County's Lake Association Organization -2008 Report

Alice Weck, Poplar Lake- The Cook County Coalition of Lake Associations (CCCoLA) recently concluded its Summer meeting schedule. Listed below are our accomplishments for this period. And, by the way, our activities do not conclude with the last meeting. Your Board representatives may be active on a variety of projects throughout the year.

First, the Board thanks you and appreciates your membership in CCCoLA. We added the Seagull/Sag homeowners association to our membership this Summer bringing us to eleven member associations including Caribou, Hungry Jack, Gunflint, Leo, Mid Trail, Pike, Poplar, Tait, Trout, Voyageurs Point and West Bearskin. In total, CCCoLA represents over 1000 lakeshore property owners. Board members gave presentations at various property owners associations reaching over 250 people this Summer while newsletters and emails from Board members reached many more lakeshore property owners. And, news articles have kept CCCoLA’ s activities before the public.

Our major projects this Summer were:

*Co-sponsoring a Citizen Lake Monitoring Program (CLMP Plus) workshop. Represented and now monitoring for clarity, phosphorous and chlorophyll a are Seagull, Poplar, Caribou, West Bearskin, Hungry Jack, Onagon and Birch. Several lakes are being monitored for e coli also. Monitoring results can be found at www.rmbel.info. Go to “Lakes Monitoring Data Base” and follow directions to find your lake.

*A CCCoLA initiative started 2 years ago to include a “point-of-sale” provision in a county individual sewage treatment system ordinance was successfully concluded this summer when county commissioners appointed a committee to write the new ordinance. CCCoLA is represented on the committee.

*CCCoLA is now represented on the county Water Advisory Committee which oversees the Countywide Water Plan.

*CCCoLA is represented on a statewide committee to review and revise the state shoreland management regulations. Sponsored by the DNR, it was important for Cook County to be represented on the committee as we are the only county in the state with bedrock as our prime building substrate presenting unique construction and runoff issues.

*CCCoLA has undertaken a study of the disposal of school trust lands wherein the lands to be disposed of include lakeshore or are located in sensitive watersheds. We will monitor DNR activity which involves these parcels.

*CCCoLA is co-sponsoring a sensitive shoreline study with the Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD). Target lakes for this study are Hungry Jack, Poplar, Tait, Caribou, West Bearskin and Trout. The results of the study will inform decisions about development on unique shorelands.

*The Board is working closely with the county Water Planner and SWCD Conservation Technician in several of the above projects. CCCoLA has written letters of support for grant applications submitted by those staff which fund various county studies related to the CCCoLA mission.

*CCCoLA has actively supported member association mission related initiatives at Hungry Jack and Seagull/Sag. Member associations should call upon CCCoLA’s support for mission related projects.

*An educational initiative designed to involve youth in our programs was undertaken this summer. It is anticipated that local students and youth here for the summer could train to be monitors and data collectors. The education subcommittee will seek additional funds to support the program.

*Sometime this Fall CCCoLA information will be available on Boreal for broad distribution to the community. Stay tuned.

Your representatives have worked hard this summer on the above described activities and projects. We continue to be the only independent citizen organization in the county actively advocating for healthy lakes and sensible shoreland management. We encourage you to call upon your representative for information about our activity and to bring to the Board issues that relate to our mission which is to act as primary stewards of Cook County lakes.

Please be in touch with me with any questions or suggestions that you and your membership have about CCCoLA or for further information about the above projects. We are here to serve your associations. Have a fine winter!

Biz Clark, Chair, for the Board of the CCCoLA
130 Poplar Lake Lane
Grand Marais, MN 55604
bizclar@aol.com