Adams Lake Conservation Club Minutes
Barb Mulholland was unable to attend our meeting and asked Rosy O’Brian to take the minutes for her.
The Adams Lake Conservation Club met on May 28, 2016, at The Pub on the patio. There were 27 members present. President Rex Pranger called the meeting to order at 10:00 AM and read the minutes of our last meeting on August 22, 2015 to refresh everyone’s memory. Motion made by Jim Burns to accept the minutes as read, seconded by John Lutz, carried.
Old Business:
Joe Kraft, Treasurer distributed his report.
Checking account balance $11,615.14
Clean Water Fund CD’s $22,072.63
Lawrence Memorial fund $3373.52
Pranger Memorial fund $6611.99
Total assets as of 05-27-2016 $43,673.33
Joe said that the DNR’s Lake and River Enhancement (LARE) fund gave us more than we had expected. The bill was $6930.50 of which we only had to pay $386.10.
*Elections were held for the President and Treasurer of our Conservation Club. By unopposed acclamation Rex Pranger was elected as our President, Joe Kraft as our Treasurer. Motion was given by Charlie Heiny to accept these prospects, seconded by Ron Martin, carried. Thank you for your past and future work gentlemen!
*Mark Hageman has replaced the solar lights on our buoys. Thank you for your efforts of smart shopping and installation of our buoys Mark!
*Adams Lake Conservation Club $40.00 dues are payable annually beginning Memorial Day weekend of each calendar year. Dues are used to support the general operations of Adams Lake Conservation Club ($20.00) and provide funding for future lake water quality enhancement projects ($20.00). The director of your section should be collecting from you soon. Make their job easier and take your dues to them!
*Our Adams Lake Conservation Club Directories have a new look this year that we hope you enjoy. The biggest change is we do not have any advertisement in this issue. If you would like to help with our next directory by selling advertisements, please contact Rex Pranger - we would love to have your support! We hope the additional information in our directory will be found helpful and interesting to our Conservation Club. As always, if you have additions or corrections for our directory, please don’t hesitate to let us know. There is a form in the back of the directory to explain how to do this.
An addition to our directory: We have a new Director for the second half of Section D - Cottages 84 C – 84 O will be Alta Nissen.
These divisions have been adjusted to:
Section D, second half: Linda Taylor 135 – 142 H
Section F, first half: Irene Ueber 157 – 180 B
Section F, second half: Tim Moeller 181 – 205
*Our lake-wide Adams Lake Community Garage Sale is scheduled to take place on Friday and Saturday, June 17 & 18. Just set up your sale at your home and our Adams Lake Conservation Club will put out signs and have an ad in the Kendallville News Sun newspaper.
*Water Quality of our lake has always been a main concern. Rex Pranger applied for and we received a LARE grant. Although the way LARE has been reconstructing how they hand out money, more in a bidding system, we have gotten a lot of support (as was in our Treasurer’s report). The first water/weed treatment was in April because the water temperature has to be less than 60 degrees to work. Our boat tag fees pays for the LARE funds. The three weeds that are the main focus on Adams Lake are: Eurasian Watermilfoil, Curly Leaf Pondweed and Starry Stonewort. The Starry Stonewort is an especially invasive species, which the DNR first found on our lake a few years ago.
*Ron Martin, our Adams Lake Regional Sewer District operations manager gave us a report. We’ve had some vandalism on our sewer pipes. The “Candy Cane” pipes that are in our yards are supposed to have a screen on the end. Some that did not on the West side of the lake had some big rocks put down them. These pipes had to be dug up and replaced/fixed. Please do not put anything down these pipes! Ron showed us a proto type of a new system we will have installed soon around our lake. It is called a Vent Light/Alarm. It will have a red light that blinks on when the sewer is used/ or breaths. If this red light stays on for more than 3 seconds there is an obstruction, please call Ron Martin right away! This light’s purpose is to help locate the problem area quickly so that the repair can be made right away!
This picture shows the red light activated in the new vent system.
New Business:
*There was a discussion about managing our Canada Goose population. This spring Brian May and Rex Pranger were monitoring the numbers and decided that there were not enough to call in our help with a “Goose Roundup”. In 2012 we had 14 geese removed at a cost of $42 each, which hardly made the effort worthwhile. Geese molt in June and cannot fly and this is the time we do this. Please continue to monitor the numbers of geese you see at your home and let Rex know at our next meeting. The most cost effective way to handle the goose population is to get someone trained to “oil eggs”. If you are interested in learning this procedure, please see Rex for more information. Encourage your friends who hunt to visit Adams Lake during goose hunting seasons.
*Mike Taylor was concerned with the water level at Adams Lake and wanted to know if we could have it raised a little. He also thought it looked like there could be a hole in the dam itself. He will contact the DNR about these issues. The dam is owned by the DNR. They also fix and maintain it.
For those of you who have not seen the dam here is a picture taken in April and shows the gage that shows the depth of the water on the middle left. There are two water issues to be taken very seriously: quantity of our water and quality of our water.
*Mike Taylor also asked about the Walnut tree at the landing and asked if it could be cut down. Rex said our Adams Lake Conservation Club does not own this property and cannot cut it down.
*We welcomed new homeowners Luis and April Velasco (#180A) to Adams Lake - we are glad you came to our meeting!
*HGTV’s television show “Lake Properties” will be filming on June 18, 19, & 20th at Nathan & Anna Allison’s home, # 55C. We hope to let you know a future date when this episode will air!
*Fireworks on the Lake by Phil Shirmeyer and Mike Randolph will be held on Saturday, July 2nd at dusk. If you would like to help support and donate to offset their costs please see your director or contact them personally. They do a wonderful job and we appreciate their efforts – Thanks Phil and Mike!
*A motion was made to adjourn our meeting by John Lutz, seconded by Terry Schuster, carried.
*Our next meeting will be Saturday, June 25th, at 10 AM on the patio at The Pub. Bring a friend or neighbor to our next meeting who hasn’t come before!
Thank you,
Rosy O’Brian