Category: Lake News

Meeting Called to Order by Amy Heaven 9:00 AM at the Gardner Senior Center.

Board Present: Amy Heaven, Mike Rankin, Sandy Adams, Ryan Mueller, Melinda Broward, Greta Jahrus, Blake Larson, Leslie Hind, Clifton Bencke

Board Absent: None

Introductions: Board members and new lake residents were introduced.

Agenda: Amy Heaven presented the agenda for approval. Miranda Burnett moved to approve the agenda, this was seconded and approved.

Secretary: Ryan Mueller presented the previous resident’s meeting minutes. Blair Honeyman moved to approve the minutes, this was seconded and approved.

Treasury: Presented by Leslie Hind. Major expenses in 2022 were: $636 for 4^th of July Parade, $188 for kayak race, $1,472 for dumpsters (for 4 tons of trash removed!), and $850 for the Grass Carp addition project. Funds that were received in 2022 are: $3,954 in dues collected from 115 members, $2,008 collected from merchandise sales, and $4,150 received from 51 benefactors specifically for the Grass Carp addition project (thank YOU!). Leslie explained that of the GLA’s assets, $15,000 has been earmarked for infrastructure expenses and the remaining $3,806 is in the general fund, with another $435 in the Paypal receivable account.

Special Events: Presented by Melinda Broward. Melinda led us down memory lane with a review of the fun events held throughout the year. Some special highlights were the 4^th of July Boat Parade with online voting, 2 very successful lake cleanups that beautified the dam / spillway area, and a kayak race with 25 volunteers and 40 participants (including a paddling pup!). Melinda built more excitement for the Annual Chili Cookoff that occurs later this day (10/8/22) and announced a Christmas Light Contest to occur later this year.

Special Presentation: Lake Infrastructure:

-Amy Heaven addressed the recent article by the Gardner News. In response to the article, Amy and the GLA board created a Gardner Lake Infrastructure Taskforce: a subset of GLA board members and residents especially dedicated to getting into the deep details of what it would take to repair the dam and spillway. The taskforce is made up of Leslie Hind, Mike Rankin, Ryan Mueller, Tim Orrick, and Amy Heaven.

-Leslie Hind reviewed the history of the dam / spillway repairs as well as the inspection report produced in 2021 by engineering firm Olsson. The lake Dam is currently classified as a High Hazard dam because a failure of the system could result in extensive loss of life, damage to homes, or traffic on high volume roads.  At the 2021 inspection, the dam was found to be in fair condition but deficiencies and needed repairs were noted including deterioration of the spillway crest, undesirable vegetation along the dam embankment, and sparse riprap in certain locations.

-Tim Orrick presented information on the current governance of the lake and nearby properties. Importantly, it was noted the dam / spillway repairs are estimated to cost in the neighborhood of $800,000. Of this total, Johnson County has offered a grant to pay $400,000 towards these repairs. This has been declined for several years by the city of Gardner due to a lack of funds for the remaining portion of funding – approximately $400,000. So far, the city has expressed that some portion of this cost will be burdened by the residents of Gardner Lake. To this point, the GLA Infrastructure Taskforce is currently investigating options that would help get the dam and spillway repaired with various forms of financial structuring. These options and some of their pro/cons were:

1) Do nothing and allow the city to repair on their terms and timeline

-pros: passive choice, happens automatically

-cons: no control, city could decide to raise dock fees unilaterally to cover costs

2) Work with city to finance a ‘resident portion’ of the cost through dock fees

-pros: some voice in structuring of dock fees

-cons: dock fees not a good mechanism – overcharge some residents and undercharge others

3) City of Gardner passes ownership of the lake to Johnson County

-pros: county has authority to levy tax assessments in a more equitable way than dock fees

-cons: unlikely that Johnson County is interested

4) Transfer ownership of Gardner Lake to a private entity such as a newly formed HOA

-pros: an HOA would have control of decisions

-cons: would be difficult to form an HOA, resident responsibility for repairs increases

Old Business:

-Calendar Update: Sandy Adams is preparing calendars for 2023, sponsorships are available.

-Membership Update: Mike Rankin is working to build a contact list of lake residents for email notifications. Let the GLA know if you are not getting lake announcement emails.

-Dredging/Grass Carp Update: Leslie Hind said that dredging is still a priority and will be investigated soon. The existing and newly added grass carp have been working hard cleaning up algae around the lake.

-Raffle Update: Ryan Mueller showed off the awesome items available in the raffle for the Chili Cookoff.

New Business:

-By-Laws Update: Amy Heaven announced forthcoming proposed updates to the By-Laws to be voted on at the Spring Resident’s meeting.

Adjournment: There was a move to adjourn, which was seconded and passed unanimously.

Meeting Called to Order by Amy Heaven 4:22 PM in Zoom format.

Present:           Amy Heaven, Ryan Mueller, Greta Jahrus, Leslie Hind

Absent:            Clifton Bencke, Blake Larson, Mike Rankin, Melinda Broward, Sandy Adams

Treasury: Presented by Leslie. Current amounts are as follows: $22,384 checking, $435 Paypal, $574.20 Venmo, coming to a total of $23,393.91. Currently 61 people have paid 2023 dues for membership.

Old Business:

-Presented by Amy. Amy, Mike, Leslie, and Ryan met with Shirley Allenbrand, Todd Winters, and their teams. The meeting was a level-set for all sides. The GLA representatives shared the information they had presented at the Fall Resident’s meeting. The other parties had some questions and comments around these ‘options’. The city and county parties agreed to look into the dam/spillway issue and schedule a follow-up with the GLA after. The GLA was then excused from the meeting allowing for further discussion between the county and city privately.

– Leslie mentioned the By-laws taskforce is going to meet soon to draft proposed updates to the current by-laws. These will be submitted to membership prior to the Spring Resident’s meeting for review and comment.

New Business:

-Spring Resident’s meeting is 3/25!

-Fall/Winter/Spring newsletter: Amy is working on a forthcoming document.

-Ryan to work on getting by-laws on Lake site.

Adjournment:

-Leslie moved to adjourn the meeting, this was seconded by Amy.

Meeting Called to Order by Amy Heaven 4:09 PM in Zoom format.

Present:           Amy Heaven, Mike Rankin, Sandy Adams, Ryan Mueller, Greta Jahrus, Melinda Broward

Absent:            Clifton Bencke, Blake Larson, Leslie Hind

Old Business:

-Lake Preservation Force Report: Amy has been discussing infrastructure with the county. The county is interested in having a discussion. Concerns about fixed income residents if dock fee changes are on the horizon.

-Social Events: Christmas light contest is upcoming. Residents can email a photo of their house to GLA and we will host a vote on the GLA Facebook page.

-Calendar Update: Currently accepting advertisers for the calendar.

New Business:

-Task force for by-laws: Amy, Sandy, Greta, and Ryan going to work on a draft for the by-laws.

-Fall/winter newsletter: Amy is working on a forthcoming document.

-Ryan to work on getting by-laws on Lake site.

Adjournment: Greta motioned to adjourn, seconded by Ryan.

Meeting Called to Order at 6:35 in Zoom format.

Present: Mike Rankin, Sandy Adams, Ryan Mueller, Melinda Broward, Greta Jarhaus, Leslie Hind, Amy Heaven.

Absent: Leslie Nemitoff, Blake Larson, Clifton Bencke

Amy presented the agenda for approval. Sandy made the motion that we accept the agenda as submitted and Mike seconded. The vote was called and the agenda was accepted.

Amy submitted the minutes from the March 26 general membership meeting. Sandy made the motion that we accept them as submitted with a second by Mike. The vote was called and the minutes were approved.

Leslie H. gave the financial report as basically unchanged from the last meeting when we had $20,274.21 on hand. She has one outstanding check to deposit.

Sandy gave a tee shirt update. We have about 150 left with 10 having sold at the general meeting for a total of funds collected around $2000 so they have covered the costs and are generating income.

Ryan gave a raffle report. He sold ten tickets at the meeting for a total of $40.00. Ryan is working on a David Payne picture for our raffle collection. He is also going to solicit Gardner business for donations.

On Old Business:

The topic of roster maintenance was presented, and it was agreed that it would be a good task for our Lake Road Representatives. Mike agreed to head up the rep program and reach out to the current volunteers to reengage them. Amy mentioned that she’d received Angela Larson’s resignation. An in-person gathering was discussed and Greta volunteered to help with that process. A date will be determined in the future.

The floor was turned over to Melinda for the events update. She asked about the success of the dam clean-off April 16th. Workers who participated were Todd Chappell, Dave Young, Pete Adams, John Modic, Blair Honeyman and Travis Fleming. Trees that could not be pulled where sawed off with the trunks treated with Tordon. The city has been slow to remove the loose brush.

The topic of Mary Burnett’s clean-up party was raised. The turnout was fantastic, but the wind wouldn’t permit the use of boats on that day. People launched out on foot but even that was a challenge. There was talk of possibly scheduling another one for the fall, but not determination was made.

Leslie forwarded a couple names of people who had volunteered to serve on Leslie Nemitoff’s beautification committee. They were people who signed up at the general meeting.

Regarding the 4th of July boat parade, Melinda will plan a meeting in the next couple weeks to start planning. Several different methods of judging were discussed. The budgets for all the social events is $500 for simplicity. Leslie H. asked if Susan Dolan had been invited to judge and that she would take it very seriously.

Leslie H. presented her grass carp report. She was disappointed that Lucas with the state was walking back his offer of providing 500 grass carp for us this year. After our successful program last year he had made that offer. He was saying that our lake looked very good and he wanted to wait and see until fall. Melinda asked if the cost had stayed the same. Leslie H. was going to check on that. Melinda suggested that we get them reserved.

The condition of the spillway was discussed. Leslie H. said that Jason with the city was going to get us a copy of the last spillway report. Leslie said that the city has no budget for a repair and that is was a low priority for them. There is a condition report provided every two years.

On the condition of the dam, it too is inspected every two years. Mike was wondering about its evaluation and wondered how concerned we should be. It was mentioned that the valve below the dam was inspected monthly.

On the topic of dredging, Leslie H. commented that the city has had two grants in the past that expired and that it doesn’t fair well for future grants. But Jason is meeting with the county for possible options. Melinda asked if the city had investigated the purchase of dredging equipment? Leslie said “no.” Greta asked if Leslie had her task force? She said that Harold will help and Greta said that Fred, her husband, and volunteered as well. Ryan also said that he’d like to help. Leslie said that Jason felt we would need to use the cities grant writer.

Leslie remarked that only seven crew members maintain all the parks in Gardner. They are purchasing fancy trash cans for all the sites and that we would get 3 or 4. On the subject of beautification, Jason was very supportive. Leslie H. asked about having a park ranger and Jason said there was no budget for that. Gardner Lake will, however, get two security cameras to be monitored by the police. Leslie H. had asked the city about replacing the Porto-Potty and they said they would not because they are always destroyed by the public. They were considering something permanent. The amount of work what Leslie Hind was doing was recognized and Greta volunteered to help her. Leslie feels that Jason is trying to do the right thing.

Communications and our website was discussed. It was agreed that we need to know the password to our website as Blake is the only one who has it. Ryan volunteered to help Blake as he too has web design skills.

On New Business, Greta suggested that we maintain a running list of concerns and Ryan suggested a share Google Sheet. Greta remarked that it would facilitate managing feedback and understanding concerns. She agreed to manage it.

We would table a report on beautification until Leslie Nemitoff is available.

Tee shirts were discussed, and it was agreed that we would look into a new logo design for next year. Sandy felt like this wasn’t the time of the year to order them. Having our lake road reps in our tee shirts was a good idea. The topic turned to the lake road rep party and when a good time to have it would be. It was decided that this June might be the time.

Discussion turned to earmarking the treasury to avoid continual criticism over our utilization of excess funds. It was discussed that infrastructure should be the larger amount with earmarking the social events as another along with campaign seed money. Leslie mentioned that we need to update the signatories on the checking account while we were at it.

Amy mentioned that the Gardner Historical Museum was featuring an exhibit on Gardner Lake history starting June.

A permanent monthly meeting time was set for the third Wednesday of each month at 6:00 pm. Amy will get the Zoom password from Chuck.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 pm.

In a post-meeting e-mail exchange on April 28, Ryan Mueller motioned that we go forward with the purchase of 500 grass carp and Melinda Broward seconded. The vote carried.

Minutes submitted by Amy Heaven in the absence of Leslie Nemitoff, Secretary.

GLA-Meeting-Minutes-3-21-22

GLA-Meeting-Minutes-10-9-21