August 20, 2007 Meeting

EWM Committee meeting

Monday, August 20, 2007    6:30 p.m.

Barnes Town Hall

Ingemar Ekstrom called the meeting to order. Members present: Ingemar Ekstrom, Mitch McGee, Barb Romstad, Stefania Strzalkowska, Gerald Gustafson, Patti Joswick, Jim Joswick

Also present: Jack Conklin, EWM coordinator

Agenda items:

1.      Minutes from the July 16, 2007

Minutes from the last meeting were reviewed. A motion to accept the minutes as submitted was made by Gerald Gustafson, seconded by Mitch McGee; approved.

2.      CBCW Program Update

Jack Conklin reported that last weekend Lower Eau Claire had no coverage but he spot-checked it throughout the weekend personally. Everything is going well. Anna Kane was hired to finish up the summer working at the Upper Eau Claire landing. Dave Peterson will cover the Middle Eau Claire landing after this weekend since Drew will be done for the summer after this Saturday. Jack will be submitting an end of season report at the September meeting. Some discussion followed concerning the status of Tomahawk Lake and the possibility of monitoring the landing on that lake next summer. Ingemar indicated that at the October meeting, with guidance from Pamela, we will address the possibility of ordinances limiting horsepower of/or banning motors on the lake. We will look to the DNR and Corps of Engineers for direction on those items.

Jack questioned if we are going to have a follow-up appreciation luncheon or letter to volunteers. We decided we would send a personal letter to each of the volunteers. Jack will try to get the addresses of most of the people. We will also do ads in the Northwoods Shopper and the County Journal.

3.      CBCW Grant Hours

Gerald Gustafson distributed the update of the Grant hours. He indicated that the volunteer dollars are at 41% of the total cost, which means we have some catching up to do. The final report will be a little complicated but he will work on backing up all the details of the report. Some discussion followed concerning how the grant hours and reimbursement are calculated.

Gerald also handed out a report of the information supplied to the DNR. He has had to edit quite a bit of data and make corrections.

4.      Tomahawk/Sandbar Lakes Research Grant

Ingemar gave a brief overview of the grant, which was submitted August 1, 2007. The DNR has received the application and project proposal and draft research scope.  The research scope is being finalized and will be shared electronically when done.  The grant meeting is 12 Sep when the DNR will determine which projects will be funded.

5.      Shoreland Monitoring Project

Stefania gave a presentation at the POA meeting in July on identifying aquatic weeds. Any time spent by volunteers checking their shorelines for weeds can be calculated into the volunteer hours for the CBCW grant. Stefania presented a sheet on which the people can monitor weeds and log their findings and time and submit that information to the DNR. Ingemar felt we should ask the people who volunteered at the meeting this last summer to simply let us know how many hours they have spent monitoring their shorelines. We can consider sending out more complete information in the future.

6.      Next Meeting Date – Monday, September 17, 2007, 6:30 pm at the Town Hall

Motion to Adjourn: Gerald Gustafson, seconded by Mitch McGee; approved.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 P.M.