Manistee Lake Association
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November 23, 2002 Meeting Minutes

General Membership Meeting -- August 31, 2002

Don Thomas, president called the meeting to order at 9:00AM Officers Present:       Don Thomas, President       Jerry Sheahan, Treasurer       Matt Thomas, Secretary       Dale Ritchie, Membership Chair       Bob Mazzuckelli, Sgt. at Arms/Parliamentarian Treasurers Report given by Gerry Sheahen. The association currently has $ 10196.20 in the bank as of Aug 30. $2089.00 has come in from sales of the MLA tee shirts and sweatshirts. $1995.00 was paid out to the shirt manufacturer leaving a profit of $94.00 Expenses paid out: • Dues and Subscriptions $107.00 • Lake Flyer $159.00 • Spring Newsletter $151.00 • Post Office Box $32.00 • Newsletter Postage $148.00 • Ceta Hall Fees for 3 meetings $30.00 • Shirt Production $1995.00 • Non profit expense (State of Michigan) $10.00 • Net Income after Expenses $6132.00 Secretary’s Report given by Matt Thomas. Matt thanked the membership for submitting the articles concerning water quality around the state. The Webmaster will be delayed in posting up further materials due to a lightning strike on his house. He hopes to be up and running in another month or two after he has been able to sort out his insurance costs for hardware and recover his data. Feedback on email announcements was positive. Matt will continue to stay on top of the email database and send out meeting and special event announcements as they occur. Membership Report given by Dale Ritchie. New sweatshirts are available for purchase. The Webmaster, Mike Thomas, was in the process of creating an order entry page on the website for apparel purchase. That will be delayed due to the lightning strike on his house. Mike has also pledged to create a website for the cove in return for their generosity in selling association apparel. Bob Mazzuckelli, Sgt. at Arms, suggested that a golf outing be put together for next year as a fundraiser for the association. A question was raised about expanding the apparel selection from tee’s and sweatshirts to hats and polo shirts. Dale answered that the association can do anything but that the quantity demand has to be there. There also has to be agreement on colors, styles and quantities. Another question was raised about making a more generalized style so that non –members and visitors could buy them and we could raise additional funds. Presidents/Water Quality Report given by Don Thomas. • Don spent time with the Au Sable Institute students when they performed their analysis of the Manistee Lake water quality. An important part of this analysis measures the fecal contamination in various sections of the lake. The tests are run over the course of a few days to test the consistency of the results. Most of the testing was concentrated around the more populated and public areas. Simply put, numbers that measured over 100 in a certain section indicated a problem brought on by sewage or bodily waste. Don indicated that there were sections that showed 100 or more in number. One section was close to Sands Park. This should be solved with the elimination of holding tanks for portable potties. Another section was close to Camp Tanuga. The explanation of these tests sparked some questions and discussion. Don went on to further explain that this was merely an indicator of potential problems and not a hard scientific study. • Norm LaCroix talked further about other water quality issues such as the weed problem that stems from too many phosphates in the lake. He urged the membership to take charge of the problem individually through such measures as no fertilizing of lawns and keeping septic systems clean and functioning. A list of things lakefront property owners can do to help keep the lake clean will be posted on the Manistee Lake website. • Don and Norm drafted a letter to the township asking for tax assessment funding for lake quality purposes. The township responded that a specific plan for the money be in place for the assessment funds. Also, the township indicated that the membership also needs to make the determination of who will be assessed by petition. The tax assessment rules are based on lake front property owners. In other words, those who don’t own property directly on the shoreline are not assessed property tax for the water treatment funds. A petition signed by at least 51% of the property owners needs to be turned in to the township in order for the assessment funds to be imposed and collected. This process took place before in 2000. In that instance, only the property owners were assessed a property tax. • . A motion was made that in any future petitions residents that are not directly on the lakefront will not be included in the assessment process nor will they be charged the property tax. While assessing the non-lakefront properties could bring in more funds, those same properties also represent a larger amount of people who could react negatively to the assessment. The motion was passed unanimously. • . There was consensus from the membership that the Board continue to gather the necessary information for a multi-year assessment for maintaining lake water quality and how the assessment money is to be used. The Board will present their recommendations at the first membership meeting next year (Memorial Day). If a tax assessment is feasible and recommended, approval of the membership will be sought Questions and Discussion • Bob Stein to followed up his lake level maintenance presentation from last July. The cost of the initial study was revised to $12,000 from his initial estimate of $10,000 given last July. A lot of questions and discussion was generated by this presentation. Bob was very concerned that lake levels are not being managed at Manistee Lake and could result in abnormally low lake levels.A number of meeting attendees felt that the milfoil issues should be our first priority and that fish and lake level issues should be projects for the future. • The Township Board meets during the summer months at different times to accommodate summertime residents. The president urged the membership to attend these meetings whenever possible. The meeting was adjourned at 10:37 AM Respectfully submitted, Matthew K. Thomas, Secretary MLA

Story submitted by:     Matthew Thomas

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