Monday, May 7, 2018

Minutes 2/21/18


Board Meeting Minutes

February 21, 2018

7:00 pm, White Bear Lake City Hall



Call to order at 7:04 PM Members present were: Dale Bacon, Steve Laliberte, Jim Grisim, Tom Merritt, Ryan Hoops, Deb Vernon, Terry Huntrod and Nick Voss from VLAWMO

1.      Approval of Agenda

Motion: (Grisim/Merritt) Move to approve agenda.  Motion carried.

2.    Approval of Minutes

Motion: (Grisim/Merritt) Move to approve Nov 1, 2017 minutes.  Motion carried.



3.    Treasurer’s Report

Motion: (Hoops/Grism) Move to approve Treasurer Report.  Motion carried.

We have received the first portion of the tax levy.



4.      Status Reports

Admin

        2 annual reports were returned because no one is currently living at those addresses.

        Deb researched when the terms of office started.  Tom Merritt term is up in July.

        Standard operating procedures

                    SOP should be presented to the board for review. 

                         Done are Aerator use and permit application, how to develop the action calendar, How to do the Annual Report, Minutes, Notice of Meetings.

                         Need to do Position Responsibility (each office is to do theirs), Treasure duties (Tom is working on that), Spring lake clean up (Jim is working on it), Weed Harvesting Permit, Contract requirements (Steve and Jim), Lake access.





Aerator System

        Is functioning

        We received a bill from the paper.  The bill was paid in advanced.  Steve will give Deb the bill.  

VLAWMO

        Nick Voss VLAWMO Education and Outreach Coordinator

(651-204-6070 nick.voss@vlawmo.org )

Nick talked about doing Picture Posts around the lake. A citizen science project to study environmental changes over time. Members would take photos of the lake and upload to a website.  

He also talked about doing Adopt a Drain.  Nick will let Dale know where the drains are located around the lake. 

Steve and Dale will look at doing this and present the proposal to the board at the next meeting

      Phosphorus removal project

Location is 4th and Otter lake Road.  The hope is this will be installed by the end of the year.  When this is done it will have a drain that needs to be cleaned monthly.  (Adopt a drain)

                 Annual Report

2017 Water Monitoring Report is out.  See VLAWMO website.  (www.VLAWMO.org/news )

The automated storm sampler on 4th and Otter Lake Rd showed very high nutrient level during storms.  Birch Lake is still below the State standards. The Phosphorus removal project should help to improve this.   Lake is at a B+ grade. 

5.      Action Items

Annual lake clean-up day

Jim will take the lead and work on putting it in a SOP.  Katie Piehl sent an email to board about getting scouts to help out.

 2018 Weed Harvesting Program

Steve and Jim will work on SOPs for doing a permit for harvesting and a contract for harvesting.  Permit is good until September when it is approved by DNR.  DNR does not approve it until weeds show that they need to be harvested. They will talk to DNR about getting permit early since we seem to always need to cut.  They will also try to figure out a better way to have the weeds cut (mark the lake with buoys?).  They will report to the board at the next meeting.

 Annual meeting

Meeting is June 20th. 

Treasurer term is up – Tom is considering retiring from that position. 

Dale will ask Nick from VLAWMO to come and talk about Phosphorus removal project, picture posts and adopt a drain.

Terry Hunstrod is interested in helping out on the board.

Deb Vernon would be interested in taking over the treasurer spot if Tom decides to retire.

6.      Communication

        Website

For now we will use email, Nextdoor (https://nextdoor.com/  and Blog (http://Birchlake-id.blogspot.com)

        Newsletter

          Dale and Tom are working on one for the Spring.

7.      General Discussion

Lake Vegetation survey was done in 2015.  Fish survey was done in 2014.

City wants to connect Hwy 96 path with S. Birch Lake (where the path in the grass already exists.)

Otter Lake Road will not be done until 2019 or 2020

Next Meeting will be April 25th at 7 PM in Conference Room on 2nd floor (Not enough officers here in March)

8.      Adjourn at 8:50

Motion: (Grisim/Merritt) Move to Adjourn.  Motion carried.



Minutes done by Deb Vernon


No comments: