Lake Martha Lake Association

Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 7:19pm at the home of Mike & Vicky Rydberg – 806 Halsey Ave. SE.  There were 23 people representing 13 member households in attendance. 

Joy Duenwald presented the treasurer’s report, which included the deposit of dues & a DNR reimbursement, plus the payment for the DNR permits for the weed treatments and for flowers to Roger & Sharon Dorf.  As of March 15, 2004, the checking and savings accounts have a total of $2,445.88.  Joy reported that 35 households had paid to date; yet Mike Rydberg had one more payment to add – a record number of recent years.  It was mentioned that it was a good thing to collect the Association dues at the same time as the weed treatment sign-up.

The minutes from the September 8, 2003, meeting were accepted as written.

Mike Rydberg notified members that all meetings for the 2004 season would be the second Friday of the month.  Last year it was decided to change the meeting nights to Fridays in order to increase the social aspect of the meetings and in hopes of increasing participation.  The host sign-up sheet was passed around.

Mike presented that the Project Teams/Committees will have a Project Lead and Assistants.  The Lead will be accountable for any progress reports.

Mike stated that the secchi disk reports are suppose to be done on a weekly basis and that they are important for several reasons.  They provide a historical record of the Lake conditions, which are used to confirm any improvements from our actions such as the weed treatments and the sewer implementation.  Also, they are used to provide a case to the DNR for their help.  Dave Tabbut described the actions of the recorder – how and where to take the readings.  Bill Tregaskis said that he had the disk for a couple of years and wrote the information on a calendar, but didn’t report it.  Then he handed the disk and it’s recording responsibilities to Craig Kasa.  Later during the meeting, Sue Brallier volunteered to do these readings and reporting for this year.

A rough draft of the Lake Martha Directory had been passed around at the beginning of the meeting.  Bill described the Committee’s idea for advertisers in the Directory, but he hadn’t had much response from the service companies.  Angela Miller stated that the Directory would be updated and published once a year.  Plus, it would be distributed to new residents by the Hospitality Committee with their “welcome cookies”.

The Hospitality Committee for the 2004 season will consist of Mary Leffler & Bruce Biederman, plus Lon & Julie Voigt.

This year’s Annual Summer Picnic will be held on the lawns of Craig & Julie Kasa and Bill & Jeanni Tregaskis.  The exact date in August will be determined.

Sue Brallier volunteered to take over the reading & reporting duties of the Lake Monitoring Program.

Mike Rydberg got a Lake weed application from MPCA to test for chlorophyll.  He also e-mailed the Rockford Township in regards to installing galvanized steel catch basins for run-off from the area farms, which is a favored action by the MPCA.  Mike said that Menard’s sells the basins for about $100.00 each.  However, this is probably a County issue, since it is their ditches, etc.  Julie Voigt & Bill Tregaskis both expressed their support of this idea.  Bill also said that we need to multi-task for improving the quality of the Lake.  It was mentioned that this will be the second summer with the sewer system and more quality improvement over last year should be seen.

All of the permits and paperwork was submitted during the last week of March for the lake weed treatments – April 1^st was the deadline.  Midwest Aqua Care did say that they had to look at the shorelines of any people that signed up this year for the first time, before they could apply the treatment.  Mike Rydberg stated that algae was part of the $750.00 permit fee.  This year the DNR increased the permit prices from $20.00 per house with a maximum of $200.00 to $35.00 per house with a maximum of $750.00.  Mike mentioned that the weeds were knee high when the ice left the lake last year, yet he has seen just a few seedlings so far this year.  Pam Scott said that she has a puddle of green off of her shore.  Per Mike it is fermentise algae, which also came up during the winter when he drilled holes in the ice.  Wright County adopted the no phosphorus ruling this year stated Mike Rydberg.

Lance Scott said that the cutter boats are only good for scrap steel.  Joy Duenwald mentioned that scrap metal is currently at its highest price.  It was stated that the trailers need to be removed from Forsberg's barn.  Lance said that he is too busy with soccer starting to get the trailers, but he will discuss it with Bruce Biederman & Paul Johnson.  It was stated that the clutch is burnt on one of the boats and that the blades and hydraulics are shot.  Lake Martha acquired the boats in 1980, at which time they were 15 to 20 years old.  Someone said that the motors are good, yet the mechanisms are loose, the bushings are shot, and a person can no longer get parts, as the company that made them is no longer in business.  Mike Rydberg said that if $500.00 would fix them, then he would be in favor of doing so, but not if it would take more money than that.  Bill Tregaskis asked if the boats would even have a value if fixed.  Dan Frump agreed with Bill’s assumption.  Julie Kasa said that the Association could list them on e-bay.  Dan said that the best thing to do is sell them for whatever one could get, especially since they have been frozen in the ice two years in a row.  Dave Tabbut motioned that we just get rid of them.  Brad Miller said that he would take them.  Teresa Witstine mentioned that the decision of what to do with the cutter boats was to have been made by Lance, Bruce, and Paul during the winter.  Joy motioned to give the boats to Brad.  Julie seconded that motion.

Dave Tabbut is open to suggestions for things to post on the website.  They need to be able to sit on the website for the season, thus a For Sale section is not plausible.  He said that it would be nice to replace some of the old pictures currently on the website.  Dave also mentioned that he would post things or updates that others would like to author.  Lon & Julie Voigt said that Bergstrom on Lake Charlotte is doing a history of the Lake when it was a resort and Laura’s garage was a bait store, plus the Girl Scout camp used to be a boy’s camp.  Someone suggested that there could be a trivial section.

The new people on the Lake that paid Association dues at the time of the weed treatment sign-up need to be reimbursed as new residents are to get the first year of membership free.  Brad & Sheryl Miller, Ron Schroedl, and the Tripletts were new, but paid last year and this year, thus they are due a refund.  Bill Tregaskis or Vicky Rydberg will create a free membership certificate for new residents to be handed out by the Hospitality Committee.

Julie Kasa, Mike Rydberg, and Angela Miller said that the mosquitoes are already out this year.  Dave Tabbut said that the Metropolitan District Control use to treat by helicopter years ago.  Rosie Tabbut said that Kurt Penudo in Rockford would be the person to contact in regards to such an issue.  Dave also said Steve Hancock would be a good contact.  Sue Brallier said that she would contact them.

Rosie Tabbut and Jeanni Tregaskis volunteered to be the Communication Committee.  Mike Rydberg said that they would only have to call anytime a headcount or a vote was needed.

Julie Kasa said that the date of the Annual Lake Martha & Lake Charlotte garage sale should be determined now.  Theresa Witstine said that it should be coordinated with the Rockford Citywide sales.  Angela Miller said that she would contact Kathy Dougherty who is a resident of Lake Martha and is the Rockford City Hall Secretary and would know that information.

Brad Miller volunteered to help Mike Rydberg with the algae treatment this year.

John Witstine asked if there were any updates as to the paving of the roads.  In the Rockford minutes they’ve picked a few streets to pave, yet Halsey is not one of them.  Brad Burns from Lake Charlotte went around and collected 81 signatures.  However, the Township couldn’t figure out the percentage of residents that was since there were no addresses with the signatures, even though there are only approximately 120 houses on the Lake.  

Bill Tregaskis motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:43pm and Jim Miller seconded.

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