RLAA Board Meeting Minutes for March 15, 2005

A meeting of the Board of Directors of Rice Lake Area Association was held on Tuesday, March 15th at Broadway Pizza in Maple Grove. Members present included:  Chuck Berger, Steve Cady, George Schneider, Wade Quale, Rich Von Lehe, Roger Olson, Jim Malone, Nika Rybinski and Eric Lind. Absent were Bob Cremers and Romney Katti.

2005 Annual Meeting

Directors chose Thursday, April 28th for this year's annual meeting. The location will be at either a local restaurant or meeting area. Possibilities mentioned included: Old Country Buffet, Angeno's, Gander Mountain meeting room, or Government Center meeting rooms. Meeting will begin at 7:00 (if at an eating establishment, the food will be served at 6:30 and the meeting will be afterward). Eric Lind will check on availability of these locations and get back to directors for final decision.

Chuck will take care of submitting the Osseo-Maple Grove Press meeting notice and Steve will prepare the notification letter to residents.

Dues will remain the same at $60 for lakeshore owners and $40 for lake view residents. Eric Lind to check with the town home association located on Harbor Lane (north end of lake) to see if they would like to become members (several residents had expressed interest in RLAA when volunteers canvassed their neighborhood for drawdown votes in the summer of 2004).

Lake Management Plan

There was some follow up discussion on the still outstanding component of the Aquatic Plant Management Plan. This plan was originally passed on November 30, 2004 for conducting the surveys at a total of $825, but the cost of writing the plan ($750) was not included. Several directors asked for clarification of the plan and the need. When it was explained that the DNR would require a plan to allow Rice Lake to conduct future drawdowns, it was put to a board vote. The motion made by Steve Cady to vote on the Aquatic Plant Management Plan project at a cost of $750 was passed unanimously. This will bring the total cost of the APMP to $1,575.

There was also discussion clarifying the other 2 projects already approved at the November 30, 2004 meeting -

Spawning Bed Checks at $825 for the 2005 fishing season

Watershed Analysis at $9,000 (actively pursue cost-sharing with other groups, such as Elm Creek Watershed, City of Maple Grove and Lake Quality Commission).

Aerator Update

Chuck shut off the aerator last Thursday (3/10) per our permit requirement with the DNR. There is still ice on most of the lake, but the aerator is in open water, which makes it difficult to reach for removal. The lake level is coming up slightly (City Public Works has began to replace one of the boards so far) and the aerator should be removed before the ice shifts before breaking up and damages it. There was discussion about alternative methods of recovering the aerator (1 - launch a boat from the ice to remove it, then tow the boat back in over the ice by rope; 2 - leave the aerator in until the ice is out, then recover by boat; 3 - winch in the aerator to the shoreline with a cable connected to a truck).

It was decided to pursue option #1 by asking RLAA member Marshal Alsaker if he can bring his boat to the aerator this coming weekend (Sunday, March 20th) and remove it. George Schneider will check with Marshal to see if he is available and willing to assist in the removal.

George will report back to the directors if Marshal could assist with this project this weekend (Sunday preferred).

Dredging Boat Launch Bay Channel

Contractor that Chuck had been trying to work with was not very responsive to our request and nothing happened. Gretchen Leidl (LQC student member) had previously asked the City staff if something could be done to deepen the channel at the last LQC meeting, but it was never followed up by the City staff.

(George Schneider later followed up with Rick Lestina from City Engineering and Rick asked to see the area with a RLAA member to get an idea what needs to be done. Both parties will arrange a meeting in the near future before the lake level comes up too much.)

Rough Fish Removal

What are the best ways to get rid of the Carp and Bullheads in Rice Lake? We know the DNR will not grant RLAA a permit to use our own seine nets to remove the carp, so other options must be pursued.

Several of the directors had attended a meeting held by University of Minnesota biology professor, Peter Sorenson. He had some interesting ideas on how to basically reduce the population by breeding "daughterless" fish (cannot have offspring). Since the typical carp produces over 1,000,000 (yes, that is 1 million) eggs in a lifetime, this could have a significant impact on how the carp multiply. However, this project is just in its infancy and not ready for application in the wild yet. Dr. Sorenson's staff will help assist us in any monitoring efforts on the lake to help gain a better understanding of where the fish are and how to combat them. There is an intern, Leah Sharpe, who can visit our lake to help us with some ideas and keep us up to date on the study.

A more current approach to the carp issue would be use of a fish trap. This would allow us to try and funnel the carp into an area where they can be harvested, rather than setting nets and pulling them in. Wade will check with Jim Storland (our consultant) to see if the DNR would allow us to use a fish trap.

Other Business

The concept of getting our own (RLAA-owned) small boat for such projects was brought up, but not favored by several of the members and will not be pursued at this time.

Wade Quale reports that Jim Storland suggests we mark the areas where the ice line formed on the lake to gauge where the Curlyleaf Pondweed should not be growing (it would only be able to grow under the ice and not in the exposed shoreline if the drawdown was successful). Lakeshore owners can use a buoy to mark the area or just measure it off from the shoreline and record the distance.

Minnesota Lakes Association is co-sponsoring a Shallow Lakes Conference on March 30-31, 2005 at the Arrowwood Conference Center in Alexandria. Anyone interested can check the site (www.shallowlakes.info/pages/1/index.htm) for more details.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:00 pm.