Year end Letter 2020


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
From the FLPOA Board
2020

 John Arnoldy Eagle Lake, Michael Bury Kego Lake, Cindy Bissonnette West Fox Lake
 Dianne Bell Mitchell Lake, Jim Castle Mitchell Lake, Ken Neihart West Fox Lake
 Mike Prouty Eagle Lake, Bob Stancer West Fox Lake, Fred Strohmeier Kego Lake

 
We wish the best to all our members during this holiday season and hope that everyone was able to stay safe and healthy this past year.  There is light at the end of the tunnel; but the tunnel is long, so for now we have to do what we can to slow the spread of the virus.  This has been a year of learning new technology such as Zoom, Google DUO, Go To Meeting, Microsoft Teams and other virtual meeting formats, none of which replace face to face communications. We conducted all of our board meetings this year via conference call. 

Even with all the cancellations and restrictions, this past year has been a busy one with water testing lakes and streams in Fifty Lakes, including Zebra mussel veliger testing, and scheduling boat inspectors at the public landings. Boat traffic was higher this year at all public landings as people spent more time on the lakes. Boat sales along with RV sales and rentals were also up in 2020 as people spent more time outdoors. 

The combined total inspections from the 4 public landings in Fifty Lakes was 1,186.
 

Lake

Watercraft Counts

 

Number of hours

Watercraft per hour

 

Paid By

Eagle

73

 

88

0.83

 

FLPOA

East Fox

638

 

300

2.13

 

County

Kego

227

 

168

1.35

 

FLPOA

Mitchell

248

 

160

1.55

 

FLPOA


FLPOA spent $6,440 on inspectors in 2020.

Generally we try to schedule inspectors from Friday through Sunday with extra hours for fishing opener, 4th of July and Labor Day, but with the limited number of trained level 1 and level 2 inspectors this year Crow Wing County was not always able to meet our requested schedule.  

We do not yet know what the Crow Wing County 2021 AIS plan will look like and we do have some concern that the State may not be able to fund AIS programs, to the same level as previous years, so the Count may receive fewer funds for their program. 

Our paid-up membership is currently at 191, and we appreciate you joining FLPOA with a special thanks to those members that have made extra contributions. Your dollars go a long way in supporting the cost of boat inspectors, water testing and aquatic vegetation inspections. Early detection of AIS is key to minimizing and controlling the impact of an infestation. We are happy to report that none of our lakes in Fifty Lakes currently have AIS even though we are surrounded by lakes that are infested. 

We recently applied for a $3,900 grant for installing clemson levelers under the the second beaver dam on Fox Creek. Once installed the levelers will help stabilize the water level of Kego, West and East Fox lakes and better stabilize the ground water entering Mitchell lake. 

Below are links to the AIS research center at the University of Minnesota, DNR, MPCA and FLPOA website. 

Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center (MAISRC)
Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center (MAISRC) | (umn.edu)
Minnesota DNR Home | Minnesota DNR (state.mn.us)Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (state.mn.us)
Check out our website https://minnesotawaters.org/fiftylakespropertyowners/


The FLPOA Board
Wishes you the very best for 2021!