November 13, 2007

The meeting opened at 7:05 p.m. with the following board members present:

Kevin Seelbach, Janet Hirsch, Ron Sansone, Pat Harting, Marilyn Meyer, Larry Kimmel, and Joe Hejnal.

President Sansone asked for a motion to accept the minutes which had been posted on the web-site. Motion made by Janet Hirsch, seconded by Marilyn Meyer, motion passed.

Presidents Report

President Sansone began the meeting by reporting on the progress of silt removal. He said that in the last 4 days probably 250 loads have already been removed from the lake and trucked to the junk yard. A decision needed to be made as to how long the dredging should continue. He said that the lowering of the lake had been a test and fortunately the siphon pipe had worked very well so that it had been possible to lower the lake about a foot a week. The lake was lowered 3 feet by the siphon. It had also been possible to clean out the creek. He went on to say that when the process began it was not known exactly how much silt there would be. He said that more progress had been made than had been anticipated. Fortunately it had been possible to make arrangements with the owner of the junkyard to move the silt onto his site. Ron said that we would not have been allowed to take the silt over public roads because of the mess that it would have created by the wet silt dripping from the trucks.

Other coves in the lake have also used the opportunity of the lake being so low to move their silt to the junkyard. The only problem at the moment was that it had not been anticipated that everything would go so well and monies had not been appropriated to remove much silt. The initial project was to fix the ramp. He said they this would be discussed further on in the meeting but a lot of progress had been made and when the silt went up to the junkyard it did not have to be dealt with again. He said that with preliminary estimates 2,760 cubic yards of silt have been removed from the lake to date and we have enough budgeted money to continue trucking for 5 more days. Whether the lake would be lowered again was questionable given the controversy over installing the siphon but he felt that we would be very silly not to take advantage of the lake being so low to remove as much silt as possible. He said that yes given a bad rainfall year we might lose the lake for a year, but since he had lived here he had never seen a spring when water did not go over the spillway. He said this would be discussed later in the meeting.

Treasurers Report

Marilyn Meyer, Treasurer, reported for November

There are 12 Delinquent Regular Assessments for 2007-2008

There are 10 Delinquent Special Assessments for 2007-2008

There is 1 Delinquent Property Owner for 2004-2006

Larry Kimmel made a motion, seconded by Joe Hejnal to approve the treasurer's report. Motion passed.

Marilyn presented the following bills for payment:

West Trucking - Entrance Road Resurfacing 53,454.00

LTIA - Partial Payment for Bathroom 5,000.00

Stamps 19.85

McLaren Grading - Creek Clean 4,570.00

Legal - Third Quarterly 1,702.00

Columbia Insurance - Second Quarterly 1,104.25

Motion made by Joe Hejnal seconded by Larry Kimmel to pay the bills.

Motion passed.

Treasurer Meyer said that the portable outside toilet would be kept until the dredging process was finished.

Finance Committee

Janet Hirsch said that the Finance Committee had produced the YTD financial summary and these were available. She said that we were presently doing very well financially.

Security

Larry Kimmel reported that security had been very quiet probably because the boats were now off the lake. There had been a couple of gate breakages due to equipment being brought in but these were quickly resolved.

Communications

Janet Hirsch said that the newsletter had been sent out and if anyone did not receive one please contact her. A full color copy had also been posted on the website.

Building Director

Larry Kimmel reported on the following permits:

Toscano - D13-15A - Repair dock and waterside patio

Construct fence on D13 and D15A - awaiting survey results

Fuller - K25 - Change wood dock to concrete to match work already done

Thomas - K41 - Replace seawall and dock - this is a grand fathered dock

Hukenbeck - G22-23 - Replacing seawall with interlocking bricks

Mills - G24-25 - Replacing seawall and moving dock so that it is perpendicular to the seawall - measurements have been taken and no problem is anticipated

Clark - A32-34A - Build 2 car garage - issue our permit contingent upon obtaining building permit from Jefferson County

Condict - H17 - Replace steps and install dock - same type as by clubhouse

Motion made by Janet Hirsch, seconded by Kevin Seelbach to approve the permits with the contingencies for Toscano - verification of the lot lines and Clark - obtaining permit from Jefferson County. Motion carried.

Maintenance

Kevin Seelbach said that he was in the process of making sure the salt truck will be in working order. A portable shed will be installed to keep the bobcat out of the bad weather over the winter.

Web Site

Janet Hirsch reported that RSS feed had been added to the web site. [If you add this RSS feed to your homepage, you will be notified when something new is posted to the Lake Tish website.]

Dam Committee

Richard Hirsch reported for the committee.

LTIA

The following events are planned for December:

December 8 - Chili Cook-Off

December 15 - Christmas caroling and food pantry collection

December 16 - Children's Christmas party

December 31 - New Years Eve party

Old Business

Janet Hirsch reported that $10,000 had been set aside [in the siphon and silt budget] for repair of the boat ramp and President Sansone explained about how the ramp would be repaired to make access for boats easier by making it possible to get the trailers further down in the water.

Discussion on the dredging began with a question from the floor as to how much silt had been removed from the "volcano" and how much had it actually cost compared to the cost of digging it out. Ron replied that very likely 600 to 800 loads had been moved onto his property in 4 years. The cost for this had been approximately $300,000 which included the dredge. So far approximately 250 loads have been moved for $8,000.

President Sansone addressed the concern some people have at the possibility of not having the lake for a season, but he again stressed that we would be foolish not to take advantage of the opportunity we now have to get as much silt removed as possible. Joe Hejnal said that McLaren said it would take approximately 5 to 6 weeks to remove all the silt by the clubhouse but this would cost in the region of $40,000.

Keeping the new catch basins cleaned out every year and if possible put in another one on the side of the pipe. It will cost approximately $5,000 to clean out the catch basins. Ron reported that the board was already anticipating cleaning them yearly and was also looking into further catch basins as silt had to be kept from coming back into the lake. Ways of preventing the water hitting against the sides of the basins, e.g. big boulders was discussed so that the silt did not get out of the basins. The creek has also been cleaned out which is the main cause of silt build up.

Rick Hannick opened up discussion on the use of the $30,000 set aside for the dam leak to be used to remove as much silt as possible and if necessary get a short term loan for the dam repair next spring. The cost of the exploratory phase of the dam repair was $50,000 with $80,000 to $100,000 total for the entire leak repair project.

Janet Hirsch reported that the lake has enough money to dredge for a further 4 to 5 days. She said that the only way to go any longer was to use money which had been set aside for other projects. After considerable discussion and concern about not having spring rains, President Sansone asked for a motion that we go further than 4 days and how much further we want to go and then decide if we want to lower the lake further. He said that if we get as much out as we can, we will not have to deal with this problem again for 5 to 10 or even 15 years. Pat Harting made the motion, seconded by Larry Kimmel - that we extend the digging for at least two extra weeks and if necessary take out a short term loan to pay for the difference in what we have and the money we will spend. Discussion followed on clarification of the motion - that it was to extend beyond the 4 days we have money set aside for, for an additional ten days making 14 days total and if necessary a short term loan would be obtained. Ron said that this motion had to be made before a decision could be made as to whether the lake should be lowered further. However, if it rains tomorrow, the whole thing is over with as it will be too wet to do anything. Finally a roll call vote was taken on the motion on the floor with the following results:

Yes - Kevin Seelbach, Ron Sansone, Pat Harting, Larry Kimmel, Joe Hejnal

No - Janet Hirsch and Marilyn Meyer

Motion carried.

President Sansone then asked if the lake should be lowered. He said that it was questionable as to whether any benefit would be realized taking into account the possibility of winter weather. The board decided this should be considered further after conversation with McLaren as to where he should dig taking into account that the closer you get to the creek the wetter the silt becomes so it might be advantage to work on the north side first.

Marilyn Meyer said that she had been approached by a property owner to help with the cost of a culvert pipe. She felt that property owners who were good enough to clean out their coves and improve the paths with the necessary culvert pipes the board should consider helping them with the cost of the pipe. Janet Hirsch made the motion, seconded by Larry Kimmel that $500 be used to assist property owners with the installation of culvert pipe to improve the path if they are digging out their cove to remove silt. Motion passed.

President Sansone informed the meeting of the conversation he had with the owner of the junkyard and again reiterated how much money everyone has saved because of being allowed to put as much silt as necessary on his property and Mr. Marler would put this in writing. However, we are owed just under $2,000 in assessments from him and President Sansone said that we should consider doing away with this and Mr. Marler has requested that we put this in writing for him. President Sansone said that he also had discussion on the need for Mr. Marler to pave his driveway. Marilyn said she felt that Mr. Marler should fulfill his obligations first before we forgive his assessments. Joe Hejnal made the motion, seconded by Marilyn Meyer, that his slate is cleaned of his unpaid assessments but he will have to pave his driveway and pay his assessments next year. And we have to receive written permission to put silt on his property. Motion passed.

Marilyn Meyer said that lot A60 will be sold on the county courthouse steps for over $3600 in back taxes. We are owed this year's assessments on the lot, but to us the lot is not worth paying $3600 to purchase. A decision was made not to buy lot A60 from the county.

New Business

Lot owner Jim Gray asked if the asphalt company was still working at the lake as he already has grass growing down the center of his drive.

Wayne Brukardt requested time to pave his driveway as he was going to do extensive remodeling and did not want to do the driveway first. Janet Hirsch said that the board had discussed this and they were advising lot owners to apply for a regular building permit and then request an extension if necessary for driveway paving.

The problem of people doing "donuts" in the parking lot was discussed and also why the parking lot was not paved. President Sansone said that this obviously had been discussed but that at the moment it was too costly

The bathroom partitions are now up and work on the vanity is in progress. Janet Hirsch asked anyone willing to donate funds for the project contact her.

We will be receiving a proposal from Dave Taylor for the dam repair shortly. A special assessment for either one or two years for the $100,000 anticipated cost of the repair will be presented at the annual election.

A meeting will be held on November 27 beginning at 7 p.m. to continue discussion on the silt removal.

There being no further business, Larry Kimmel made a motion, seconded by Marilyn Meyer to adjourn. Motion carried. The meeting ended at 8:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted

Pat Harting