February 18, 2008 Meeting

EWM Committee meeting

Monday,  February 18, 2008    6:30 p.m.

Barnes Town Hall

Ingemar Ekstrom called the meeting to order. Members present: Ingemar Ekstrom, Barb Romstad, Gerald Gustafson, David Pease, Mitch McGee, Jim and Patti Joswick, Lee Wiesner

Absent: Stefania Strzalkowska, Pamela Toshner

Agenda items:

1.      Minutes from the October 15, 2007

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

2.      CBCW Grant

The DNR gave the Town of Barnes $13,000 for the 2007 project, which was 50% of the total cost.  $10,000 of this will be deducted from the initial grant of $20,000 but the DNR feels they can get an addendum to the grant resulting in our getting more than the remaining $10,000 in 2008. Pamela Toshner indicated that the DNR has extended the grant for two more years.

Ingemar has talked with Jack Conklin and learned that Jack is interested in returning to the position of Coordinator for the summer of 2008. Jack will not be in the area until mid-April and won’t be able to be part of the hiring process.

The plan for recording information in the summer of 2008 is to have the coordinator input the data directly into the DNR database from the boat landing volunteer record sheets instead of putting the information into a separate database, then importing it into the DNR database. Gus will still record the volunteer hours that were not boat landing volunteer hours.

3.      March/April Hiring Process

Some discussion followed concerning the hiring process for summer 2008. We will be reviewing the employment ads and getting them to Elaine to place in the newspapers.

We will contact Jack, via email, and request a firm commitment from him for the summer of 2008. Ingemar will also contact the paid workers from last year to see if they are interested in returning.

4.      Volunteer Appreciation

Barb will organize the volunteer lunch to coordinate with the CBCW  training. This will be done on Friday, May 2, 2008.

5.      Tomahawk/Sand Bar lakes research project

Ingemar indicated that we need to communicate to all the property owners on the two lakes involved in the research project. Some discussion followed concerning the Army Corps being the ones who need to advise the property owners and the public about the project. Ingemar is going to talk to Pamela and ask her to coordinate with the Corps as far as communicating the particulars of the project. We will be glad to help the Corps with implementing their plan, but we will look to them for guidance. Ingemar has recorded specific concerns that he will provide to Pamela.

Gus will be doing the water chemistry on Sand Bar lakes, Jim Joswick will do the testing on Tomahawk.

6.      Bayfield County AIS

Stefania has provided the Town of Barnes with a hard copy the Bayfield County AIS strategic plan. It appears that the Town of Barnes is already doing what is suggested in the plan.

7.      Other Business

Lee reported on the project being done by Friends of the Upper St. Croix Watershed where they are sampling the water in all the lakes in the watershed. Lee is hoping some of the people that are doing water chemistry already will volunteer to do the sampling for the Watershed project.

On June 14^th, Barnes will be having a program in coordination with Riverfest. From 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM Pamela Toshner will put on a program at Tomahawk and Sand Bar lakes on EWM.

Bayfield County now has a county ordinance that makes it illegal to transport aquatic vegetation. Barb is going to call the Sherriff to see what the department position on enforcing the ordinance is. Lee read a letter he sent to the Bayfield County Sherriff’s department indicating how important it will be to enforce the new ordinance.

8.      Next Meeting Date

Next meeting date is March 17, 2008 at 6:30 PM at the Barnes Town Hall.

Motion to Adjourn: Lee Wiesner, seconded by Jim Joswick; approved.

Meeting adjourned at 8:05 P.M.