Home Page: Minutes
Regular Meeting – July 8, 2009 Chairman Gordon Ceskowske called the Regular Meeting of the Fox Lake Inland Lake Protection and Rehabilitation Board of Commissioners to order on July 8, 2009 at 1:00pm at the District Town Hall office. Roll call: Present; Gordon Ceskowske, Kurt Heckl, Cheryl Witkowski, Dennis VanderWerff, and Edwin Benter. Also present: Neal O’Reilly, Julie Flemming, Dennis Pufahl, Barbara and Christine Dutkiewicz; Les Schraufnagel, operator; and, Kathleen Rydquist, clerk-coordinator. Motion by D. VanderWerff, second E. Benter to approve the minutes as printed. All yes. Motion carried. Motion by K. Heckl, second D. VanderWerff to approve the financial statement as printed, subject to audit. All yes. Motion carried. Correspondence: 1] Letter from Wisconsin Association of Lakes thanking the District for its continuing membership. Audience participation: none Operator’s report: attached Item #18 Ray Beier will be building a new home on Hickory Grove Road and needs a grinder pump. Les suggests that Beier contract with Ipsen Plumbing for the installation. He will be available to advise and oversee the project to be sure that the equipment in the grinder pump station corresponds to the other grinder pumps in the District. WCC report: K. Heckl reported that the Commission has begun work on the budget. At this time, costs remain about the same as last year. He also stated that the “City requested review” of the MSA report has not been completed. A meeting will be set up with the City, District, and MSA to examine the questions the City needs answered. Clerk-coordinator report: 1] Of the 80+ people who said they want to participate in the well testing project, only 38 picked up the sample bottles. The sample bottles were delivered to Stevens Point by Barbara Dutkiewicz and Kathy Rydquist. 2] The Forum with the test results will be on Saturday July 11. 3] The herbicide treatment took place on June 24, 2009. Eleven properties were included in the independent treatment. DNR inspections were done by Susan Graham and Carl Molter. All eleven properties were denied treatment because of the lack of plants. 4] The District received a membership request from NALMS. Motion by E. Benter, second, D. VanderWerff to pass on membership for this year. All yes. Motion carried. 5] Requested and received extensions for the Drew, Alto, and Cambra Creek grants. 6] Gully’s finally brought black dirt to Brian Butner thereby restoring his property to pre-bog removal condition. 7. Received a complaint about crop dusting too close to residential areas. Will pass it along to Matt Hanson, UWEX – Juneau. 8] The Board passed a resolution to apply for a grant to help pay for a DO meter. County report: D. VanderWerff reported that the big thing in the county is Farm Tech Days that is being held at the Crave Farm. This is a large dairy farm that uses manure to make electricity. Regular Meeting – July 8, 2009, page 2 It seems that the Waupun Prison farm wants to move all of their livestock to the Fox Lake Correctional Institute. This would mean a minimum of 800 cows. Considering the pollution issues in the Drew and probably Alto Creek Watersheds, this is the worst news the District could get. The bright spot is that the Secchi disc readings are still 4 to 5 feet. Town report: The Town Board has not met this month. Old business: 1] Discussion and action regarding allocation of plant expansion costs – Discussed in WCC report. 2] Discussion and action to put out bids for pump replacement – This will be taken off the agenda as the District cannot go forward until the City has repaired or replaced air-release valves that have a direct impact on flows received at the junction where the city and district meet in a common pipe to the treatment plant. 3] Retaining or replacing engineering firm – tabled. New business: 1] Report from Neal O’Reilly - Neal gave a brief run-down of the memorandum he had supplied to the District last month. He touched on the November 20, 2008 meeting, the proposed actions that we could take, and the follow-up telephone conference held on March 31, 2009. To date, we have not received any communications from DNR as to how we should proceed. The question is: “Has DNR forgotten us?” We haven’t any received any information about a DNR proposal to keep water levels lower in the early spring. (Spring refill held back), nor any response from Susan Graham about the EA for a Spring Alum treatment.) Neal’s recommendation for the steps that need to be taken in moving the suggested management strategy forward; A. Meet with the Fitzgerald’s to see what their staff can do to get WDNR back to the table and what can be done to clean up the problems in the non-point source control rules. B. Schedule a joint meeting with the City and Town of Fox Alake to begin the process of getting authorizations in place for a potential change in spring water level management for 2010. C. One sample remains to be taken and then the final report will be prepared. The report should be used to begin discussion of potential corrective actions by at least one private property owner and the state prison. A meeting with top officials in Department of Corrections should be scheduled to discuss high nitrogen levels down gradient of the treatment plant. D. Sampling of Cambra and Alto creek will begin to identify problem sources in these watersheds. Neal spoke briefly about the proposals that Marc Bethke, LCD, is putting with the NR151 Revision committee. With his knowledge of agriculture, he is the perfect person to recognize the problems and suggest practical and workable solutions. Marc is also a proponent of the Prison Farms being an example to area farmers as to the best practices for all to use. They should be the model, not the excuse. One of the important issues is the spreading of liquid manure and industrial waste. The problems are huge. Neal reported that the preliminary numbers in the Drew Creek survey show that the majority of the flow is from the prison. Our samples show high numbers for nitrates, but the prison monitoring wells have much lower numbers. This doesn’t make sense. Motion by C. Witkowski, second D. VanderWerff to set up a meeting with Neal, Senator Scott Fitzgerald, Representative Jeff Fitzgerald, and others, (perhaps the Mayor, Town Chairman, Marc Bethke). All yes. Motion carried. We are waiting to hear from DNR about the permit for a carp barrier. Discussion of NR115 was minimal, but D. VanderWerff supplied information for the Board to review. Regular Meeting – July 8, 2009, page 3 Motion to pay the bills D. VanderWerff, second C. Witkowski. All yes. Motion carried. The next meeting will be August 1, 2009 immediately following the Annual Meeting. Motion to adjourn E. Benter, second K. Heckl. All yes. Motion carried. **The Fox Lake Inland Lake District representatives to the Fox Lake Wastewater Control Commission may be present at the meeting to discuss the Districts’ wastewater collection system and its relationship to proposed improvements to the FLWCC Plant.