September Minutes, 2009

 

ROCK LAKE IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

Board Meeting minutes Sept. 14, 2009

Lake Mills Municipal Building, 6:30 p.m.

Meeting Called to Order - Jan Jenrich, president: 6:30 p.m.

Roll Call - Margaret Krueger: Those attending were Bill Amann, Jim Colegrove, Betsy Delorey, Lee Gatzke, Jan Jenrich, Margaret Krueger, Katie Otto and Jim Plotz. Absent – Scott Johnson and Ron Niedfeldt.

Monthly July 13, 2009 minutes – Approved. Motion by Plotz passed to approve the minutes.

Annual Meeting Minutes Aug. 22, 2009 – Motion by Colegrove passed to review the annual minutes of Aug. 22, 2009 meeting at the Oct. 12, 2009 meeting.

Special meeting minutes Aug. 27, 2009 – A motion by Amann, seconded by Plotz, to accept Delorey’s minutes failed. A motion by Colegrove, seconded by Plotz, passed to work off Krueger’s minutes that were presented and amend them to reflect events of the special meeting on Aug. 27, 2009. Motion by Delorey, seconded by Colegrove, passed to accept the amended copy of Krueger’s minutes of the Aug. 27, 2009 special meeting of the board of directors.

Treasurer’s Report – Jim Colegrove: RLIA Checking, $9,772.00; Savings, $4,243.85; and Lake Grant, $1,150.01. Correspondence – Invitation to presentation by Wisconsin Association of Lakes at Waukesha County Technical College on Oct. 3.
Registration deadline is Sept 25 and cost is $35.00.

Speaker – Jeff Nania, Exec Director WI Waterfowl Assn. St of WI DNR, Citizen Advisory Committee Member, has designed and executed nearly 100 wetland restorations on private land throughout Wisconsin. FACT (Farming and Conservation Together) Comm Mbr was unable to attend. He will be rescheduled.

Public Comment:
Speakers included Gerald Miller, who pointed out a correction to the proposed Glacial Heritage area map. He said the area borders I-94 and does not include land at north end of Rock Lake. Bob Crump said he was interested in knowing what the new board has in mind for Rock Lake, and if those goals could have been accomplished without the “troublesome takeover”.  Jenrich replied it was not a takeover, but an election like others held everywhere. Steve Oostdik asked why only four board members met with Graham and the full board was not invited to attend. He noted that the board’s mission was to represent the entire lake, and asked if anyone knew for sure if the weeds in Korth Bay are caused by water coming through the Miljala channel. Amann said weeds are increasing and bull rushes and lilies are disappearing on the west end. Patricia Cicero, water resource management specialist of the Jefferson County Land and Water Conservation Department, said record snow and rain in last two years is one of several reasons why the lake appears to have more weeds. Milt Strauss, immediate past president of RLIA, addressed his remarks to charges of secrecy made by new board members. He said all board meetings are open and minutes are posted on the website. He noted lack of attendance at past meetings by new board members. He refuted Jenrich’s statement that she received legal advice from Wisconsin Association of Lakes by reading a letter from WAL stating that WAL does not provide legal or technical advice to their membership. Julie Clark said that based on her experience while working with the Department of Transportation, grant proposals are always confidential until a firm is selected. She added that she resented anyone suggesting that her husband had done something that was not above board. Cicero passed around a vial containing a spiny waterflea, a new invasive species found in Lake Mendota. She cautioned lake users to be diligent in preventing invasive species from entering or leaving Rock Lake on boats or other equipment. The small predacious crustaceans compete with native fish for food and collect on fishing lines, causing tangling of gear. Cicero refuted claims by Jenrich that she had withheld information from Jenrich regarding the lake planning grant. “I have never withheld information and I don’t intend to,” she said. “I thought I had given you what you asked for,” she added, after noting that Jenrich had verbally asked her for information.

Old Business – election (covered)

New Business:

1)    Checking account signatories – Discussion of Jenrich, president and Plotz, vice president going to bank to sign new signature cards for the RLIA bank accounts. Past signatories were Milt Strauss, Tom Pezzi and Larry Clark. Per Bank of Lake Mills rules, approved minutes are needed to change account signatories accordingly, with Jenrich and Plotz being the current signatories. As a 501C3, a financial audit is conducted every two years and will be done in January or February 2010.

2)    RLIA Public Relations – Motion by Delorey passed to name Otto as RLIA public relations person. Otto will be in charge of news releases, events and brochures. Delorey will be on the committee. Sharon Amann and Lynn Plotz will chair the Fall Festival display Oct. 4 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Commons Park. Otto and Jenrich will help Amann and Plotz to man the RLIA booth at the Fall Festival which will include brochures, displays, t-shirt sales and requests for volunteers. Cicero stated she could provide educational materials for the booth.

3)    Website –Ownership of the rocklake.org domain name was transferred from Bob Runte to Jenrich, who then designed a new website for RLIA. The newly designed site is being hosted on a hosting service Jenrich currently uses and will be maintained with no additional cost to RLIA. The website name will remain rocklake.org. Board members are asked to give suggestions about the website content next month.

4)    Bylaws – A copy of the RLIA Bylaws was passed out to all board members. Jenrich asked members to read the bylaws and come to the October meeting with suggestions on ways to make the Bylaws more clear. These suggestions will be passed on to the Bylaw committee. Motion by Jenrich passed to name Delorey as committee chairperson. Otto will be a committee member.

5)    Grant study – Jenrich updated the board regarding the status of the grant and related the information four board members gained by meeting with Sue Graham of the DNR. Jenrich stated that the meeting with Graham was necessary because the needed information had not been shared with current board members by the previous board. Jenrich did state that she had received information regarding the grant from Jefferson Land and Water, but that Graham had vital paperwork that was needed and not available from Jefferson Land and Water. Information obtained from Graham and Eileen Trainer - both from the DNR, provided the financial information the current board needed to assess the status of the grant. Information gained revealed consultant Dave Marshall was working without a contract and resigned from the study.
Jenrich said the only report the board had from Marshall was the water test results and an email written by Marshall to the DNR used to change the scope of the grant. The board members who met with Graham related that she stated if the email was all that the board had as a final report from Marshall, Graham would give it a D minus. Cicero said the grant proposal stated that Jefferson Land and Water would help to write the final report and she offered her help in writing the report. She also stated she would talk to Marshall.  Jenrich stated the DNR had granted a scope change for the grant and currently the grant has been redirected to an engineering study. Jenrich stated that the engineering study will also be used as part of the final report that will be delivered to the DNR. Jenrich handed out data sheets which showed a breakdown of the grant money.  Total amount of grant money left is $3,156.90, but Jenrich stated that amount could be substantially less because the original grant was written with in-kind volunteer time to account for the RLIA share of the cost, and those estimates have not been fully realized to date.  Jenrich said after talking to engineering firms regarding the scope change of the grant to an engineering study, that the $3000.00 would be used to start the engineering process but that more money would be needed to do a complete study and report. Jenrich stated that in order to do this the RLIA would have to apply for an additional large scale planning grant to complete the engineering study. Jenrich stated Graham indicated that it is not uncommon for projects to need more than one grant to solve a problem.

Delorey said one or two more grants will be needed for the drainage ditch and Korth Bay.  It was suggested at the meeting with the DNR that a $10,000 lake planning grant would be needed to continue to study the drainage ditch. A second $10,000 lake planning grant would be needed to study what is happening to the aquatic plants in the lake and Korth Bay. The information from both of those studies would provide the necessary data for a $200,000 lake protection grant to actually accomplish the work outlined in the lake planning grants.

6)    Grant Committee – Motion by Delorey passed to nominate Plotz, Gatzke, Cicero and Jenrich to a new grant committee. The grant committee will meet with engineering firms to select a firm to move forward with the current grant and future grant.  Data results from the sampling of drainage ditch on Aug. 21, 2009 were distributed by Cicero. Jenrich invited former board members, and those who had been involved with the grant, to to work with the current board.
 

7)    Board meeting schedule – The board will continue to meet once a month.

 Adjournment – Meeting was adjourned at 11 p.m. Motion by Delorey passed and seconded by Amann.