Lilly Lake Protection & Rehabilitation District

Rev. 14-Aug-2011 Back to Home

April 30, 2011 meeting summary

The spring meeting took place on April 30, 2011, in the Town Hall. Board members present: Bill Glembocki, Andy Lois, Bob Herda, and Sheila Siegler. Visitors included Kathy Aron of Aron & Associates and Mike Bennett, the 2011 water patrol officer. Below are brief notes on the main topics that came up during the meeting.

Water Patrol Officers
Mike Bennett is our new water patrol officer. July 4 weekend will be covered. There may be some help from Constable Haas and the Sheriff's Dept.

No Lake Residents on Protection District Board
No one on the current District Board actually lives at Lilly Lake. You're making decisions on the future of the District. Why weren't the 3 advisors who used to be on the Board been replaced?

All issues are brought to these meetings. All attendees are effectively the advisors. If you want to select 3 people to sit in front and be advisors, fine, but it won't change the fact that District electors (all who attend the meetings) set the course of action. District voters vote on taxes and issues. The Board does not make decisions alone.

Costs Should Be Shared More Widely
Dredging was completed 40 years ago, but taxpayers in the District are still paying. Lilly Lake residents are the sole support of Lake activities. Since the Lake is state property, and people from all over the area use it, the costs (e.g., weed spraying) should be spread over a wider base: all residents of Wheatland or even Kenosha County.

Pier Planner
The Pier Planner newsletter has details of the Wisconsin code on piers in an easy-to-understand format. The complete DNR rules are on the DNR web site under Waterways (link = http://dnr.wi.gov/waterways/recreation/piers.html).

Launch Fee Box
The lock box is installed. A new sign should be ready by the end of the week. The system should then be fully operational.

Permits are required from May 1 to October 1. If you launch before May 1 or after Oct. 1, you can avoid the launch fee. The single-day fee is $7. You can launch and remove your boat for the single fee. A season pass is $28. The water patrol officer will have to help monitor adherence to the regulations.

The fee applies if you use the launch, i.e., you back a trailer down the ramp and lower a boat into the water. If you bring kayaks in the back of your pickup truck and you carry them across the beach sand and put them in the water, you do not have to pay the fee.

What about people who launch from the Resort or private property? They won't have a sticker. Ditto people who put their boats in for the season before May 1. Yes, the system has some holes. There's a certain element of honor system to this. The main purpose of the launch fee was to control outside traffic on the lake. That's what residents have complained about for years.

[Information from Sheila Siegler after the meeting:
- Fines: not more than $50 for the first offense and not more than $100 for second or subsequent violations within one year
- People designated to pick up the envelopes:  Bill Glembocki, Debbie Vos, Sheila Siegler, Jack Bobula
- Envelopes go to Debbie or Sheila at the Town Hall
- Schedule of pickup: Jack collects the envelopes whenever he is at the lake. As the weather gets better, the Town will monitor how often the lock box needs to be emptied. So far, there's been very little activity, probably because the weather's been so bad.]

Parking at Beach
The Town Board is not in favor of putting NO PARKING signs up at the beach. Let's first see how the new launch fee affects traffic.

Weed Management
This was not a good spring: very cool water temperatures, windy, rainy. It was not a good spring for being on the water and getting things done.

The permit for weed control is in hand; it is issued to the District. We can treat 24 acres. The contractors will treat the milfoil between May 15 and May 31, weather permitting. They will treat wherever they find nuisance plants. The DNR accompanies them. Last year only 3-1/2 acres needed to be treated. The cost was about $1300. There was no need to use Cutrine last year. It's on the permit just in case it's needed.

Homeowners can apply for individual permits. The cost depends on the area they treat and the amount of material applied.

Restrictions after Weed Treatment
You should not swim for 24 hours after a treatment. You should not use lake water for irrigation for 21 days after a treatment. Note that WI law allows you to water your grass and plants with lake water, even if you have to use a pump.

Monitoring of Lake Levels
- Last August, the lake level was 64 inches below the marker that Chairman Glembocki put on the beach wall.
- In December, it was 67 inches below the marker.
- On March 23, it was 61 inches below the marker.
- On April 23, it was 58 inches below the marker; that is, lake level came up 9 inches since December.

Ideally, the gauge should be in the water so that everyone can easily see the current level. The level should be recorded weekly. Gauge cost would be $50 to $60 plus mounting hardware. During the summer season, any gauge in the water will probably be hit. So we need the sea wall marker. Glembocki's readings are the calibration standard.

What is the purpose of this lake monitoring?
We want more information about the lake. If we have a good database about the lake, we may be able to correlate changes in water quality to some factor.

Right now, no one wants to talk about Slow-No Wake and lake level. The Town Board imposed SNW a few years ago, and it wasn't pretty. Currently, there is no lake level that triggers SNW.

Lake Newsletters
Mike Adam published 2 newsletters. Contact him if you have ideas for future newsletters.

Watercraft Buy / Sell Site
We need a place where people can list their watercraft for sale and where people looking for watercraft can list what they want.
[NOTE: Marilyn has added a place on the Summerhaven web site where people can list items wanted and for sale.]

Future of the District
At the August meeting, is it possible to have a vote on the future of the District? What does the District do for us?
It does the weed program and water quality testing, and in the past the dredging and goose issues.
The Town of Wheatland bought the 2 new piers.

This is not a private lake. It's open to everyone, yet we pay the costs. The Town should shoulder more responsibility. How many property owners are in the District? About 350 notices were sent out.

There is a specific statute that covers the dissolution and expansion of protection Districts. The procedure involves hearings and signatures of property owners. You have to go through the process. You can't just vote on it at a meeting.

If you dissolve the District, then you have to convince the voters of the Town to support programs for the lake. Outlying landowners probably won't agree to it. The DNR and County won't do it for you. The goal of the District is to improve the quality of the lake. It gives us the legal mechanism to make decisions, e.g., about weed problems, which won't go away.

Very few people come to meetings. To disband, after all the notices go out, only those present will vote.

No one is currently asking the County for funds for lakes. What if everyone started asking?

Noise at Lily Lake Resort
The noise at the Resort is getting out of hand. The loudspeakers and microphones are on until midnight.
This is a Town Board issue, not a District issue.

Ugly Black Pipe at Beach
There is an ugly black pipe coming out of the beach. Muskrats live there.
The pipe is an extension of the culvert. This too is a Town issue.

Annual meeting is set for August 13, 2011 at 10 AM, Wheatland Town Hall.

August 13, 2011 annual meeting summary

The annual meeting took place on August 13, 2011 in the Wheatland Town Hall. Board members attending were Bill Glembocki, Bob Herda, and Andy Lois. Kathy Aron, Town Clerk Sheila Siegler, DNR Warden Juan Gomez, and about 25 Lilly Lake residents also attended.

Weed control
Two treatments were done this year: a small early one, and then when the water warmed up and weeds grew, a larger one. Only milfoil and curly-leaf pondweed are treated and only in places that have the DNR's permission.

Dead fish washing up on shore
Some deaths occur due to spawning stress. When it's hot, fish go deeper, but there's less oxygen at deeper levels. Fish develop columnaris in their gills. If you want to test a dead fish, its gills have to be pink. Does this disease affect people? No.

Bullheads plentiful
There are lots of bullheads this year. You'll never get rid of all of them. They can survive a fish kill, and you can't remove all of them.

Water level
A gauge was installed, and Mike Adam and Bill Glembocki have taken weekly readings (shown in the Lilly Lake Newsletter). There's only a 6-inch difference between spring and now. A benchmark is at the end of the beach retaining wall. The gauge will be pulled out in October.

How do the readings compare to previous readings? There are very few historical readings. SEWRPC took some readings in the 1970s and 1980s.

Water quality
No one has heard from Tom Kaczmarek.

Lake newsletter
Mike Adam is always looking for ideas for the Lilly Lake Newsletter. Paper copies of the latest edition were available at the meeting.

Geese
The goose population has decreased significantly. Only 1 out of 15 lakes did goose removal this year. We have money in the District budget to do a capture, if needed.

Retain or abolish the Protection District?
The District has to comply with Wisconsin Statutes Chapter 33 (http://legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/Stat0033.pdf). Dissolving the District may be a 2-year process by the time you deal with notification requirements and liquidation of assets. There are about 310 properties in the District.

- A District is the most local form of government. The people most concerned about the lake and affected by what happens to it get to make the decisions.
- A lot of the people in Wheatland, and certainly most of those in Kenosha County, don't use Lilly Lake, don't care what happens here, and will resist funding for our projects. As soon as they learn that they're getting taxed for something here, they'll come out to vote against it.
- We get some Town and State funds. E.g., the Town bought the piers and put in a new fence. The State pays for DNR wardens. So it isn't true that we're paying the full freight for everyone else.
- Dressler's arguments involved taxation and lack of representation. Taxes for the District are very low. Last year, there was no levy, and this year there will be no levy.
- By Statute, the District Board has 3 members, who are guided by District voters. The Board implements what the District voters decide at the annual meeting. Some time ago, Don Puchalski and Ron Vollmer used to sit on the dais with the Board members. They were advisors to the Board, and they did a great deal of work during the dredging, but they were never Board members. The Board does not take on projects independent of the District voters.
- Can the Board refuse to do something that the District voters want to do?
The Board can refuse only if the request violates Statutes Chapter 33 or if the funding is not available to accomplish the project.

A vote was taken.
In favor of disbanding the District: 0
In favor of leaving the District as is: 22.

Budget for 2012
The weed control budget is higher than the actual expenditures for each of the past 2 years because we never know from season to season what we'll encounter: how many bad patches of invasive weeds need to be treated, which chemicals will have to be used. The budget plans enough to cover typical contingencies.

The $4500 for goose control just carries over from year to year. The money was collected in the past but never used. So it just shows up as a line item in the budget every year.

Taxes
There is no District tax again this year.

DNR and local permits
Warden Gomez distributed a flier explaining what shoreline activities require a DNR permit. The flier discusses shoreline protection, sand blankets, aquatic plants, mooring buoys, piers, swimming rafts, and water trampolines. The DNR discovers many illegal projects. Fines are stiff (in the $1000 range). So before you do any lakefront project, check with the DNR and obtain the necessary permit. In addition, some towns and counties also have ordinances about shoreline modifications. If you want to install a private buoy, you need a permit.

DNR presence on Lilly Lake
Lilly Lake is not used as much in summer as the nearby lakes. So the Warden is here very little during the summer. However, he spends more time here in winter because of the activities he encounters: ice fishermen smoking dope in their shanties, catching undersize fish, riding ATVs to the lake instead of transporting them there and then riding on the lake.

Minibike (dirt bike) races
Minibikes (dirt bikes) are not regulated. So there is no legal handle to control their activities. There are racing clubs that go from lake to lake all winter and hold races.

Swimming past a raft
You can swim anywhere in the lake. For your safety, if you go far out you'd be wise to have a flag or some visible marker near you. SCUBA divers have to have a flag and stay a certain distance from it.

Boat speed limit?
There is no speed limit for boats unless a local ordinance specifies one.

Boating class a requirement
Everyone born after 1-1-1989 has to take a boating class before operating a watercraft in Wisconsin. So if you have guests, they cannot operate your watercraft unless they've had the course -- even if they're over 21 and responsible drivers.

A similar requirement applies to snowmobiles.

Boat trailers shouldn't park on street
Boat trailers parked on the road are a hazard, especially to kids on bikes. The edges of those trailers are an accident waiting to happen. Parking outside of the marked spots should not be allowed.

This is a Town issue, not a Protection District issue. The Town Board will have to deal with it.

2012 Annual Meeting
Next year's annual meeting will be on August 11, 2012.

March 14, 2011 Board of Commissioners Meeting

PUBLIC NOTICE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS LILLY LAKE PROTECTION & REHABILITATION DISTRICT
Kenosha County, Wisconsin
Monday, March 14, 2011, 6:15 p.m. Wheatland Town Hall, 34315 Geneva Rd., New Munster
=========================================================================
Pursuant to Section 19.84, Wisconsin Statutes, notice is hereby given to the Public, Kenosha News, and Westosha Report that the LILLY LAKE PROTECTION & REHABILITATION DISTRICT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS will meet to consider and act on the following:
    
1. Roll call - verification of Public Notice - approval of minutes

2. Public comments and questions from listed property owners of the district and other persons present. Introduction of guests.
(Please be advised per State Statute Section 19.84(2), information will be received from the public and there may be limited discussion on the information received. However, no action will be taken under public comments. Please limit comments to no more than 3 minutes.)

3. Appoint Kathy Aron, Aron & Associates as a consultant for weed management control for 2011

4. Chemical treatment to control invasive weeds in Lilly Lake – 2011
Contract with Marine Biochemists, same company used in 2010 at same cost per acre treated

5. Reports, announcements and correspondence
   A. May 14, 2011, 10 a.m. – Spring Meeting of the Lilly Lake Protection & Rehabilitation District, Wheatland Town Hall

6. Adjournment

Dated:  March 9, 2011                        
Agenda: William Glembocki, Andrew Lois, Robert Herda, Kenosha News, Westosha Report
Notices posted: Town Hall, New Munster Post Office, Uhen's Garage, Larry's Barber Shop, Transfer Station, Wheatland Convenience Center

Lake dredging history

What was the problem?

By 1970, the process of vegetation decay had filled the lake with muck to the point where the maximum water depth was 6 ft. Weeds were rampant. Underlying organic sediment was 30 to 35 ft deep. Some spots were so shallow that you could not run a motor boat. Activities like fishing and water skiing were very limited, and the experience was low quality. Winter fish kills caused dead, smelly fish to wash up on the shore in spring. No one was putting any money into the area. There was a real risk that property values would decline significantly due to the worsening condition of the lake.
Back to Lake dredging

What was the proposed solution?

Studies resulted in a proposal to dredge about 890,000 cubic yards (550 acre-feet, that is, 550 acres to a depth of 1 ft) of sediment out of the lake to increase the depth to about 22 ft. Some of the muck was spread on nearby farm land, but most of it was piped to a modified gravel pit about 2 miles away (off Hwy W, south of F and FR, near the Schwarz Nursery).
Back to Lake dredging

Who was involved in the project?

Don Puchalski led the effort, starting in 1971. He worked with the Town Board, engineering firms, the State, and the federal government. Although the project started out as a local one, new programs initiated at the State and federal levels offered some help with the financing. Changing environmental laws and financing programs delayed project start several times. At one point, the 5-year permit ran out. The government did extensive testing to ensure that the sludge would not harm the environment.

Engineer Associates of Elkhorn tested feasibility, prepared initial plans, and got a permit from the Wisconsin DNR. In 1974, Jensen and Johnson of Elkhorn took over planning and preparation of environmental impact statements. Johnson and Averill of Waukesha completed the design and development of the whole project. Robers Dredge of LaCrosse did the dredging. Mann Brothers of Elkhorn constructed the disposal site.
Back to Lake dredging

When and how was it done?

Dredging occurred over 2 years: July, 1978 through September, 1979. The first year, work started at 6 am and finished at 10 pm every day. The second year, it was decided to run 24 hours/day for 4 days of every week to avoid the jarring noise of diesel engine startup at 6 am and to allow use of the lake on weekends..

A 12-inch cutterhead sucked out muck and weeds. Two miles of welded, 12-inch polyethylene pipe carried sludge to the gravel pits. A booster station around the Riley and Topczewski property helped pump muck up hill. Property owners were paid $0.15/ft per year for a pipeline easement. Some of the muck was also applied to 160 acres of farmers' fields. Farmers got $40/acre/year for the loss of use of their land. After project completion, they got the benefit of decayed organic matter on their fields. People report seeing fish coming out of the pipe at the gravel pit. The entire shoreline was cleaned and graded at completion of the project.

During the dredging, use of the lake was minimal. The shoreline stretched out 200 ft in places. You could do a little boating and swimming in the middle of the lake. One pocket (about 100 ft by 300 ft) on the north shore had to be left because the water level was too low to work it. It was only in 1980 that the lake filled back out to its present size.
Back to Lake dredging

What did it cost?

Federal: $350,000
Local: $225,000
State: $155,000
Total: $730,000
Back to Lake dredging

What are the benefits?

New muck is accumulating at the rate of about 1/4 inch per year. At that rate, it will be about 200 years before Lilly Lake has to consider another dredging project.

Dredging pictures

Many thanks to Kathie Cashman for these pictures of the dredging operation. Note: The full-size versions of the photos run 150KB to 260KB.

Dredging rig
Dredging rig
 View 1
Lake view 1
View 2
Lake view 2
 Winter
Dredging site in winter
or Back to Lake dredging
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Lilly Lake (Wisconsin)