President Chuck Erickson called the meeting to order at 9:15 AM at Camp Miller. Those in attendance were Ron Birkholz, Chuck Erickson, Joanne Morrisey and Chris Wilmar.
The Bylaws, Article V, Section 2, subparagraph d provides 25% of the directors (2 of 8)
plus two officers (of the 4) will constitute a quorum. For lack of attendance of a second
officer, no quorum existed; therefore, no formal Board meeting was conducted. Accordingly,
the minutes of the September 9, 2000 meeting have yet to be reviewed/approved.
The members decided to conduct an informal meeting, to at least review the draft
newsletter to be finalized by Chris arid mailed in late November/early December. This was done.
Old Business updates were discussed as follows:
1. Sewer: As proposed at the September 9th board meeting, Chuck Erickson, Rick Tokarezyk
and Ron Birkholz attended the September 20th Moose Lake-Windemere Sewer
District meeting, and discussed our concerns. About an hour and a half were spent
on the subject. with the Sewer Board indicating they have $25,000 in their 2001 budget
for survey activity on Sturgeon/Island lakes. Rick took an action to contact Pine
County Soil & Water to coordinate their attendance at a follow-up meeting with the Sewer-
Board to determine the best way to survey and how we as an association could help. (OPEN ACTION).
2. Palon Road: As per the September- 9th minutes, Chuck Erickson prepared a letter
on the paving of Palon road and presented same at the October 5, 2000 meeting of the Windemere town board. Bob McKnight and Hank
Pattison attended as well, voicing concern. The board indicated they would explore the possibility of State funds for paving and also the issue of assessing the approximately seven property owners bordering the road. The Board seemed to "waffle" on the question of having a public hearing on the issue of paving and assessment.
3. Abandonment Of Rush Lane: Chuck Erickson arid Bob McKnight attended the October
25, 2000 public hearing at the Windemere Town. Hall. There was a full house. DNR opposes the closing and presented a letter from an Assistant State Attorney General, indicating that since the road offers access to public waters, it cannot be abandoned. The issue was tabled until a follow up public hearing on November 28th, at 8:00 PM. The Board needs this time to work the question with the DNR and the attorney general's office concerning the facts, and the law. Chuck received a copy of the attorney general opinion from Al Overland and offered to provide Overland with written comments (OPEN ACTION).
Several required action remains were discussed arid action taken as follows: These actions should be discussed/ratified at the next Board meeting since, again, we had no quorum.)
1. Donation to Camp Miller: We held ten separate meetings at Camp Miller during 2000 - 7 board meetings and 3 general membership meetings. We therefore felt it appropriate to donate $300.00 this year. We have customarily given them $250.00, but since our MLA membership dues have been reduced - as discussed in paragraph 2 below - it was felt that even $300 is a bargain for use of their facilities. We therefore decided to go with that amount. In a following discussion, Rick agreed. Check #3052 was issued on November 1, 2000 to Camp Miller in the amount of $300.00.
2. MLA Membership: We have 145 members as of our annual census date of September
30th. MLA membership for our association used to cost $2.00 per member. For the year 2001, MLA changed to a sliding scale and an association with between 51-150 members may join MLA for an annual fee of $100.00. 151-300 members results in an annual fee of $150.00 and 300+ members carries a fee of $200.00. Under the old system, our fee for 145 members would have been $290.00. Under the current system, our fee is $100.00. Check #3051 in the amount of $100.00, together with a listing of our 145 members and a separate listing of the 12 directors, was sent to MLA. On October 20th. (NOTE: Several years back, the general membership voted to our association became affiliated with MLA. Therefore, this paragraph 2 item does not require further approval - it is handled as an annual administrative implementation of the decree of the general membership).
3. MLA newsletter, the Reporter: under the new MLA sliding fee membership structure,
each joining association will now simply receive only one subscription to the Reporter.
Either the local association or the Board members must now pay $10.00 for their own subscription
to receive the six issues per year. We felt that all board members should continue to receive
this publication and that the association should pay the subscription fee on behalf of the board members.
Total expenditure ($100 for association fees and $110 for director subscriptions is still cheaper than
the $290.00 that would have been payable under the old system - which automatically sent each board member
a courtesy copy of the Reporter.) Therefore, on November 1, 2000, we remitted check #3053 to MLA,
in the amount of $110.00, together with a listing of the current 12 board members, with instructions to
forward our 12 subscription copies to each of the 12 board members throughout the year.
OTHER ITEMS:
Spells Road Gully Rehabilitation: Work commenced the first of November 2000.
Membership Drive for 200l: Chuck agreed to prepare letters similar to those used last year.
An "invoice" will go out to all members in January 2001, asking them to remit $10.00 for their calendar year
2001.Membership cards and a thank you. letter will be sent to all those who paid. A follow-up "invoice"
will go out in late March to those who did not respond to the January membership invite. Chuck will provide
the proposed letters to Janette for the use in spearheading the membership drive.
Annual Registration as Non-Profit Organization: Chuck filed with the Minnesota Secretary of State office on October 22, 2000.
The informal meeting broke up at 9:45 AM.
Notes prepared by Chuck Erickson, November 3, 2000 and edited by Bob McKnight on November 6, 2000.
Next regularly scheduled Board meeting is Saturday, February 10, 2001.
This Board meeting was rescheduled to February 24th at 9AM
and then to April 7th.
MINUTES FROM THE WINDEMERE LAKE AND LANDOWNERS
GENERAL MEETING
of AUGUST 12, 2000
The meeting was called to order at 9:05 AM at Camp Miller by President Chuck Erickson. The minutes of the July 8 general meeting were read. There was a motion to accept the minutes with an amendment to reflect that the guest speaker at the July 8th meeting was Steve Havisto, Pine County Sheriff. Motion seconded by Arnie Tuonii. Motion carried.
The treasurer's report, given by Janette Muller, showed a checkbook balance of $2806.65 and our certificate at $2105.35, bringing the total balance to $4912.00. A motion was made by Arnie Tuomi, seconded by Ron Birkholz, to approve the treasurer's report. Motion carried-
Chuck Erickson introduced our guest speaker - Audry Posterick, DNR Fisheries. Audry, who works out of the Hinckley Fisheries office, spent the next 45 minutes discussing lake management fisheries programs relating to Sand, Sturgeon and Island lakes. There were numerous questions from the audience.
OLD BUSINESS
- Island Lake -
Spells Road Gully Rehabilitation: Windemere Township, at its August 3rd meeting, received input on this project. Pine County Soil and Water Conservation reported that the low bid for the project came in at $16,000, rather than the initial estimate of $22k. Therefore, Windemere was asked to only contribute $4,000, representing 25% of grant money shortfall. After discussion, the Board voted to approve expenditure of $4,000 of general tax revenue for this project, which is expected to be completed before winter. The property is to be deeded by its current owner to the DNR, at which point the property becomes a DNR Aquatic Management Area (AMA). An AMA is public land but no one can use it for hunting, trapping or camping. In this instance, there is no access by land; someone could land a boat and fish off the shoreline but that is about all the land can be used for by the public. The DNR will maintain the restored gully.
- Sewer: The City of Sturgeon Lake is in the early stages of planning a city sewerage program. A petition is circulating, calling for a vote in the November, 2000 election as to whether city residents want the city council to commit to the project. Several landowner association directors attended a city council meeting to discuss the feasibility of a city sewerage system that could facilitate the needs of Sturgeon and Island lakes. After considerable discussion with the council, the next steps for the Association is to format a map showing proposed boundaries for where we want sewage fines and then discuss the issue with our local sewer district. If the district has no interest in providing sewerage lines, our likely options are to form our own district, contract with the city for service or become annexed to the city. The Board has an open action to work the issue and formulate viability of these, and possibly other, options.
- Natural Gas: No new input. We still need the gas company to provide us with a formatted survey form to distribute to lakeshore property owners to determine interest in being able to receive natural gas.
- Pine County proposed split: Due to recent publicity concerning a proposal by a group of citizens from Pine City to split the county by forming a new county in the southern half of Pine county, to be known as Pioneer County, we gave an update on this issue. Latest information indicated that the severance committee had obtained the required 25% voter signature on a petition to have the issue addressed in the November election. A majority vote of homestead voters in November would be required to effect the split, should the Secretary of State validate the petition, due to be turned in at that office on 9 August.
NEW BUSINESS
- Election of Board of Directors: Bill Yechout requested his name be removed from the slate of nominees for reelection. Request honored. Steve Kozak, Sand Lake, was added to the slate consisting of Joanne Morrisey, Hank Pattison and Arnie Tuomi. Per motion by Bill Yechout, second by Karen Liemacher (?), the motion to elect each of the four (Kozak, Morrisay, Pattison & Tuorni) carried. This resulted in a Board of 10 directors, the minimum required by the by-laws. The audience was asked for several volunteers willing to serve on the Board: Sandy Schuman, Sturgeon Lake, and Bob McKnight, Wild Acres, volunteered. Motion to add these members to the Board was made by Rita Minka(?) seconded by Ron Birkholz, motion carried. It was pointed out that the first meeting of the new Board would be at 9:00 AM on 9 September 2000 at Camp Miller. (See Attachment I for current Board Membership).
-Paving of Palen Road: Hank Pattison made a motion that the Landowners Association advise the town board that we are in opposition to the paving project. Motion seconded by Bob McKnight; discussion followed. Hank pointed out that
Palen road is a one-mile connection between Pine County Rd 50 and Carlton County Rd 10, that no one lives on this road and therefore the cost must be borne by taxpayers of the entire township. Bob McKnight made an amended motion that the landowners Board determine the particulars and decide what action, if any, we should take. Motion seconded by Dennis Huddleston. Motion carried.
There being no further business, a motion was made by Ron Birkholz to adjourn, seconded by Dennis Huddleston, and motion carried. We adjourned at 11:20 AM.
Minutes taken by Chris Wilmar, typed by Chuck Erickson.