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Lily Lake Summerhaven Association |
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Rev. 04-Jul-08
Welcome Message from the President
Welcome! We hope this Web site helps you keep up with activities at
our lakeside community. If you have questions or comments, please
email
them to me (rvollmer5@wi.rr.com)
or
call
262-537-2545. Also, if you are an Association member and have not yet
given
us your email address, please contact me.
The Association is most grateful to NCast
Corporation for the donation of server space and technical support
for this Web site.
Note: The web site is maintained with software that inserts some codes unreadable by very old browsers (e.g., Netscape 4.x). Please use Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher or one of the more recent versions of Netscape.
Ron Vollmer, President, Lily Lake Summerhaven Association
Special announcements:
____________________
Emergency Wheatland Town Board
Meeting, June 18: Lilly Lake remains open
The Town Board listened to the residents who attended the meeting and
reviewed the received emails, which were split almost evenly for and
against SNW. No matter which way they voted, the Town Board members
knew they were going to be criticized strongly.
Public safety is the primary criterion in making this decision.
Since there are no known submerged piers (only 2 piers are currently at
water level) and no other known impediments to safety, the Town Board
voted to leave Lilly Lake alone. In other words, it will not enact a
SNW resolution for the lake.
____________________
President
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Ron Vollmer 537-2545 rvollmer5@wi.rr.com 7512 336th Ave Burlington, WI 53105 Note: Ron is the central collection point for Association dues before they go to the Treasurer for deposit. |
First Vice
President
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Marilyn Magnuski 537-4750 mjmagnuski@netwurx.net 7723 334th Avenue |
Second Vice
President
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Jennifer Reed 262-492-1624 Jennifer.Reed@learningpt.org 33239 76th St |
Secretary
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Pat Scannell 537-4408 33260 80th St |
Treasurer
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Jillian Verstrate (unlisted) 7634 Lily Lake Rd Mailing address: P.O. Box 763 New Munster, WI 53152 |
| Area | Captain | Address
& Email |
Phone |
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Mike Adam |
7126 327th Ave mikelly@wi.rr.com |
537-2413 |
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Jennifer Reed |
33239 76th St jennifer.reed@learningpt.org |
262-492-1624 |
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Paul Lyons | 32911 77th St lejon@wi.rr.com |
|
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Kelly Wilson | 8003 328th Ave Kwilson23@wi.rr.com |
|
|
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Bill Scannell | 33260 80th St |
537-4408 |
|
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Marilyn Magnuski | 7723 334th Ave mjmagnuski@netwurx.net |
537-4750 |
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Nancy Snider |
8134 335th Avenue nsnider@wi.rr.com |
262-492-4129 |
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Aridith Monzel | 33508 80th St ardiescott@netwurx.net |
537-2319 |
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Kathleen Cashman | 7662 Lily Lake Rd. lilylakekathi@tds.net |
537-2561 |
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Jackie O'Connor |
7582 Lilly Lake Rd. roc@tds.net |
537-2171 |
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Maureen Vollmer | 7512 336th Ave rvollmer5@wi.rr.com |
537-2545 |
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Joe Kokesh | 7525 334th Avenue |
If you cannot reach your block captain and you want to discuss something urgent, please call one of the Board members.
The following highlights present the main topics and issues covered
during the meeting. The highlights summarize the main ideas and are not
meant to be a complete verbatim transcript of the whole meeting.
Emergency Preparedness Slide Show
Linda Botts, Coordinator of the Southeast Wisconsin Citizen Corps, and
Laurl Borst of the Red Cross presented a slide show and talk about
emergency preparedness. [Note: A summary of their presentation will be
put on a new web site page covering emergency
preparedness.]
Block Captain Reports
Gypsy moth egg cases are plentiful in Block 1. Mike Adam will send a
picture of them to be posted on the web site so that homeowners in the
area can identify them and crush them.
Nancy Snider has trouble with a family whose noise (dogs, dirt bikes),
profanity, and in-your-face attitudes disturb the neighbors. She has
successfully defused a bad situation, but Constable Haas probably needs
to get involved.
Weed Control
Bio-Aquatic Services in Lake Geneva will use granules this year from
the beach to the boat ramp. The granules have to be dropped early (the
plan is for May) in order to catch the milfoil plants as they emerge
and begin to grow actively. (Once they reach the surface, it's too
late.) If you want your lakefront treated, please contact them as soon
as possible. They have to get DNR approval and the right conditions
before they can act. April would normally be an appropriate time, but
this year we still have lake ice. There may be up to 4 applications of
the herbicide this year.
One DNR rep who was here last year reportedly said that we've been
wasting our money on weed control for the past 15 years because we're
getting at it too late.
One thing that needs to be monitored is trailers and boats coming from
other lakes. We get a lot of lake traffic from various places because
we're a free launch. Boats from other places may have bits of weed on
them. All it takes is a small piece of weed to reestablish weeds that
we've worked hard to get rid of.
Lake Study
The Town Board is working with the DNR to do an $8000 lake study of the
plant population. Samples will be taken from various parts of the lake.
Weeds are a vital part of the lake. You can't kill all of them. We're
in the top 10 for lake clarity. We have some rare plant species
growing. A dredging will never happen again.
Geese
The geese are in the New Munster wildlife area just waiting for the
lake to open up. If you see them congregating somewhere, please notify
Ron Vollmer. Last year they hung out from the beach through Nor du Lac
and over to the Lily Lake Resort. We had our beach tested. Does Nor du
Lac test its beach water?
Comments from the Floor about
Reassessments and Taxes
A heated exchange took place between some members and Town Board
Chairman Jeff Butler (who attended the meeting) about tax bills and the
January tree
cutting. Comments from the floor included the following:
Real estate values are dropping by every measure, yet our
taxes leaped based on the sale of one house. A resident who raised the
issue at a Town Board meeting felt dismissed. Lakefront property owners
are really getting taken to the cleaners. It takes 5% of Wheatland
residents signing a petition to get the Town to do a reassessment. The
Town Board could have rejected the assessments. (Per Jeff, no it
couldn't. There are legal issues involved.)
All the social events that this organization sponsors are very nice,
and we should continue them, but at the same time we need to become
more political. For older residents who don't have children and don't
decorate their houses, it is hard sometimes to see the value of the
Association.
Motion from the Floor: Establish a
Town Board Association Representative
The Association should establish a new position whose responsibility is
to attend Town Board meetings, get the minutes, transmit our views, and
keep the Town Board accountable.
Do we need a new position? Why can't we just start doing that right
now? Ray Giesler and Jerry Dressler will work out some arrangement to
attend Town Board meetings. Ron Vollmer will get the meeting minutes
from Sheila Siegler for posting on our web site.
At the fall meeting, we'll revisit this issue and see if we have to do
anything more formal with an Association Representative position.
Suggestion from the Floor: Hold 3 or 4
Association
Meetings a Year
Meeting twice a year is too infrequent to make any progress on the
political front. We should meet 3 or 4 times a year, and the spring
meeting should be in April when more people come up to their property.
STOP Sign at 336th and 80th?
Is there any progress on a STOP sign at 336th and 80th? People are
still roaring around that corner.
The neighbors have to sign a petition before the Town Board will act.
Dean Fryda will lead the effort to get a petition going.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
DAN HIRCHERT (USDA WILDLIFE
SERVICES): GUIDELINES FOR CANADA GOOSE DAMAGE MANAGEMENT IN WISCONSIN
Dan Hirchert from USDA Wildlife Services presented a slide show about
management of goose problems. The USDA gets involved with geese because
they, like deer, can damage crops.
Two populations of geese: migrants
and residents (Giants)
Migrants pass through our area only for short time when they migrate
from Hudson Bay to southern Illinois and back again. They do not breed
here.
Residents (Giants) migrate very little (only when everything here
freezes). They are very productive, averaging 5 eggs per nest. They
live 20 years, are adaptable, don't have many native predators, and
weigh up to 15 lbs.
Damage: crops, airplanes, park areas,
landscapes, water bodies, attacks on people
Resident geese can produce major crop damage, and they threaten safety
near airports. E.g., in 1995, an AWACS plane flew into a flock of
geese; the resulting crash killed all 24 military personnel on board.
In urban areas, they can cause property damage, decimate vegetation,
contaminate water bodies, and increase erosion. They can make such a
mess that people stop using parks. They are also aggressive and will
charge children who are holding food or adults who surprise them while
they are nesting. During their molting period (late June) when they are
unable to fly, they can cause traffic accidents because they walk
everywhere, including in roadways. They may create predator-proof nests
in high places such as roofs. If they succeed in raising a brood
somewhere, they return to the same place, and their young learn to
return to the same place.
Abatement: scare away and reduce
populations, educate the public
You can manage goose concentrations with various techniques: propane
cannons, pyrotechnics, flagging, fencing, and increased hunting. Most
of these techniques are not usable in urban areas.
Hunting laws allow high bag limits (usually 5/day) before the migrants
arrive. Hunting has helped manage the exploding resident goose
population. Sixty to seventy years ago, it was thought that resident
geese were extinct. In 1970, the DNR estimated there were 1600 resident
geese in the state. Now there are probably 155,000. The breeding
population is increasing.
Education is important. People should not feed the geese. Local
ordinances can help enforce that idea. If you notice birds starting to
congregate, try to disperse them because they act as decoys and attract
more birds.
Non-lethal abatement methods include scare devices (like blow-up
figures that inflate on a timer), trained dogs, pyrotechnics,
repellents, and habitat alteration. If you discourage them in one
place, they will go to another nearby area.
They like a smooth transition from water to grass. So anything you can
do to break up that transition, like putting a band of rocks along the
shoreline, can help discourage them. Fences (plain and electric),
string grids, and big plants next to the shore are other methods. For
small ponds, stringing fishing line at 20-ft intervals interferes with
their ability to land in the water.
Because they are so adaptable, you may have to change your disruption
techniques from time to time.
Predators: skunks, raccoons, foxes,
coyotes
Skunks, raccoons, foxes, and coyotes normally don't take on an adult
goose, but they disrupt nests and will kill juvenile birds for food.
One area that had resident foxes stopped having any trouble with geese
because the foxes took out all the young birds.
Protected by treaty
Geese are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. You need a
federal permit to take eggs or birds.
Population management: reduce
breeding, increase mortality
It is our local decision what we'd like to do about the geese. Then we
apply for the permit.
Spraying 100% corn oil on the eggs suffocates the baby geese. However,
you need a permit to do this, and you need to check for new eggs that
the adults might produce. By adding dye to the spray and rechecking the
nest, you can see any new unsprayed eggs. If you break the eggs during
the adults' fertile period, they'll just produce replacement eggs. They
sit on the nests for 28 days. They're fertile for roughly 25 days of
that time.
Addling (shaking) the eggs is another option, but you have to shake for
a long time, and you need a permit.
Nests are hard to find. Geese love islands (for their protection) and
floating bogs. They can nest under bushes and trees. And you may be
attacked as you approach the nest.
2-year process to remove geese: test
for contaminants, then take birds away
Removing geese takes 2 years. The first year, the USDA collects 7 birds
and tests them for PCBs, mercury, lead, and pesticides. The 25
contaminant tests take a long time. The collection takes place near the
end of June when the geese are molting and can't fly.
If the birds test clean (so far, only one community has tested high for
PCBs), the following year the USDA harvests the agreed-upon number of
birds. It is wise to leave a few birds for goose lovers to enjoy so
that the community does not become divided between goose lovers and
goose haters.
The birds are handled, caged, and euthanized humanely. They are sent to
a licensed poultry processor, who turns the meat into gooseburger for
food pantries. Smaller birds are donated to animal sanctuaries for
food. So far, 1600 geese have been pantried or given to Native
Americans for food, and 1800 geese have been used for animal feed.
Effectiveness: manage the big adults
to allow other options to work
If you reduce the number of big adults, other less drastic options may
suffice to manage the geese in subsequent years. One community hasn't
contacted the USDA in 5 years after their first removal. When you have
a smaller population of geese, you attract fewer migrants because there
are fewer decoys.
Summary of actions
1. Reduce food and habitat.
2. Time your actions: act when the geese are nesting and flightless.
That's a roughly 3-week period in June.
3. Solicit neighborhood involvement.
4. Work with law enforcement.
5. Reduce geese to tolerable levels, but don't eliminate all geese.
6. Be proactive. Don't wait until the situation is out of control. If
you have a few geese now, you'll have more later.
Costs: $2000 and $2000
Dan has found a lower-cost lab. So tests for contaminants now run $2000
instead of $4000. Next year, it will cost roughly $2000 to remove some
birds. There is some grant money that may help defray the cost.
Disturb the nests right now
The geese are already nesting and probably sitting on eggs. This is the
time to disturb the nests.
Dan Hirchert can be reached at 1-800-433-0663. He will collect the 7
geese to test for contaminants and apply for a grant. He'll also let
Ron Vollmer know when he comes so that Ardie can take pictures for the
web site.
