August 16, 2023 CLA Board Minutes

Crockery Lake Association Board Meeting Minutes

August 16, 2023

7:00PM Ludwick’s Landing

1. Call to order: the meeting was called to order at 7:08 PM

2. Roll Call: Present – Betsy Ludwick, Paula Humphrey, Greg Slater,
   

   1. Bill Marks and Dan Atwood

   2. Absent – Robert Blauwkamp and Mollie Gaggin

   3. Audience: Residents of Crockery Lake were in attendance: Randy & Karen Peltier, Carl Elliott, Tom Ludwick and Charlie Lane.

   4. NOTE: Bill Ferrier has stepped down as Board Representative

1. Call to the Audience: No comments

2. Approval of Agenda: Betsy noted that she added Correspondence after item 4. Item 5 - Lake Treatment moved to item 8. Paula Humphrey motioned to approve the agenda as amended. 2nd by Bill Marks, motion passed by unanimous vote of the members present.

3. Correspondence
   

   1. Betsy received a note from Dan Pruis requesting the CLA include a line item on the donation form for a Fish Fund. He would like to see Crockery Lake stock more fish.

   2. Discussion: As a line item, people who contribute would be able to claim a deduction because we are a 501c3. We have been informed that the DNR do not intend to stock CL until the lake quality improves and they also took into consideration the lack of sufficient public parking at the boat launch as part of that decision. A motion was made by Greg Slater to add Fish Fund to our approved contributions, this motion was 2nd by John DeGeneres and carried by unanimous vote of the board.

   3. B. A Muskegon realtor contacted Betsy, as President of CLA to inquire about riparian’s being able to raise goats or chickens on their property. Betsy referred them the Chester Township for that inquiry.

   4. C. Betsy received an email from Dave Shakleton to let us know he intended to come to CL on Monday to check it out while he was in the area. A time was not mentioned.

1. Secretary Report: Minutes from the July meeting and the Special meeting on August 2nd were discussed. Bill Marks motioned to approve both of those minutes. That was 2nd by Dan Atwood, the motion carried by unanimous vote of the members present.

2. Treasurer’s Report: Greg Slater reported.
   

   1. Our membership stands at 57 members

   2. Current balance: $8646.64, general fund at $4,902.88 and $3277.30 of the $7000 needed for 2024 fireworks. Motion by Bill Marks to accept the Treasurer’s report as presented, 2nd was made by John DeGeneres, motioned carried.

1. Events Committee: Mollie Gaggin not present to report.
   

   1. CLA Board Meetings: Betsy reported that she had a conversation with Callie Melton who is with the Ottawa Conservation District, in regard to CLA Board meetings to be held at the Chester Township community room. Since CLA provides civic service, it is her contention that the community room rental for board meetings fees should be waived. It was also noted that we are a 501c3. Callie will reach out to the Supervisor on our behalf.

   2. Fireworks: Bill Marks reported that he contacted Michigan Family Fireworks to let them know that we would like to schedule them again for our July 3 show in 2024. Have until after our September meeting to confirm that reservation.

9. Lake Treatment: Betsy Ludwick reported. a. It has been determined, after a series of events, that CLA will not be moving forward with the Bathymetric Survey. This survey was to diagram and measure CL for quoting purposes to develop a plan to use an aeration and enzyme procedure to clean up our lake. Dave Shakleton at Clean-Flo was willing to forgo this procedure at this time, asking that we reimburse his company the cost of a flight that could not be cancelled. On our behalf, Dr. Jennifer Jones contacted Dave indicating that her company would have been able to provide this testing at a much lower cost but indicated that we would need to have permitting applications in place before we could move ahead with this aeration procedure and that EGLE, our MI governing division for water quality wasn’t issuing permits at this time for aeration and that we would be wasting our money. There is a series of steps that will need to be taken to get us to the phase of application. 1) Dr. Jones of RLS has been asked by EGLE to write a paper on the effects of aeration and enzymes in lakes. 2) Dr. Jones indicated to Betsy that we may want to consider oxygenation over aeration. This option would be a mixture of enzymes and microbes. A 3-phase test would be used: Bathymetric, bio-volume and sediment hardness. With oxygenation there would not be destratification. Discussion followed. b. Betsy proposed that CLA hire a consultant going forward to help us weed through the red tape needed to get any type of remediation introduced to our lake. Comments followed. A consultant would be used by CL as a liaison between government & vendors, etc. for testing and the permit process. Action Items

1. 1) Set up an interview with Dr. Jones from Restorative Lake Services. A list of questions for that interview was developed.

2. 2) Bill Marks volunteered to contact Ever Blue Lakes to ask for a free proposal to install their aeration product and possibly set up a zoom meeting with him and the board.

3. 3) Monies donated for the bathymetric survey were discussed. It was determined that a donation line item would be added to the budget for these donations. Donors will be contacted to ask them if they want those contributions returned or held for a survey to be completed at a later date, TBD. Because this discussion item involved money a motion to develop the budget line item was made was made by Dan Atwood, 2nd by Greg Slater and was passed by unanimous vote of the board members present.

4. 4) Cancelation of the township community room for August 23rd will be made by Betsy.

10. Lake Quality Committee Report: Betsy presented the CLMP reports from 2022 and 2023 for comparison. 11. Communication

1. Newsletter: Betsy proposed that we distribute paper copies of the CLA Newsletter. This would mean additional funds be spent for printing approximately 100 copies. It was determined to print the newsletter 3 times between May and September to keep lake residents informed as to what the board is planning and the decisions that need to be made. It may be simplified for printing with an expanded format available on the website containing additional information and directives to view that information on the website. This paper copy would be distributed to residents by each Rep to their sections, giving each of us additional opportunity to connect with those residents.

2. Website: Our current webpage needs to be updated. As a 501c3, there are sites that would be free to us with unlimited storage. We may also be able to use the talents of students to design a new site. This discussion was tabled until a future meeting. Our current contract will end in 2024. Needed changes in the interim were approved.

12. Membership

a. With our 2023 membership drive, resident updates were made, and updated route information was distributed. Discussion regarding those included on our routes that aren’t riparian’s or part of a funneled property or properties located directly across the street from the lake will remain on our routes. Those existential properties (with no deeded access or not within immediate vicinity of the lake) will be deleted.

13. Around the Table

1. Greg Slater had volunteered to contact Ben Jordan any funds that may come our way. Betsy said she was planning to make a follow up contact. Greg also spoke with Dwight Sheridan at the recent Chester Township board meeting, who thanked him and CLA for their receipt of a donation to the Rosel Memorial Fund from the 2023 Fireworks display thanking the volunteers who were on standby if needed.

2. Bill Marks, no comment

3. John DeGeneres thanked Betsy for visiting the residents on his route for him.

4. Dan Atwood talked about a letter he had received from the township following complaints that he wasn’t in compliance with current ordinances in regard to the number of registered boats within his riparian frontage. Betsy spoke to the ordinance, “maintaining that is says only 3 are currently allowed”. Dan proposed that we as a CLA board take time to review this ordinance and possible recommend revisions to the Chester Township Planning Commission. Betsy said she would add that agenda item to the September meeting.

5. Betsy announced that Bill Ferrier has stepped down from the board and that we should consider adding another person. As President she would be able to appoint someone to fill his term. Whether this appointed person would fill a 3-year term or finish the one year left of the term when Carl Elliott stepped down is still to be determined. Mollie Gaggin is willing to work with the board to fill either of those options. Besty also mentioned the typo in the recent newsletter. She stated that the CLMP report sited a 5’ clarity depth, when it was only 4’. She apologized for the misinformation.

6. Paula Humphrey had no comment.

Next meeting: September 20, 2023, 7PM Location: Chester Township Hall

3509 Sehler St.

Conklin, MI 49403

Adjournment: Motion to adjourn made by Paula Humphrey, 2nd from Greg Slater. The meeting ended at 9:10pm.