June 25, 2023 Meeting Minutes

     MINUTES OF A MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE BLACKWATER LAKE ASSOC.

June 25, 2023

A meeting of the board of directors of the Blackwater Lake Association (“the BLA”) was held on the above date at 3058 4th Avenue North, Longville, MN 56655, at the home of Chairman Lloyd Thielmann. Board of Directors Lloyd Thielmann, Carolyn Dindorf (via Webex), Linda Burns (via Webex), Dodi Sletten (via Webex), Barbie Laughlin, Scott Agre, Shannon Klundt, Rick Zbikowski, and Brian Roos attended the meeting. Becky Seemann was absent. A quorum was present for the meeting.

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 8:32 a.m. by Board Chairman, Lloyd Thielmann.

Approval of Agenda

Lloyd distributed the agenda prior to the meeting via email which, upon a motion duly made and seconded, was unanimously approved. 

                                           Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the May 7, 2023 BOD’s meeting were distributed by Dodi Sletten previously via email and reviewed by the board prior to this meeting. After review by the board which, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the minutes were approved unanimously.   

Treasurer’s Report

      Linda Burns reported the membership at 114. The balance of the Lake Protection Fund is $15,222 and the General Fund has a balance of $7,346 which includes $3,235 of Walleye Stocking funds. Brian Roos will audit the books and report results at the annual meeting. Brian will also look at options to move some of the Lake protection Funds to CDs but will wait until after the annual meeting to do so. The bank signature cards are ready and needs one remaining signature (Dodi Sletten) and that will be done this week.

After review by the board which, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the Treasurer’s report was approved unanimously.   

 NEW Business

  1. 4th of July Boat Parade: The boat parade will take place at 2:00 p.m. starting by assembling at 1:45 p.m.at the entrance to Little Blackwater. Brandon and Cindy Larson will again chair the parade. Registration of your boat and voting will be done by text again this year to allow households on the shore to vote as well as those in the parade. The procedures will be communicated in the short version of the email/ Blurb being emailed and mailed July 3rd. A $100.00 prize will be given to the best decorated boat/pontoon.
  2. Annual meeting:  Lloyd provided the board with a proposed agenda and related annual meeting topics at the meeting. The annual meeting will be held at Woodrow Township hall and will start at 10:00 a.m. preceded by a “meet your neighbors” beginning at 9:00 a.m. Coffee and Donuts will be provided. Rick Zbikowski will order 4 dozen donuts and pick them up for the meeting. The board agreed to order sandwiches, potato salad, cookies, pop, water, paper coffee cups, paper plates, and napkins from Costco. Utensils, and paper cups for water will be provided by Becky Seemann. Luncheon coordinators were suggested as Terry Thielmann and Jan Marr. Lloyd also noted that a fruit tray will be provided by Lloyd and Terry. The Silent Auction will be set-up by 9:00 a.m. and will run through the meeting. Shannon donated an etching and Lloyd will donate Blackwater clothing to the Silent auction. Barbie, Kathy Z and Dodi have collected about 60 items as well and have the plans for the auction well underway. Lloyd asked that we all be at Woodrow Town Hall at 8:30 for set-up. The agenda and information regarding the annual meeting will be contained in the short email/blurb sent out at the beginning of July.  The agenda was discussed as approved is as follows:
    1. Call to order with pledge of allegiance and introductory comments by Lloyd Thielmann
    1. Ask for additions to the agenda and approval of the agenda
    1. Approval of minutes of 2021 Annual Meeting posted on Website by Dodi Sletten
    1. Guest speakers are Jeff Woodford-Cass County ESD director who will speak about healthy septic systems and Becky Seemann on the use of plastics
    1. Treasurers Report and interesting finance facts by Linda Burns-Lloyd will present
    1. Audit report from Brian Roos
    1. Remembrance of our friends and neighbors who are no longer with us-Fred Nutz, Loretta Fredricks, Gary Ginder, Lou Branca, Tom Tiemens, Court Lechert, and Claus Peukert
    1. Committee Reports:
      1. 4th of July Boat Parade update by Cindy Larson
      1. Beaver Control, waterway clearance by Lloyd Thielmann
      1. Water Quality Report-Jim Sletten
      1. Membership report and AIS Lake Protection fund raising report by Linda               Burns-Lloyd will present
      1. Boat Cleaning tools and need for AIS volunteers by Carolyn Dindorf and Lloyd Thielmann
      1.  Seedlings Report by Pat McKee
      1. Fishing committee report by Lloyd Thielmann
    1. The Board of Director’s nominations up for election. Up for election are Shannon Klundt-Chairman -3 year term, Brian Roos-Treasurer -3 year term, Tim Marr-Director -2 year term,  Scott Agre-Director- 2 year term and Rick ZbIkowski-Director at Large-1 year term  
    1. Cabin Coffee-Lloyd will report on the Cabin coffee held at his place and also announce the upcoming one on August 11th at Liepert’s.
    1. New Business
    1. Adjournment and Silent auction results announced
  3. Fall Blackwater Blurb: Becky is looking for a ‘Meet Your Neighbor’ suggestion and also asked that lake activity pictures be sent to her to publish in the Blurb.
  4. ACCL Meetings: Lloyd asked that the board attend the ACCL meetings when possible. Lloyd also reported that he will pick up the boat cleaning tools at the meeting on June 30th. The tools consist of three items – grabber, plug wrench and brush. The cost of the tools were shared and our cost was $27.  
  5.  Beaver Control: Lloyd reported that 26 beavers have been trapped since ice out on May 2nd. Cass County was not able to clear out the damn and it was decided to allow the beavers to rebuild for now to keep water levels up.
  6.  Board Elections:  Up for election are Shannon Klundt-Chairman – 3 year term, Brian Roos-      Treasurer – 3 year term, Tim Marr-Director – 2 year term, Scott Agre-Director – 2 year term and Rick ZbIkowski-Director at Large -1 year term. 
  7. Fish Stocking: Lloyd reported difficulty in obtaining fish stock in the spring and noted if available, it would have to take place in the fall and likely to be smaller in size. The limit is 336 lbs. and size of fish will dictate the number of fish that could be stocked. The board discussed not stocking this year which would put the next stocking in 2025. A suggestion was made to await the results of the DNR test around July 17-22nd to see if the stocking is increasing the number of Walleye in the lake. Lloyd indicated that report would be out in the fall too late to stock fish. The fishing committee will meet to determine the course of action.   
  8. No wake zone consideration: A concerned member enquired about making the Little Blackwater channela no-wake zone to protect the loons who nest there after observing boats moving at high speeds through the channel. The process to do so first must be vetted through Cass County and then on to the DNR before any signage can go up. Carolyn will pass on information on how to obtain local boating regulations.
  9. Seedlings program: Pat McKee who runs the seedling program, put together an analysis of the seedling program and sent that to Lloyd who read it for the board. In her analysis, Pat sited pros and cons of the program. This year she had 18 customers who ordered trees through the program. The pros she listed as repeat customers, tree planning improves water quality, planting for the future and a small amount of money is spent. From a cons perspective, she noted the stock options are less, the seedlings are getting much smaller-with less chance of survival, and some people don’t pick up their ordered stock and it’s hard for her to keep them alive. After discussion, the board voted to discontinue the seedlings program. An article will be published in the fall Blurb that this program will be discontinued and provide the members a link on our website to the site where they can order tree stock should they wish to do so. 
  10. Authorized Bank Account Signers: The board approved the following to co-sign checks for the General fund and Lake Protection fund accounts. Brian Roos, Lloyd Thielmann, Rick Zbikowski, Scott Agre, Dodi Sletten and Shannon Klundt.
  11. Fishing Committee–Kids program: Tim noted that the kids fishing education/program has not yet been planned. Lloyd indicated that the One Stop is not concerned that the program has not yet been completed. They also said they would sell kids rods and reels for cost. Mule Lake has theirs on the 4th of July and its being spearheaded by Fred Montana. Shannon will contact Fred to learn more about their plan. 
  12. Website update: Shannon noted that the website will need to be updated listing the new board members and also bring it up to date with meeting minutes etc. Scott and Shannon will review to see what needs to be done and update the site. 

 Next Board Meetings and Annual Meeting

         The remaining Board of Director’s meeting for 2023 will be held on October 1st.  The Annual meeting will be held on 7/15/2023.

Adjournment

There being no further business to come before the Board, and upon motion duly made and seconded, the meeting was adjourned by unanimous approval at 10:05 a.m.

Dated as of the date first written above.

       ____________________________________

         Dodi Sletten, Secretary