided a follow-up on fisherman for carp seining. Don Geyer is the commercial fisherman assigned by the DNR for Cedar Lake. Last winter, Don had studied the lake and told Mike in early 2012 that he did not want to seine the lake. Mike then contacted Jeff Reidemann, another DNR approved fisherman, as an alternate. Jeff had agreed to fish Cedar Lake but needed Don to release his DNR seining rights to do so. When Mike sent Don a letter in September requiring his signature to release his rights, Don changed his mind again. This puts the CLID at a standstill. Mike is again contacting Don in the next week to determine how soon Don can fish the lake and what his fees will be to do so. Apparently, Don has acquired the DNR rights to be the exclusive fisherman to seine Cedar Lake but his indecisions is creating a lack of securing a contract with anyone. Mike will also contact the DNR soon if a resolution cannot be made quickly since we had hoped to have a fall and winter carp harvest.
Tom brought up the previous discussions around the Core of Engineers to see if they might have any possible interest in using Cedar Lake as a site for trying new curly leaf treatments. After further discussion, it was determined that we should invite them to an upcoming meeting to determine their potential treatment options, costs, any required commitments from CLID/SWMO/DNR and whether or not they could help with our goal and plans for the lake.
Marie advised that we have had 284 hits to our website since October 1st. She also advised that she had checked into the possibility of residents signing up to receive monthly updates automatically on our website. To do so would be about a $50 fee from Market Crosshairs to set up a sign-up form to allow for this benefit. The form would notify us that someone wants updates sent to them and then it would be up to us to notify them manually of changes/additions made to the site. If we wanted it to be an auto-sent response from the website Market Crosshairs would need to get a database expert involved to accomplish that. Costs would range anywhere from $150 to $350 for development to the site to accommodate. Marie wasn't sure if additional monthly time would be required to do this since it is an automatic response and is checking to confirm it will not increase our monthly fee. Spending up to $400 for these enhancements was approved.
Next board meeting is November 13th.