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Cedar Lake Improvement District (CLID) Meeting Minutes held on September 9, 2019, 6:30-8:00 pm at the New Prague Public Library

Attendees: Dave Nielsen, Joel Larsen, Tim Singleton, Tim Schroeder, Amy Rude, Paul Hoyt, Pam Caselius and Melissa Bokman from SWMO

Agenda:
-Treasurer’s report and update on book to consider
-Update from Melissa
-Review of summer lake conditions and new Lake Treatment for CLP
-Carp
-Website Management

Tim Singleton presented the treasurer’s report. Minimal expenses were incurred except for the payment of the lake treatment.

Tim also provided a recommended book that all lake residents should consider.  It is called For the Love of the Lakes and written by Darby Nelson.  Darby outlines many things that contribute to the harm of our lakes with one of the primary being lawn fertilizers. It is a fairly short read and one that he strongly recommended to better understand the causes of poor water conditions.

Melissa Bockman from SWMO provided an update from the county. The first piece of good news was that carp numbers are lower in our lake than originally thought from the 2018 TMDL report. She also reminded us that a sub watershed assessment on Cedar Lake had been completed 3-4 years ago and 24 projects were identified to help reduce external phosphorous from entering the lake. The majority of these involved private landowners who have been approached about them. Some have agreed to work with the county on them but many have not responded indicating an unwillingness to do so. At this point only 3 have been fully completed.

Melissa went on to talk about funding and the needs for these projects and that there are grants they are applying for with the Pollution Control Agency to accommodate these projects.

Tim Schroeder advised that in his opinion the new chemical treatment called Sonar was a great success. As mentioned prior, Sonar is a different type of treatment than Aquathol and the entire lake was treated this year with it. After much discussion all agreed that the lake was as clean as it had ever been from the treatment but there was still much work to be done. One of the areas of focus was determined to be lawn fertilizers and the run off from them into the lake. Melissa mentioned that many homeowners over-fertilize and don’t have a barrier to protect the lake from the run-off. She went on to say that one idea another lake group came up with was to have Eagle Scouts take soil samples from homeowners yards to measure phosphorous levels for each of the landowners. Most often the results show their yards already have excess phosphorous and additional fertilizers are not needed. The board all agreed a plan was needed to further educate lakeshore homeowners about this problem and discussion was to be continued at our next meeting.

Tim Schroeder also advised that the state had officially made changes to the commercial fisherman for carp and we were now free to work with any fishermen we chose. Tim Singleton noted that he felt a Carp Kabob with pre-fishing or seining could still make sense for us and we should consider it again in 2020. It was agreed that further discussion to occur at our next meeting.

To follow-up on the website regarding freshening it up, Amy and Pam advised that the only way we could really change it was to update the pictures and text within it. Ideas on how to accommodate were to be discussed at a future meeting with no action at this time.

Joel Larsen motioned for adjournment and Paul Hoyt seconded.

Next Board of Directors meeting is at 6:30 pm at the New Prague Library on October 14, 2019