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June 2020 Board Meeting Minutes

Board Meeting Minutes

June 2020

June LMA Board Meeting



Call to Order:  President: Sue Westburg

9:03 AM called to order


Attendees:

Arlyss Rinowski

Beth Blaylock - Secretary

Chuck Munson

Greg Pfeifer

John Montour

Mike Widseth

Robbie Danko - Treasurer

Sue Reinhart

Sue Westburg - President

Tim Rinowski - Vice President

Terryl Patterson


Welcome attending members and guests.

No guests due to COVID-19


Report of Officers:

Secretary’s Report: Beth B./Sue W (John motioned to approved and Terryl 2nd)

Treasurer’s Report:  Robbie D.  (Tim motioned to approved and John 2nd)

Checking: $2,428.18

MM – $53,309.35

All preseason expenses have been paid.

Robbie working to put together list of expenses for the June LID meeting

Strange charge

Old Business:  Able to contact Steve Hughes and will be getting reimbursed for the placemats

Grant for 2020 has been approved.

Usually likes to issue only one check.

Growthzone software is up and active.

Mike to follow up with old website to close out account.

Insurance policies paid in full.  Have the right coverage

Property taxes are paid.

Tabs are paid.

Ordered additional debt cards.  John Montour has the card.  This will help so that people will not have to purchase items and then be reimbursed

  • Discrepancy between our local bank and quicken.  Having to manually go through all transactions to balance.
    1. 2020 budget started.  Need to verify that the allocations are correct.  Robbie will bring for the July 26th meeting.  LID has a new treasurer, Pat Rath, and the process for requesting funds will be the same.
    2. Should we ask the LID to pay for the Growthzone website?

Yes, we should ask.  Highlight that the site focuses on programs, not just weed harvesting and present this is an operating expense of the LMA.

$198/month includes webhosting, membership mailing tool, $1500 initial setup cost.


    1. We have about $10,000 more to allocate to programs.

Decision was made to continue to use the percentages that we determined years ago.

50% capital,

15% Walleye stocking,

10% Wiers Damn,

15% AIS,

10% Boat launch


    1. How do we communicate to members that they can now pay directly on the new website?
    2. Discrepancy between our local bank and quicken.  Having to manually go through all transactions to balance.
  • Water Quality report:
  • Harvester is in the water and operational – have pulled one load of weeds out.  Lake levels are lower than normal.  Concern that the weeds are going to explode once the weather warms up.  Starting in Growlers Bay and will be working around the lake.
  • Having a challenging time with getting the DOT inspection of the truck and trailer.  Not able to find someone who is licensed to do the inspection.
  • New oil pressure gauge ordered.  Oil pressure gauge is still reading high but when tested it is in ranges.
  • Hydraulic system is still causing problems, basically it vapor locks.  John is working with Dale on a way to solve it. 
  • Water system for washing the harvester while in the water.  John is going to use of the lake owner’s system to test washing.  If it works, we will look into purchasing our own system.
  • With the increase boat traffic during the week, we need to put out a request that boats/jetskis keep a safe distance from the harvester.  When we put the post out, add a link to boat safety.
  • Staffing levels are good.  Team is working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Team usually starts working at 7 am.  Sometimes they quit at noon on Fridays due to the heavier traffic.
  1. Old business:
    1. Weir’s Dam – Have been able to reach Steve Hughes at Aitkin County Soil and water.  Engineering is being done up in Duluth.
    2. Fisheries:

Three bag limit on Walleyes. Everyone seems to be happy about it.   Tim has not heard anything negative but has had people ask for a slot limit now.

Could we make an ask in December to add the slot limit?

Electro fishing survey Thursday night (June 11th) didn’t get the results that the DNR were hoping for. It was done a little later than they would like, so we will need to wait until next year to determine if stocking is needed.

We should promote keeping the small northern pikes in order to help the walleye population.

    1. Power Loading at the launch has been causing humps and holes on the lake floor at the landing.  May need to either add an additional concrete slab or bring in a backhoe to level out the lake floor.  Tim to reach out to backhoe operator to see when then can come out to repair first, if that doesn’t help then we will pursue adding additional concrete slab.
    2. Loon nesting – appears to be 4-5 nest platforms, with 2 of them active on the lake.  These are just the ones that we are aware of.  They are very small, about the size of a chair seat. 

It is 28 days from egg to hatch.  We should start seeing the babies soon.

Still waiting to understand what the school year look like to determine when we will be able to get the new floating platforms.


  1. New Business:
    1. Growthzone Website:

Mike hasn’t had much time to go into system and work.

Beth has cross checked our constant contact emails with emails already in the system.  Have a few email addresses that couldn’t be add to any member.  Will send out an email asking for additional information.

Robbie will be making sure that the credit payment works correctly.

    1. LMA BBQ:

Should we or not have it this year?  Wild Rice Days have been cancelled.

We should ask Chris at Bann’s for her opinion on having the event or not.

Motion made and voted on that we will NOT have the BBQ this year.  It was not unanimous.

Any items for the raffle will be held until next year.  If we need to have any dates on certificates changed, we will do so.

  • Announcements:
  • LID annual meeting – August 22nd
  • LMA annual meeting – August 8th
  • Next Board Meeting:
  • Will be on Saturday July 11th at 9:00 AM @ Bann’s
  • Motion made to adjourn by John and 2nd by Robbie.  Meeting adjourned at 11:00 AM.
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