Sent Saturday October 10, 2009

This email was sent via the Coon Lake Improvement Association (CLIA) site to all members and non-members of CLIA of which we have e-ddresses for on behalf of the Coon Lake Improvement District (CLID).

If you would like to become a member of CLIA and receive lake related weekly information, please contact coonlakeimprovementassociation@yahoo.com

Thank you!

Coon Lake Improvement District (CLID) Update 

It is difficult to be brief with an issue of such importance regarding the CLID and its’ activities, so in the interest of brevity, I encourage you to visit the website - www.clidmn.org, navigate the site and please submit your name, address and e-ddress on the “Contact CLID” tab to be sure you will receive information from the CLID as it becomes available. Out of over 450 properties, only 24 homeowners have registered on the site so the CLID has not set up an email contact list due to the lack of responses. Currently any pertinent info is sent via the CLIA Yahoo email and 180 CLIA members as well as over 50 non-members can be contacted, but membership in CLIA keeps you best informed. Sharing this with neighbors not currently members of CLIA would help us to spread this word as well.   

At the CLID Annual Meeting and posted on the CLID website “Communication to Members” tab – 2009 Annual Meeting” page, there is over a dozen areas of participation that you can be involved with as much is being done by a few, thus limiting the our potential. Josh Sturmans’ article in the CLIA newsletter, Coon Lake Living, shows us in regards to lake improvement districts in Minnesota, we are ahead of the curve in citizen driven lake stewardship and are likely to benefit from the time and investment we each contribute.

It takes numbers of us to reach out to our local officials and help them to understand and support the CLID projects both financially and in spirit. Many of us believe that they have a financial obligation to the CLID due to the increased tax base of our lake homes. To date, requests for funding to all three cities and the county over the past two years have not been approved. 

About 50 people attended both the 2008 and 2009 Annual Meeting of the CLID to learn about and vote on issues pertaining to the next years plan as well as to vote for the nominee(s) to fill the available Director position(s). This year there was only one position open as there is a rotation of expiring terms of five positions. Thanks to Tim Donnay for his nearly three years of working to form the CLID and for his past year as a Director. We are pleased to have Keith VonDeLinde join us on the board and he has also been involved with the Spotter Teams as well as on the Lake Vegetation Management Committee with Steve Olson, Dave Koenig and myself. Keith had volunteered to be part of that committee when Leon Mager resigned. Many thanks to Leon for all of his help and effort to shape and educate the Spotter Teams, Water Quality research and website and also being instrumental in the formation of our Lake Management Plan. He spent countless hours of his time for the cause and all of his work in every area is greatly appreciated! Leon also trained Jason Hohenstein and Keith to assist with the software transfer of GPS data to a readable files and printable jpeg pictures for the not so computer savvy such as myself. Thanks to both of you for the help in that department! 

Here is a partial recap of what has been done by CLIA and the CLID this year followed by proposed projects for 2010.

• April thru mid May - trained Spotter teams to identify EWM and CLP and to use GPS units to locate heavily infected areas (polygons) for treatment
• In early May - sent out Request for Pricing to 7 licensed applicators with the probability of treating up to 225 acres
• End of May – Spotter teams went out and GPS way points were transferred to identify nearly 100 acres for application to treat Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS)
• Mid to mid June – approved and awarded Professional Lake Management Corp. (PLM) for treatment using Renovate (OTF), a tryclopyr granular chemical approved by the MN DNR for grant reimbursal 
• Mid June – submitted a grant request to the MN DNR for up to $10,000 for treatment of matted areas of EWM    
• Mid June – applied for permit to treat nearly 100 acres of EWM
• Late June – MN DNR reviewed areas requested for treatment and upon inspection reduced the number of acres to 77 acres. Some of the areas we requested were refused, however an area on Choo Choo bay was increased greatly
•  By early July – grant and amended permits were approved and in order to allow treatment
• July 22^nd – CLID annual meeting, approval of new Director, 2010 budget, and $300 fee 
• July 23^rd – successful treatment of 73.3 acres occurred
• By August 25^th - 2009 Point transect survey completed for Coon Lake

The CLID Board is hopeful that with this past summer being an experiential year, and with some guidance and direction from Patrick Selter of PLM, we will be on top of things early in 2010. We plan to treat some large areas of CLP early on and also areas of EWM as identified by the August point transect survey, a fall assessment and spring delineation if necessary.  

A Frequently Asked Questions page is being prepared for the CLID website and can be helpful to answer some of your questions. It will be available under the “Communications to Members” tab and if you would like to learn more, Patrick Selter from PLM will be the keynote speaker and have a presentation at the Fall General Membership Meeting on Thursday October 15^th at the Coon Lake Beach Community Center. There will be time for questions and more information relating to our common precious natural resource – Coon Lake. 

There are other people not mentioned here that are involved with the CLID that also deserve a Big Thank You!! You know who you are and I appreciate your being there and all of your help!  

Mike Bury

CLID Chairman

612 618 1372