Coon Lake Improvement District Board Meeting Minutes—March 12, 2008

 Call to order:  7:15

Attendees:

Board Members Present:  Dave Koenig – 2^nd Vice Chair, Tim Donnay - Treasurer, Ron Croteau - Secretary.

Board Members Absent:  Mike Bury - Chairman, Mike Gaynor – 1^st Vice Chair

 Committee Members Present:  None

 Dave Koenig chaired the meeting in the absence of Bury & Gaynor

 1) Approval of Agenda:  Agenda approved

 2) Introduction of Participants – Board & Visitors

Visitors:

 Douglas Tierney                   

Muriel Maskalans                

 Kevin Lewis                          

 Ron Petricka (sp)               

 Rick Jestus                           

 Greg Buschman                   

3) Approval of Minutes:  Board Meeting minutes of 2/27 approved

 4) Open Forum for Public Comments:

a)      Background was provided regarding

1)      The roles of the CLIA & the CLID,

 2)      the timing of the approval of the LID, and

 3)      the selection of interim officers

 5) Review Old Business

 a)      County Financial Contract

 1)      Tim Donnay contacted Cevin Peterson of Anoka County Finance.

 2)      He discussed the financial contract & was expecting a response by 3/12, but hadn’t checked e-mail on 3-12

 3)      The County agreed that any contract billing agreed upon could have charges deferred until we received tax funds

 4)      Cevin indicated any grant proposal to get interim startup expenses was unlikely

 5)      We need to get a written financial services contract proposal

 6)      Another point of discussion – we need to determine if the county will establish a reserve for other expenses until funds are received

 7)      Tim Donnay was to follow-up

b)      Letter to District Members

  Mike Bury was to draft up a letter for Board review

 At the meeting time, this hadn’t been seen, but Mike has prepared a draft, and circulated it to the Board & CLIA President for review

6) Committee Updates:

 b)      Lake Vegetation Committee – Dave Koenig

 1)      Dave gave an explanation of our goals for aggressive treatment Provided explanation of whole lake vs Lake wide treatment (Note – we need to confirm definitions as DNR gave opposite definition during recent meeting – their definition:

 a)      Whole lake – entire lake with chemicals to a maintained level over a sprcific time

 b)      Lake Wide – treat specific areas around the lake with spot treatments where weeds are found that need to be treated

 3)      Our survey in 2004 is out-of-date; needs to be updated – can’t get Lake Vegetation Plan work done by DNR without it

 4)      Goal is to get some type of treatment approved in April / May

 5)      The request by CLIA for a grant from the DNR for a survey was not approved. We need to look at funding ourselves. A point intercept survey could be done internally and ongoing once we have a survey.

 b)      By-Laws – Ron & Tim

 1)      Ron / Tim were to modify by-laws for Board review

 2)      Tim / Ron have discussed – feel there is no need to gut the by-laws we’ve already developed – need to take out conflicting verbiage with the “order to establish” and show as attachment, and include things not covered.

 3)      From the initial board meeting – the following points wil be considered

 a)      Article 3 – we are a government entity – not a not-for-profit

 b)      Article 5.1 – refer to cities not township

 c)      Address could be listed earlier – perhaps add the meeting location at CLSC as well.

 d)     Remove all conflicting data with order. Asst Anoka Cty Atty Pam McCabe recommended deletion of:

 1)      Article 6.d Assessments

 2)      Article 7 – Board of Directors

 3)      Article 19 – protocol for doc release

 4)      Ron & Tim to review independently, and either meet and exchange versions and come up with revised by-laws for Board review & approval

 7) Proposed New Committees:

 a)      Dave Koenig handed out a “Committee – Define Responsibilities, Activities and Timelines” chart from our CLID Kickoff meeting

 b)      Discussion was held on the respective Committees proposed to be established, and some of the activities that needed to be undertaken

 Committees Set UP – Members volunteered

 a)      Set-Up / Establishment / Organization Committee

 1)      Greg Bushman & Muriel Maskalans agreed to volunteer

 2)      Ron Croteau agreed to Chair this committee

 3)      Ron to provide volunteers a list of items that need to be done, along with contact names

 4)      Both members have backgrounds in working with insurance and/or administration and were enthusiastic about being able to help

 5)      Muriel is retired, and agreed to tackle immediately the insurance issue. She has a background in insurance and agreed to take on the establishment of a policy. Ron agreed to provide a County Contact (John Sullivan of the County Risk Management area). Ron has obtained a copy of the just expired contract that Long Lake in Isanti established at formation. Mike Bury had volunteered to inquire of the MN Public Waters what they are doing re insurance – this task can now be turned over to the Set-up committee.

 6)      Greg Buschman has agreed to set up a database for document storage that could be used to store District documents that could be shared by the Board and committees

 7)      A meeting will be set up at a mutually agreeable time before the next Board meeting for the committee to further define tasks, prioritize, and agree on time lines for completion

b)     Lake Treatment Plan Committee

 1)      Doug Tierney agreed to volunteer for the Lake Treatment Plan Committee, joining Leon Mager.  This committee is led by Board Member Dave Koenig

 2)      Doug has been active around the Lake for some time. He was a part of the 2004 Survey group. He made up books & cd’s for the survey team at that time, and volunteered to update these for future use in the Survey work to be done.

 3)      Doug has been involved with Secchi readings, water sampling, for the lake in the past

 4)      Dave Koenig has talked to Steve Olson – president of CLIA. It has been suggested that the committees of each organization should perhaps be combined into one to distribute the work and avoid duplication of efforts

 c)      Publications Committee

 1)      Rick Jestus  has agreed to volunteer for the publications / communication committee

 2)      Mike Bury has agreed to write up an initial letter to the District members to kick off our communication. The other members of the Board need to provide Mike feedback on that letter. To date, only Ron Croteau, and Steve Olson of CLIA have done so.

 3)      One of the responsibilities of this committee will be to generate a mailing label worksheet to include all District members. Ron Croteau has a mailing label list that was used to send out petitions for signature.. It will be reviewed between the set-up committee and the Publications committee whom will take on the task of updating this list.

 4)      It was stated that this committee needs to take on the task of notifying our members of our new status, update them on our meeting dates, solicit volunteers for committees, and update them on our action plans initially, and as we go forward. As discussed in our kickoff meeting, we need the following:

 a)      It was agreed that we needed to quickly get up to speed with

 b)      Development of a web site

 c)      Put together mailing lists / labels

 d)     Put together a listing of e-mail addresses for future communication

 e)      Discuss public notice costs etc with Anoka Union for our Annual meeting Notices, which is the official newspaper of record for public notices by the county                                                                                                                          

 d) Research Committee

 1)      Greg Bushman has agreed to help out on the research Committee. (NOTE: Greg also agreed to work on the set-up committee)

 2)      Tim Donnay agreed to head up this committee

 3)      This group will work with other LIDS, research treatment plans elsewhere, and generally get information from other sources to be followed up interally in this committee or by other committees.

 4)      Dave Koenig indicated that Donna Koenig would be willing to be a part of this committee. Donna could help finding out things of interest on the internet such as information on various topics, information on chemicals for treatment, etc. Donna would not have time to make calls during the day, but could do research.

e) Finance Committee

 1)      Mike Bury is the Chair of this committee.

 2)      Ron Petricka  has volunteered to help out on this committee. Ron doesn’t have a background in computers, but would be willing to help out in any way possible.

 3)      Developing a budget, and setting up the process for expense reimbursement is a responsibility of this committee, along with the office of the Treasurer

f)       Other Committees – Volunteers – still have needs

 1)      We still need volunteers for additional committee assignments. There is an awful lot of work to be done, and we could use the help. We request all the board and committee members to encourage members to attend the meetings and see where they would like to contribute.

 2)      Penny Balfany has agreed to volunteer for a committee assignment, although she cannot make the Wednesday meetings due to a conflict with some schooling she is taking. She responded in an e-mail : I remain very interested in helping out if, and where I can.  I am xceptional with computer skills, including software, publishing, digital photography, and other tasks, along with management experience , and am more than happy to help. 

 We should discuss where these talents and enthusiasm could best be put to use.

 8) Other New Business / Discussion

 a)      Question re Coon Lake Beach – from Rick Jestus

 1)      It was explained that both the Coon Lake Beach area & the campgrounds were going to be addressed by the Finance Committee once established

 2)      Intent was to charge a dock fee to be charged by the Coon Lake Sr Center (CLSC)

 3)      Cathy Pavola was to contact members – currently there are 200 dock spaces contracted by the CLSC for members usage. Fees run up to $100 per dock space dependent upon amount of participation in CLSC activities

 4)      It was noted that the CLSC is investigating treatment options for the property under their management – almost 1 mile of shoreline bordering the road. It was suggested that the CLID treatment committee should work with the CLSC for the mutual benefit of both re treatment

 5)      Rick agreed to talk to the CLSC regarding their treatment plans / goals and bring back information for upcoming board meetings

 b)      Doug Tierney asked a question regarding fees. We discussed the number of members of the lake vs the number to be assessed fees, and the plan on establishing a exemption form for the members whom would be charged multiple fees due to having multiple pin numbers

 c)      Muriel Maskalans  asked a question regarding the future of the CLID.  It was stated that invasive weeds would likely never be eradicated, but if we could get the problem under control on a maintenance program, that we could focus on other lake issues. It was indicated that the CLID would likely be a governmental unit probably forever.

 We want to thank all those who attended the meeting, and a give a particular thank you and our appreciation to those who have volunteered to help.

 The CLID’s Next Meeting will be Wednesday March 26^th at 7:00 PM

Meeting adjourned (time approx 9:15 PM)