May 2025 Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

President Becky Ridge welcomed all members and visitors. Board Members in attendance were Becky, Birdie, Tami, Vicky and Liz. A total of 19 members and 2 guests were in attendance.

Guest Speaker Karen Blaska, Anoka County parks presented a slide show of the long range plan for Lake George Regional Park. The timeline ranges from 5-10 to 10-20 years. Karen took many questions from the floor regarding some of the proposals including making two large pavilions and how that would work for a variety of families unrelated using the pavilions. Here are some of the highlights:

Park Entrance: Proposed improvements at the park entrance include realigning the entrance road with 217th Avenue for safety and relocating the trail off-road. Additional upgrades involve a new digital sign, better lighting, gatehouse renovations, irrigation installation, and reconstructing roads.

Beach Area: The County plans to reduce parking to limit overcrowding. Improvements include replacing two small picnic shelters with one larger 100–150-person shelter, adding hammock stands in shaded areas, and enhancing ADA water access with a beach mat and accessible canoe/kayak launch. A self-serve rental station for watercraft is also proposed. The County like the idea of stretching the beach buoys all the way to the west end of the beach so people cannot beach their boats there. They are proposing putting a dock on the west end of the beach area for park user to help eliminate boats being beached.

Boat Launch: The County plans to upgrade the boat launch area by reconstructing the parking lot for improved efficiency while maintaining the current capacity (28 vehicle/trailer and 4 vehicle-only stalls). The double boat launch will be rebuilt including an accessible dock. The damaged fishing pier will be removed, with accessible fishing spots added to an improved jetty. A separate dock for canoes and kayaks will also be added. The restroom will be replaced with a 100-person capacity multi-purpose visitor center. Pavilion 5 and its parking lot (60–70 stalls) will be upgraded within 10–15 years.

More details related to plans for day camps and overnight camps can be found at https://www.anokacountyparks.com/plan-your-parks You may submit feedback/comments on this site also.

Lake Report/Tom Rotramel: The Lake Level Monitoring Gauge was installed near our dock on April 25th with an initial reading of .30 and has maintained that same level today. This doesn't have much meaning at this time but Anoka County will be out in the near future for this reading and set up a calibration for their records based on the normal lake elevation of around 904 feet above sea level. Our rain gauge was installed on April 5th and for the month of April we recorded 1.22 inches of rainfall (no snow). Today we took a water clarity reading and water temperature reading in the deepest part of the lake. The results were a very surprising 18 feet 4 inches of water clarity and a surface water temperature of 64 degrees. We will be conducting these surveys on a weekly basis for comparison.

Treasurer’s Report: Dues Information 134 mailed, 52 returned (as of April 30), $1300.00 Club finances $12,918.76 (April 30) CD rolled over and added $1000.00, so now at $8000.00 (Due Oct 1) Checking $4918.76 Expenses: March $197.87 (April Meeting food) April $1217.85 ( $100.00 Picnic pavilion) ($125.00 Gift cards for season) ($131.92 Printing/mailing dues statements) ($860.93 added to rollover of CD to total $8000) Incomes: March $146.14 (CD interest) April dues received $1300.00

Roadside Cleanup: Liz chaired the roadside cleanup held April 26th. A special thanks to the volunteers that made this happen.

Annual Election: Becky Ridge, President, Vicky Wilken, Secretary, Liz Gerdin, and Perry Prestholdt, Directors were re-elected by unanimous vote. One director position remains unfilled. If you are willing to serve as a director, please contact any board member.

Lake George Improvement District (LGID): Chair Juanita Reed-Boniface provided updates on the LGID. The initial lake survey is complete and no curly leaf pondweed was present for the third year. Eurasian milfoil was found in the usual places near the beach and southern/southwestern portion of the lake. Application with DNR to do treatment as recommended has been submitted. The LGID continues to work with Anoka County Park personnel to increase inspectors time at the boat landing in a cost share program. They are contracting for a service to transcribe meeting minutes and have established an interest bearing account for reserve funds. A report to the city council and request for grant funds scheduled for May 12.

Annual Picnic: The annual picnic will be held at Lake George Regional Park in Pavilion 5.

The door prize winner was Tom Rotramel

Upcoming Events: June 11 Lake George CC meeting at the Refuge *note date change July 20- LGCC picnic Pavilion 5 Lake George Regional Park