There was actually a pretty good crowd that showed up for the meeting to
hear about the proposal to apply for a planning grant to partially fund
development of a long term plan for watershed work to improve the water quality
of our lake.
The meeting led off with a report the burn of Friendship Park has been
completed. Next spring there will be spraying to kill the 40% of weeds that are
non-native and not good for our lake. After the weed killing is completed there
will be planting of good native species. Firefly Bay will also be killed and
replanted. Firefly is completely overrun with the bad weeds. Other green areas
on the lake will be handled in future budget years.
The black pipe leading into the dip has had
some repairs already. A camera was run from Caledonia Road forty five feet into
the pipe toward Candlewick. There was plugging from roots cutting the water
flow. The roots were removed in that section.
Lake Management is in the process of setting
up a website to keep P.O.s in the loop about lake issues as well as actions
being taken for our lake.
Next
the presentation was made about the grant possibilities for planning then
future implementation grants. I have covered most of the information here in
prior posts so I will not go into a lot of detail.
Getting an implementation grant is almost
impossible without a solid plan. An analogy was used to explain the process. It
is like going into a bank for a loan for a new business to manufacture and sell
a product. You can not just go in and say you need money, you have to explain
the business plan or the bank will not make the loan. Same situation here,
without a plan to present we will have no basis to apply for the implementation
grants that appear to be available, although nothing is ever certain. Our state
is broke but these are federal grants that we are informed are available. If we
want to start the remediation process for our lake we should act now. We are
lucky to be in what is called the Kishwaukee watershed, which is a top priority
for the government to maintain as a clean waterway. This is our best shot to
get grants as a private lake.
Now to the cost. The entire package to write
the plan and apply for the planning grant will be $83,000.00. Our share of the cost
should be $16,000 plus some billable labor time, some of which will be through
meeting attendance and administrative costs. Not too bad for a total $83,000
package making it possible to apply for and hopefully get further federal
grants for implementation. The future grants will also be ones where we must
supply some funds to get those grants. As I stated before, we have to spend
money to get money.
This is not a quick fix. We are looking at
the physical work beginning in 2014 and continuing going forward much as we are
doing with roads. The alum treatment is still on the table as a quick fix then
hopefully our inflow will have improved greatly by the time the alum treatment
wears off.
When this idea first came to light I felt it
was a waste. As the explanations have progressed I am seeing the logic in long
range planning and implementation to make our lake as much a quality body of
water as possible.
Ken
Dillenburg