Crockery Lake Association
Board Meeting
June 21, 2023, 7:00pm
Chester Township Hall
CALL TO ORDER
Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm
ROLL CALL
Present: Betsy Ludwick, Bob Blauwkamp, Dan Atwood, Greg Slater, Paula Humphrey, Mollie Gaggin, Bill Marks
Absent: Bill Ferrier and John DeGeneres
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Motion to accept the agenda as presented by Bob Blauwkamp, supported by Mollie Gaggin, motion carried.
CALL TO THE AUDIENCE – 12 people in attendance
Carl Elliott expressed his displeasure of our May guest speaker, Jennifer Jones, indicating that her behavior was rude and uncalled for.
CORRESPONDENCE
Betsy Ludwick shared a document published by Grand Valley State University (GVSU) regarding the Crockery Speaks report.
Paula Humphrey shared the thank you card from retiring board member Susan McClure.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
PRESIDENT: Betsy Ludwick
Election of Officers – Restructuring Meeting Results
President – Betsy Ludwick
Vice-President – Dan Atwood
Treasurer – Greg Slater
Secretary – Paula Humphrey
Immediate Past-President – Bob Blauwkamp
Board Member to fulfill term of Carl Elliott (1 year).
Mollie Gaggin volunteered to serve out Carl’s remaining time on the board and is willing to put her name on the ballot again in 2024 for re-election. Motion to accept Mollie to serve out this term was made by Dan Atwood, 2nd by Bob Blauwkamp. This motion passed by unanimous vote of those board members present.
All permits for July 3, 2023 activities have been approved.
Meeting with Ottawa Conservation District Report
Tom & Betsy Ludwick and Paula Humphrey attended the OCD 85 Year Celebration. Many contacts were made at this meeting.
Greg Slater mentioned that someone from CLA board should attend their monthly meetings.
LGROWS (Lower Grand River Organizations of Watersheds) Quarterly meeting of
the Subwatershed is scheduled for July 13, 2023 from 2-3:00pm at Grose Park. Board members were encouraged to attend this meeting. Additional information can be found on their website: https://www.lgrow.org/lgrwmp.
Secretary: Paula Humphrey
May minutes previously emailed out for recommended corrections and additions. Motion by Bob Blauwkamp to approve as amended, 2nd from Mollie Gaggin, minutes approved as amended by unanimous vote.
Treasurer: Greg Slater
Budget Report submitted, attachment A.
Motion to approve Budget as submitted made by Bill Marks and 2nd by Bob Blauwkamp, motioned carried.
Also on file is the current paid 2023 membership roster of lake residents and an invoice from PLM.
Remark from the audience: Deep water study for 2023 still to be ordered from PLM. $264 has already been approved for this test.
Events Committee: Mollie Gaggin
Fourth of July Activities
Fireworks Display is being handled by Carl Elliott regarding preparing the field and receiving the fireworks. Bill Marks would like to be included in those arrangements. Clean-up after this show will be Saturday, July 4 at 9:00am.
Ring of Fire takes place beginning at 9:45pm. Bob Blauwkamp had candles available at the meeting. Candles can be picked up at the Wolters home after tonight’s meeting.
Lawn Displays, Board Reps will use a boat to tour the lake prior to the parade to determine the winner of this year’s display. Those members are still TBD.
Boat Parade: all arrangements for entry will be handled at 2149 VanDyke, home of Brian & Mollie Gaggin. Line-up will begin at 7:15pm. Starting banner to be placed at their home prior to the parade.
Garden Tour
Date to be set for the first weekend in August. Looking for gardens on the southside of the lake to tour. Participants still to be contacted.
Communication and Membership – Betsy Ludwick
Membership forms were made available. These can also be printed off as needed.
Website storage is at capacity. We currently pay $120/2 years as a page subscriber.
Katie Spangler, the co-administrator suggested we use Google Docs or Dropbox.
Additional discussion determined that we need to look into what alternatives are available for our use. This discussion was tabled, and Reps are encouraged to research additional options.
A remark from the audience was made asking us to “spotlight” the Feasibility Study, so that it is front and center when people open our website.
Lake Management and Education – Betsy Ludwick
Betsy once again referred to the correspondence received from GVSU regarding the report that came out about “Crockery Speaks”.
A Lake Study from 1995 has resurfaced and presented. Copies mailed out to the board were incomplete. Betsy said she would re-scan those and re-send them. Greg Slater offered to take care of that for her. The study was written by The Applied Ecology Group, Fred Bevis. This report confirms that they knew the lake was in trouble and it has only gotten worse since that time.
Discussion on Lake Improvement Board (LIB)
A proposal had been received and was emailed to all board reps from Progressive AE, Paul Hausler. Betsy Ludwick commented that it mostly contained information about weed treatment. Specific remediation ideas were not presented in the report. It was concluded that the report was inconclusive for our purposes at this time.
Remark from the audience indicated that Silver Lake recently installed the filters proposed by RLS. Bob Blauwkamp suggested a group from the board go see them and meet with some of the LIB members of Silver Lake.
Betsy reported on a conversation with Jaimee Desjardinns, comparing RLS and Progressive AE. She reports that Jennifer Jones had been an employee of Progressive AE before striking out on her own. Progressive AE is not as informed on the BioChar products as RLS is.
Treatment Possibilities: should we try to have PLM treat one more time before July 3rd? Copper can be used after July 1st. July 3rd falls on a Monday this year and PLM may not be able to get another treatment in prior to the 3rd at this late date. Betsy will contact PLM in the morning and let us all know what can be done.
CLA needs to determine if we are going to move ahead with a LIB. Mollie Gaggin motioned to move ahead with a LIB, Bob Blauwkamp 2nd. Discussion followed. Since two board reps weren’t present it was determined to schedule another meeting of the Board to discuss just a LIB. Mollie rescinded her motion, and Bob his support of that motion. Meeting to be scheduled before July 19th.
Lake regulations ordinance review, Betsy asked if everyone had received their copy of the current township ordinances? No discussion followed.
Welcome Committee – Paula Humphrey
Resident/Rep Routes were handed out by Betsy. If you make any changes or additions, please notify me. If anyone on your route needs a Welcome Folder, I will be happy to take one to them.
RESIDENT CONTACT
Notice of Lake Treatment Schedule
A treatment was preformed on June 14 without prior notice to the lake residents because we did not receive confirmation from PLM that this service would be done.
It was treated with a peroxide-based solution.
Annual Membership Drive – we were all encouraged to canvass our routes prior to July 3rd to collect Membership dues, fireworks donations for 2024 and sell candles ($1.25) as needed for the Ring-of-Fire.
AROUND THE TABLE
Mollie Gaggin: made another plug for July 3rd celebration activities.
Bob Blauwkamp: Mentioned that he had candles with him if any of us wanted to get those tonight.
Paula Humphrey: nothing
Greg Slater: He would be interested in putting together a carload of Board Reps to go visit Silver Lake and their LIB.
Bill Marks: nothing
Dan Atwood: Said he would like us all to generate a list of remarks by people on our route about their impressions of our lake’s condition. He also 2nd Carl Elliott’s remark about how unprofessional Jennifer Jones was at our May meeting.
Betsy Ludwick: will work out details to set up an additional meeting to discuss a LIB.
Next Meeting
Next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on July 19, at 7:00 pm, location TBD.
Extra meeting to discuss just LIB to be set prior to the July 19th meeting.
Motion to adjourn made by Greg Slater, 2nd by Bill Marks, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 8:51pm.