2018 Fall Lake Association Minutes
Lipsett Lake Association Spring Meeting
September 1, 2018
The general meeting of the Lipsett Lake Association was called to order by the President, Greg Heber, at 9:02 a.m. at the Lipsie Pines Tavern. Approximately 40 members were in attendance. Greg opened the meeting and thanked all for attending.
Committee Reports
Treasurer’s Report – Mark Schlitter – The Treasurer’s report was handed out to the Association. Bob Baker pointed out the receipts and asked for a total balance. The total balance was approximately $28,800 as of today given by Treasurer, Mark Schlitter. Greg/Bob MSC.
Loon Ranger – Donna Twining –Donna was not at the meeting to report. There were various reports of whether any baby loons have been seen. A couple of residents said they saw one baby at the beginning of the season, with a report that one was possibly seen in the past week. If you see any loon babies/adolescents, please let Donna know.
Membership – Grace Huth –Grace and Ruth Baker recently sent out some letters with envelopes to bring in more members. Membership is up to 98 properties. The blog currently has people on it who have moved away, no longer part of the association, etc., and information was sent to Chris Schneider to try and clean everything up on the blog and memberships. Grace requested that residents on every side of the lake volunteer to keep an eye out for new residents on Lipsett Lake and let the Membership committee know as it is hard for them to know who is newly moved to the lake. Grace and Ruth encourage keeping the directory and membership list up to date as accurately as possible with the help of everyone on the lake. We want people to be members, but also to be informed even if they’re not members. Everyone should get the email to know when meetings are, but to be a member you need to pay and participate. Carolyn Schlitter and Julie Plumedahl have volunteered to take over the Membership committee duties of Grace and Ruth.
Fundraising – Aaron & Holly Tempel – Parents hosted the Corn and Brat Feed this year and made roughly $1,613. The band was a higher expense, so profit wasn’t quite as great, but we didn’t lose money. Aaron thanked everyone who dodged the rain, donated and attended; great weather and great company.
For 2019, the Corn and Brat Feed is July 27th. Need someone to host. Association fees will be waived for whatever year you are hosting the event.
Mugs are still for sale at $20. There are 33 blue mugs left (inventory may vary as some were sold after the Association meeting). Sold around 170/$20 for a total profit of $1,000. Anything sold after this is pure profit. Contact Aaron for mug information.
Photo calendar: send photos to Chris Schneider. For this year, Chris will upload all of the photos online, send a link to everyone’s email, and each resident will pick their own photos and make their own calendar. This means that the choice of photos and cost of shipping is on each resident. The calendar is more of a thank-you for the association, but only sold around 40 last year and made very little profit. May be an alternative for people to make the calendar this way.
Dock Out is tentatively October 13th, 2018 if they can get enough volunteers. Usually starts at 9 AM; last year had 10 docks to complete and ended around noon, followed by a grill get-together. If you want your dock out, let Aaron know and please let your neighbors know as well.
Future fundraising ideas: currently holding a meat raffle at Lipsie Pines for Boy’s troop. Aaron is interested to try and have one for the Lake Association, but trying to find a place to host every 4 weeks or so. If hosted at Lipsie Pines, would still have to buy meat at Geek’s. Mark Schlitter suggested ice out board: pick a date, you pay $10 for a date, and when the ice goes out, see who is chosen (ice out last year was May 2nd). Aaron asked if beer steins would be of any interest to members? Aaron can send out an email to see the interest in these ideas.
Social – Greg Heber –A pontoon party/tie-up will be on the lake later on Saturday, September 1stto celebrate Labor Day. The Social committee spot is another that needs to be filled. Please contact Greg if you or anyone you know is interested. Upcoming social events: golf outing likely the 2ndor 3rdweekend in September. Christmas party scheduled for Saturday, December 1st, most likely at Lipsie Pines.
Lake Management – Bob Baker – Bob informed us thatLabor Day weekend was Ariana Severson’s last weekend as our intern since starting in the spring. We thank her for all of her help this year! The decontamination station was installed in May with a new “It’s the law” sign to let people know why they should be cleaning off their boats. In May-June, the station usage seen was around 50-60% of boats, July 65%, and August over 90%—showing a fast and exciting increase in people using the decontamination station.
Todd Rieke was very helpful filling up the tubs when Bob was out. The solution sitting in the plastic pails was the result of experiments done by Bob in the spring. Previously, the DNR and conservationists had to dump out the solution each day, but if you put it in a bucket, the potency stays at high efficiency and can last longer, requiring fewer dumps and refills.
Purple loosestrife: Bob asked residents to please keep an eye out for purple loosestrife stems—it seems pretty, but it crowds out other natural plants. If you see it next summer, get in touch with Bob.
Zebra mussel update: we’re one of the 15 lakes that has a decontamination station, with others pending to get set up. Plates on the lake were checked mid-summer and only had tiny snails and other good things. They will check again mid-September before dock out. So far, so good! Testing on the lake was made on 8/21 by the Burnett County Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) specialist Becca Klemme and we are still waiting for the results.
Management plan: should’ve gotten an email from Chris Schneider 8/15 with a link to our APM (Aquatics Plan Management). This needs to be updated every 5-10 years. If we ever had an invasive species and the APM wasn’t updated, we wouldn’t be able to get emergency help.
On 8/11, an AIS specialist helped Bob and his team develop an initial plan and have asked him to help with language changes and updates, etc. One of the concerns with the APM is curly leaf pondweed: if the current surface area of that ever increases more than 20%, the APM could at that time could consider remediation. Based on maps taken from 2012-2017, Lipsett Lake has increased by 22%. We have 3 options: hire divers to pull the stuff up manually (checked with the group, but they said our lake is too large for them to handle), cutting machine, or chemical treatment. Mark Hansen made a suggestion of adding a chemical treatment at a small patch of 2-3 acres and see how the pondweed and treatment respond. This may be over a 5-year period, but it makes it a much smaller project and would add a dent in our pondweed population. We have a lot of options and resources, Bob and his team will find out our best options, come up with a plan, try to sustain with the budget, and start treating it.
The Management team would like to come to the association meeting over Memorial Day weekend with a plan to approve and move forward with—this is something we can’t ignore. We may have to test multiple chemicals in different spots of the lake to see what works best with our lake. The DNR has picked out an optimum spot for us to test our therapy and could start next summer. Bob is looking into grant money (different grant money from other decontamination station grant) and looking into companies for chemical treatment. The DNR likes to help treat curly leaf because it’s one of the earliest plants of the year, which makes it more difficult for native plants to thrive. Consensus was given to meet and go over a plan to present at spring association meeting.
Approval of Spring Minutes – Greg called for the motion to accept the minutes of the Spring meeting, Mark Schlitter seconded. MSC.
Volunteers – Anyone who has volunteered—we need more. Volunteers are the only way the association runs smoothly and keep the lake the way it needs to be. If you, your kids, or your grandkids would be interested in joining and being a part of something bigger, let Aaron or anyone on the board know.
Old Business – We did get the curly weed and pondweed survey done. Chris Schneider will send out the map again, but is also on the blog for people to take a look. The map shows you where the leaf is at and how much of the lake is affected.
New Business – Bob Baker mentioned that we need to amend the bi-laws so that the chairman of the lake committee is an automatic member of the board of directors. Bob has currently filled that position. The Lake Management Chair, whoever that is in the future, is responsible for hiring, recruiting, supervising, etc. and are liable. As a result, we need someone else to be covered for any liabilities that may come up and that the Directors and Officers insurance covers them too. Bob called for the motion that the chairman is an automatic member and Grace Huth seconded. MSC.
Election of officers:
There is an available Director position and available Social member position.
Treasurer: Mark Schlitter has agreed to return as Treasurer
President: Mark Hansen
Secretary: Mari Yell
Membership: Carolyn Schlitter and Julie Plumedahl
Bob will remain the Lake Management Committee chair for the foreseeable future and Kasey Cronlin will take his place as a director on the Board.
President’s Report – The Lipsett Lake Association and residents thank Greg for all of his years serving the association. This wouldn’t be possible without your dedication.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00.
Report is submitted by Mari Yell, Secretary.
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