April 11, 2008

Coon Lake Improvement District

Interim Board of Directors

P.O. Box 26

East Bethel, MN  55011

Dear Coon Lake Improvement District Property Owner:

On January 8, 2008 the Anoka County Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution #2008-10 to establish Coon Lake Improvement District (CLID).  The Order was published January 11, 2008 by the county board in the Anoka Union, the county’s official newspaper and became effective 30 days after publication.  The Order also was filed with the Minnesota Secretary of State, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as required by the resolution. 

On February 12, 2008 the Anoka County Board of Commissioners approved the five members of the Coon Lake Improvement District Advisory Committee (CLIDAC) who had volunteered to serve as interim board of directors.  The interim directors listed at the end of this letter will serve until an election will be conducted at the first annual meeting of CLID on July 23, 2008, pursuant to Resolution #2008-10.  Board members will serve without compensation in accordance with the CLID bylaws.

CLID meets at 7 p.m. on the second and the fourth Wednesday of each month at the Coon Lake Community and Senior Center, 182 Forest Rd., Wyoming, MN 55092. District residents are encouraged to attend.  CLID’s first open meeting was February 27, 2008 at the community center.  The CLID board, subject to the rules and statues of the State of Minnesota Open Meeting Law, MN Statute Chapter 13D, was prohibited from action until the first meeting.  Those mandates have been satisfied and CLID has been implemented. Action can be taken with the approval of the Board of Directors.  We are now able to communicate with district property owners.

A Lake Improvement District (LID) is a Local Unit of Government (LUG) that offers greater opportunities for landowner involvement in lake management activities.  To finance projects and activities consistent with the purposes of this district, CLID may impose fees on LID property owners only after seeking other sources of funding.  Any assessment in excess of a maximum of $300 per assessable lot will require the specific approval of district residents at the annual meeting.

All funds collected will be dedicated funds and held in an investment account for CLID by Anoka County Finance and Central Services Division and supported by a contractual agreement between the two. CLID is fully accountable for all approvals and disbursement of the funds. They will not be used for any other purpose or rolled over into the county general budget.

CLID was formed after Coon Lake Improvement Association (CLIA) implemented an advisory committee to research and report on alternative funding methods to control invasive species in Coon Lake.  The residents of the proposed Coon Lake Improvement District were surveyed and the majority of the residents approved the formation of a district.  CLIA board members supported the plan as an alternative and equitable method to obtain the funding necessary to address critical lake issues including, but not limited to, Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM) infestation.

If you are interested in serving your lake community through CLID, it is important to become involved in the early stages of the organization.  We encourage you to consider filing for the five board positions to be elected through a ballot process at the July 23 CLID meeting.  Board terms will be up to three years and staggered according to vote totals.  Filing forms are available on the CLID website at www.CLIDMN.org or can be obtained by calling Barb Bouljon, election official, 763-434-7787.  Please leave all pertinent mailing information, including the spelling of your last name, on her voicemail.  For district constituents unable to attend the July 23 meeting, ballots will be available after June 20 on the website or by calling Barb Bouljon.  All filing forms must be received by June 13, addressed to CLID’s PO Box 26, East Bethel, MN 55011 and absentee ballots must be received no later than 3 p.m. July 23, 2008 at the same post office box. At the annual meeting, in addition to the election of Board Members, we will be voting on the proposed budget for the upcoming year, and the approval of the CLID By-Laws.           

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Coon Lake Improvement District

If you would like to be involved, but don’t wish to be on the board, please consider volunteering for our other needs:

·   Development of an email address database to communicate with CLID constituents

·   Logo creation

·   Fund raising and revenue sourcing research

·   Publication, communication and correspondence

·   Budget committee

·   Other LID activities research in the state

·   Lake Vegetation Committee to plan and implement

CLID and CLIA are working together on numerous projects affecting our lake in 2008.  A majority of the expenses may be funded by CLIA, as CLID will not have any assessment funds until mid-2009.  These projects include:

·   DNR required lake assessment surveys

·   Water quality plans

·   Lake vegetation plans

·   Lake management plans

·   Plans to reduce further treatments, and treatment requests in 2008

CLID and CLIA have the same lake initiatives and will provide a coordinated plan.  It has been said CLIA will be the “eyes and ears” of the lake while CLID will be the “arms and legs”.  The distinction between the two is minimal in intent and objectives, but structurally, CLID is a local unit of government.  Anyone interested in project updates may contact either board, visit their websites or watch for additional letters/newsletters.

CLID is reviewing the county-supplied district property list to exempt from fees some of those properties with multiple Property Identification Numbers (PIN’s). The qualifications for exemption will be put on the website, and will be communicated separately to qualifying owners. If you qualify, please fill out the PIN exemption form located on our website at www.CLIDMN.org and send it to the CLID post office box listed above.  Since this letter is being sent to each property with a PIN number that abuts Coon Lake, you may receive multiple copies.

We would like thank all the members of CLIDAC who invested hundreds of hours working for the approval and implementation of CLID.  We appreciate all their efforts that have brought us this far.  Now that CLID has been established, much more needs to be done. We strongly encourage you to become involved so we can all help preserve our precious common community resource: Coon Lake.

All of you now have an opportunity to help us keep our administrative costs down by logging onto our website at www.CLIDMN.org and provide us with your email address. With it we will create the database to use in keeping you informed of our activities, thereby lowering our mailing costs.  The database will not be shared with anyone else.  Simply click on “Contact CLID” tab and click on the underline word “here”.  Fill out all required boxes and submit.  Emails and inquiries can be sent to the CLID Board at info@clidmn.org or via US mail to:

Coon Lake Improvement District, P.O. Box 26, East Bethel, MN  55011.

With warmest regards,

The CLID Interim Board of Directors:

Michael Bury                Chairman,                mike323b@comcast.net                     612-618-1372

Mike Gaynor                1^st Vice Chair           mdgaynor@msn.com                         763-434-0322

Dave Koenig                2^nd Vice Chair         dave_donna_koenig@msn.com       763-244-4028

Tim Donnay                 Treasurer                 timdonnay@aol.com                          763-434-5777

Ron Croteau                 Secretary                 rronone77@aol.com                           612-735-2667