Water Level Info
All Sugar Lake landowners and SLA members,
As you are no doubt aware, we are experiencing a significant drought that is materially and negatively affecting our current lake level. We are not alone, as this is occurring throughout the state in many lakes. That said, we continue to monitor lake levels and recently reached out to our weir consultant to determine if any review/adjustment to the weir was needed. We have asked this question each of the last three years, but have been unable to make any weir adjustments as we were always within the 50-year average lake level range. This drought will likely change that as we have "unofficially" dropped below the 50-year average. We will communicate with lake-owners/SLA members when we know something. Thanks for your patience.
How much rain do we need to get out of drought? Some interesting info here: https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/how-much-rain-does-minnesota-need-to-end-the-severe-drought-conditions
Pray and dance for rain!
- Tom Huettner
SLA President
October 2020 Board Minutes
The Sissebakwet Lake Association
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
October 10, 2020
Call to order: The virtual Zoom meeting was called to order by President Huettner at 10:04 am. Attending were President Huettner, Bill Hagenbuck, Deb Hagenbuck, Betsy Martin, Roger Quern, Gwynne Bobich and Holly Hambley.
Announcements: Bill Hagenbuck reported that clean-up along the lake was completed as far as possible around approximately half the lake.
Secretary’s Report: Betsy moved to approve the Secretary’s Report. The motion was seconded and approved.
Treasurer’s Report: The Treasurer reported $4,350.80 in the checking account and $32,761.18 in the savings account for an overall total of $37,111.98. Roger’s report shows $2,370 income from membership dues with a total income including dues, donations, interest and other of $4,591.45.
Dues income was a response to email and letters regarding same. Gwynne volunteered to take
the lead with Betsy, in communicating thanks to new and returning members and in other
correspondence with members. The consensus was that Sugar Lake notecards might be used for
some of this correspondence. It was noted that payments often included contributions to AIS.
Two bills were presented: $216.00 for the website and $43.50 for ICOLA dues. Betsy moved that
these bills be paid. The motion was seconded and approved.
Bill Hagenbuck moved that the Treasurer’s Report be approved. The motion was seconded and
passed.
Election: Roger stated that 36 individuals voted that the Board was “okay.” Three directors were approved by membership mail-in vote.
6) 2019/2020 Officer Vote/Committee Chair Selection:The following slate was presented:
Officers: President: Tom Huettner
Vice President: Bill Hagenbuck
Treasurer: Roger Quern
Secretary: Holly Hayes
Receiver of Notice: Bill Hagenbuck
Committees: Communications: Chair – Gwynne Bobich, Vice Chair, Betsy Martin, with Vicky and Gordy.
Membership: Chair – Gwynne Bobich, Co-Chair – Vicky with Roger a member/advisor
Water Quality, Management and Education: Chair – Tom Huettner, Co-chair – Roger
Quern, with Bill Hagenbuck as Advisor.
Social: Betsy Martin. It was suggested that Communications and Social be combined under leadership of Betsy and Gwynne. It was suggested that other members be appointed to include Joan Schulz, Rose Houlihan (sp.?) and one more.
Tom moved approval of Board Members; the motion was seconded and approved.
Tom indicted that the Board would set goals and talk later.
7)FY 2020/2021 Proposed Key Dates – Meeting usually second Saturday of the month.
Monthly meetings:
April 10
May 8
June 12
July 10 - (Proposed date for Triathlon. Date may be shifted.)
August 14
September 11
October 9
Spring Meeting/Brunch: June 13 was preferred over June 5 or 6. Tom suggested a memorial after the Membership meeting.
Fall Meeting/Dinner: Sunday, September 5
Timberman Triathlon: To be determined.
Spring/Fall Clean-ups: 4th Saturday in April and 4th Saturday in September.
Install/Remove AIS signs at Public Landings: May 9/October 10. Bill will take care of signs on his road; other signs will be left up.
8) Committee Reports:
Communications (Chair- Gwynne B; Co-Chair – Betsy M): Photo contest – Will go into Fall Newsletter. Abby will send picture to Gwynne and Betsy. A gift worth $25.00 from Lodge Shop has been approved previously.
Roger will send reimbursement check to the Shop.
Membership (Chair – Gwynne B; CoChair -Vicky, Roger Q.): The welcome package to new residents on the lake was discussed. Packages were given to new owners at Jenson’s and the log cabin. Roger will share updated data base with Tom so the President can use the data.
c. Water Quality, Management and Education – ( Chair – Tom Huettner - temporary): Tom discussed the decon site with Fred. The site has not been used often during the current year. Lodge guests and owners have been contacted re desirability of using the site. The Grooms are making use of the site. Abby received an inquiry during the last week from a group reviewing vegetation. Consensus was that Tom would contact the group for future information and to determine a fee. Bill will forward information on companies that are competitive regarding analytical services and whether companies are certified.
(Note: See addendum to report. Tom provided additional information in the agenda re Decon sites, etc.)
d. Social (Chair – Betsy M.; Co-Chair – Gwynne B.): Note – Committee combined with the Communications Committee.
9)FY 2020/2021 Proposed SLA Committee Goals Discussion: a. The website is ready for updating. Items to be included are AIS plans, rapid response plan (Tom is working on this), neighborhood watch (Deborah Hagenbuck asked about this; concern was expressed over increased traffic possibly due to covid). Tom asked if we wanted to post a sign.
b. Other goals: Newsletter – Appropriate Board Members will work on the Newsletter over the winter; SLA needs to get the newsletter out. Betsy needs a commitment – possibly each SLAoard member could write about SLA. Items could include road clean-up, a listing of new families on the lake that might include a feature on one family and profiles of members. Betsy suggested a deadline of November 15; this suggestion should be coordinated with Abby. The target for the next newsletter of January, 2021, should be coordinated with Abby.
Respectfully submitted,
Dora K. (Holly) Hayes
Secretary
Decon site Update:
Noteholder:
AIS Certified Lake Parties: (i.e., certification holders)
AIS Detectors (MAISrC and U of M Extension) Betsy Martin, Bill Hagenbuck, Bruce
Erickson, Bill Grantges
Lake Service Provider (DNR) Paul Grooms, Fred Bobich, Dale Anderson/3B’s (Certified, but not 5 Star), Grand Rapids Marine (5 Star and Decon in town), J.J.’s
Barge Service (5 Star) and Jeff Reed.
c – e) Itasca AIS Watercraft Inspection (Itasca SWCD), AIS Sentry Program (DNR), Itasca
Resort Inspector (Itasca SWCD) None
f) AIS thermal decontamination (Itasca SWCD) Tim Oxborough, Mark Reisser
g) Volunteer watercraft Inspectors (DNR) Bruce Freeman, Bill Hagenbuck,
Deb Hagenbuck
V 23
September 2020 Board Minutes
Siseebakwet Lake Association (D)
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
September 5, 2020
Call to order: The virtual ZOOM meeting was called to order by President Huettner at 8:41 am. , CDT.
Attending were Tom Huettner, Gordy H., Gwyneth Bobich, Deb Hagenbuck, William Hagenbuck, Vicky Morgan, Betsy Martin and Dora (Holly) Hayes.
Announcements: None reported.
Secretary’s Report: Betsy moved approval of the minutes of the previous meeting as corrected. The motion was seconded and approved.
Treasurer’s Report:
Roger’s Report and approval of expenses- As of 09/04/2020 the treasurer received $120 fo dues and AIS donations. Balances were: Checking account $ 806.91
Savings Account 32,758.70
For a total of $33,565.61
Total income for the year was $1,044.12 and total expenditure was $1,071.37. Expenses over income : $27.25.
The Treasurer purchased a roll of stamps and sent 124 letters in addition to email “letters.”
The Board reviewed the current methods of dues payments including PayPal. Details of how members and SLA handle the PayPal receipts were discussed.
Discussion of handling of mail votes for Board members was reviewed. Roger and Bill will pick up the votes. No deadline was given for voting, but a notice will be placed on the web site. The SLA Board will wait until the next meeting to fill a vacancy and will use a (Board) vote to add an individual to the list of Board members.
AIS funding – Investment Options - Huettner reported that the Investment Committee needs to make recommendations concerning who is a signer, what bank will be used and how authority will be invoked. Informal consensus was that the President and the Secretary should included as members on the Investment Committee.
Report of 2019/2020 Financials to Members – September 30 marks the end of the fiscal year for the SLA. The Treasurer will wait until September ends and then provide an appropriate report to be placed on the SLA web site. This report will be in lieu of the Fall Meeting.
Receiver of Notice Updates/Old Business: Richard Shelby has sold the Jensen place; the new couple that moved in should be invited to join SLA. The “log cabin” has been sold; SLA needs to obtain appropriate information on the new owners.
Committee Reports:
Communications- Website – The committee chairs (Gwynne B and Betsy M.) and SLA will look at the website over the winter. Changes and additions will be made to the website. Roger suggested that we highlight selected members on the website; we discussed highlighting one family a month. Vicky did this in past; this will be discussed with Abby. Information on AIS should be added to the website. (See note on adding button under “Water Quality.”
Membership – Consensus was that we need to track members and get the membership up. SLA should do a second email and/or letter since we need the dues to come in.
Water Quality – The numbers are down, probably due to a lot of rain. A floating object was found; Bill H said that it was not a zebra mussel. Consensus was that Abby should include a button or number for “zebra mussel” on the website.
Social – There was nothing to report.
Photo contest – SLA will touch base with Abby. The winner should be determined by an internal vote at the time of the October meeting
The meeting adjourned at 10:17 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Dora K. (Holly) Hayes
Secretary
AIS Five Star Initiative
Read and download information about the Itasca Five Star Initiative below.