May 5, 2019 Board Meeting

MINUTES OF A MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE BLACKWATER LAKE ASSOC.
May 5th, 2019

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 phone) Linda Burns (via phone), Dodi Sletten (via phone), Becky Seemann, Tim Marr, and Shannon Klundt were present at the meeting. Barbie Laughlin was not present. A quorum was present at the meeting.

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 8:30 a.m. by Board Chairman, Lloyd Thielmann.

Approval of Agenda

Lloyd distributed the agenda for the meeting which, upon motion duly made and seconded, was unanimously approved.

Approval of Prior Minutes

The minutes of the October 7, 2018, BOD’s meeting minutes were distributed by Dodi Sletten via email in October and prior to this meeting. After review by the board which, upon a motion duly made and seconded, the meeting minutes were unanimously approved as submitted.

Treasurer’s Report

Linda Burns provided an email to the board prior to the meeting with both the detail and summary of the budget and membership numbers for the year 2018-2019. Membership is the highest it’s been at 142. The starting balance was $3844. Income to date is $5858 and is from membership dues, AIS donations, Blackwater wear, and the Silent Auction. Expenses to date total $3085 which were the normal expenses plus a payment to AW Research Lab for the arsenic summary and map use in the Blackwater Blurb. The current balance is at $6617.

Linda asked the board to confirm continuing the donation of $400 to the Cass County inspection process, the payment of $120 to MN Waters (our website host) and the mowing maintenance of $75 around our signs at the public access. All were confirmed by the board.

Based on the board’s approval from our October 7, 2018 board meeting, Linda will open a   designated account to segregate AIS donated funds. This would be effective July 1 to coincide with our fiscal year. After discussion by the board, which included the designation of the account as AIS specific, a concern was raised on how we would re-appropriate those funds should they be needed for other water protection concerns. Carolyn recommended the account designation be Lake Protection Fund which would cover a broader range of lake concerns should they occur. The board agreed to that fund name and Linda will open the account with our current bank.

Linda also requested a change to the current check co-signing privileges for both accounts. She recommended that in addition to Lloyd, Court Lechert, and Tom Staley; Barbie Laughlin, and Dodi Sletten be added as co-signers. She proposed removing Paul Norman in conjunction with these changes.  The board approved these changes.

   New Business

  1. Annual Seedling Program: Lloyd reported that Court Lechert would like to retire from managing the Seedling program. This will be confirmed with Barbie Laughlin who is the board member who manages that committee.
  2. Beaver Control and Waterways Committee: Lloyd reported that our beaver control individual has been doing a tremendous job. His report to Lloyd and the board included numerous beavers trapped both last fall and this spring with no damage. The culvert is open and flowing very well due to his efforts using a mud motor to keep it clear.
  3. Blackwater Wear: After a brief discussion by the board, it was confirmed not to move forward with ordering any at this time.
  4. Blackwater Blurb: With the loss of Val as our graphic designer, Becky offered two recommendations she has pursued. One was a designer out of Baudette who could handle our work at a cost of $250. The other graphic designer is Judy Leeds (owner of the Mule Lake Store) who would do the design work Pro gratis in exchange for an ad in the Blackwater Blurb. The board agreed that Judy Leeds would be a great solution. Given the policy of not selling ad space in the Blurb, the board recommended the ad state Judy’s Blurb work appreciation in the ad.

Becky laid out the timeline to meet delivery deadlines. The deadline to get articles to Becky is May 15th. The date for the mailing will be after Memorial Day with the hope the cabin coffee date would get to everyone timely. If too late, Lloyd will cover it in an email.

The following will be included in the Blurb:

–  Chairman’s Update: Lloyd

–   Up North Animals—Did you know?: Becky

–  Your Blackwater Lake Association at Work

–  Membership form

–  AIS & Water Update: Carolyn

–  Blackwater Cabin Coffee Schedule: Becky

–  Meet Your Lake Neighbor: Becky

–  Cabin Cuisine: Shannon

–  Photos: Becky and Carolyn will collaborate. Val provided some to Lloyd that Becky will review for inclusion

–  Membership and Treasurers Report: Linda

–  Board of Directors/Committee listing: Lloyd and Becky

  1. 5. Committee Members: After discussion on the committees and its members, it was decided that the name of the Healthy Lakes Committee will be changed to Lake Protection Committee to be consistent with our other decisions for the new bank account and our Silent Auction positioning in 2018. Shannon will join the committee.

Carolyn will provide AIS early detection training to Bob Seemann, Jean English and Shannon Klundt who will join our team of volunteers.

  1. Cabin Coffee: Cabin coffee will be hosted on Fridays at 10:00am beginning June 14th at Scott and Elizabeth Agre’s cabin.  Tim and Jan Marr will host on July 12th followed by Jim and Dodi Sletten on August 9th.
  2. BLA Annual Meeting: The annual meeting is on July 20th. The Woodrow Town hall has been reserved.  The Silent Auction will be held again and will include donated items by both members and businesses. Hats and visors will be included in the silent auction. The food would be sandwiches, potato salad and cookies provided by Costco as in past years but left this open to further discussion. Suggestions for a speaker were either the new DNR game conservation officer or an individual from Deep Portage. Lloyd will reach out to both. Additional planning and finalization will take place at our June board meeting.
  3. 8. Board of Director’s elections: The following board members are up for re-election. Becky Seemann, as director, Dodi Sletten as secretary, and Tim Marr as director. All have agreed to re-run for re-election. Board approval was given to Shannon as director and will be up for election at the annual meeting. Lloyd is working on a replacement for the director at large position.
  4. ACCL meetings: Lloyd asked for volunteers to attend the meetings and get it on the schedule. Three of the board members volunteered with more needed to cover the summer.
  5. AIS early detection: Carolyn will review the plans provided from the ACCL meetings and compare against what we currently have to complete a more comprehensive action plan.
  6. Lake Access Sign: Tim presented a visual draft and proposal for the lake access sign as discussed in our October 2018 board meeting. Tim worked with a sign maker from Jenkins who provided him with a cost estimate of $365 for a 4’ x 5’ foot sign. Additional expenses would be for the cedar framing which is expected to be around $140 for an approximate total cost of $545. The board discussed changing the wording to include both before launching and after leaving to be more comprehensive to both incoming and outgoing boat traffic. The board approved to reserve funding at $600.00. Carolyn was able to access the DNR site during the meeting and learned that the DNR provides free signs at water access sites. The board will follow up on that information before committing to funding our own sign.

New Business

  1. Woodrow Township: Lloyd as the representative for Blackwater Lake, reported that Woodrow Township is working to establish emergency planning for the township. As a part of this planning, the Township is looking for volunteers to be watchdogs on specific roads to report issues in the case of emergencies due to catastrophic events caused by weather, fire, etc. The Woodrow Township has asked that the lake associations put a request in their newsletters asking for volunteers to be a watchdog. The board agreed to put this request into the Blurb.
  2. Lake Haven Acres: Shannon updated the board regarding the use of the landing at Lake Haven Acres. This is not open to the public and is limited to use by the residents. While a great percentage of the boats are usually not trailered in and out, Shannon did indicate that some residents do fish other lakes. Shannon is willing to send out an email to their association suggesting a higher diligence in boat cleaning.

   Next Board Meetings and Annual Meeting 

The Annual meeting for 2019 will be held on July 20th. The next Board of Directors meetings for 2019 will be held on June 30th and October 6th.

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 10:25 a.m.

Dated as of the date first written above.

____________________________________

Dodi Sletten, Secretary

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