BEAA Meeting Minutes 3-10-2021

by Carole Moore April 16, 2021

Bald Eagle Area Association

Board Meeting Minutes

Date / Time:

3-10-2021 at 6:00 pm CST

Location:

Via Zoom (Covid-19)

Approved 4-14-21

Attendees:

Bart Crockett (President)

Doug Mulder (Member at Large)

Antonette Alexander (Treasurer)

Meg Rapheal (Member at Large)

Carole Moore (Secretary)

Jack Jungbauer (Member at Large

Molly Ertle (Member at Large)

Nick Guzzo (Member at Large)

Mike Doran (Member at Large)

FORMAL BOARD MEETING CALLED TO ORDER AT 6:15 PM BY BART CROCKETT

Bart made a motion to approve the minutes from February 2021. The motion was seconded by Nick and approved by all. Carole will put the minutes on the website.

Antonette Alexander

Treasurer’s Report :

Antonette reported that the operating budget balance is $52. 596, the NIRP fund is $50,000 and the Harris grant fund is $20,075. There was some income received from Shopify for product purchases and 2 households paid 2021 dues.
A motion was made by Antonette to approve $75 for AIS training for Jim Ascheman. Bart seconded the motion and it was approved by all. Bart reported that Jim completed the webinar and stated a lot of it was a repeat of other seminars, discussion included chemicals used in treating AIS and various permit types, but in general, it was a review of AIS information.
Antonette will check with Adam Moore to get the BEAA credit card billed for the monthly Shopify hosting fees.

Bart Crockett

President Report:

Bart asked Justin Townsend to schedule boat launch inspections for early morning/sunrise, on weekends and for tournaments.
Bart sent an e-mail letter to Katharine Harris regarding possible grants for 2021 on 3/7/21.
Bart has drafted a letter for the 2021 dues notification. Bart will get copies to Jack and Carole for review by the end of the weekend, 3/14/21. The goal would be to get the letter out in March. It takes some lead time for the printing and mailing. Carole would also send it out via Mail Chimp when finalized, and direct people to watch their email/snail mail via FB and ND.
Bart stated he had contacted some more people about taking over website maintenance, but had no success. He will add a note for this issue in the dues letter. Carole will maintain the current website for now, possibly with help from Adam Moore, if needed. Carole will ask Adam if he has any suggestions for finding a high school or college intern that might take on this project, or possibly find someone that could continue to supply interns for the web maintenance long term.
A business on Bald Eagle requested approval to post an advertisement for dockside yoga classes. The board discussed the pros and cons of allowing such posts, and issues regarding vetting such posts. Ideas included having a corporate sponsorship fee of $50 and then their name/logo would be listed on a page of our website. It could be called “Friends of Bald Eagle Corporate Sponsorship”. We would not want to call them corporate “members” as our by-laws state BEAA voting members must be lakeshore homeowners or have deeded access. It was also suggested that we could develop a community calendar, once we get a website maintenance expert, and could list other activities going on around the lake to provide the lake community more information. An idea was that we could also charge for people to have their events listed on such a calendar. It was decided to table this conversation until the April meeting so board members could consider the pros and cons of listing businesses on the web, etc.

Committee Reports:

Gear Committee – Doug and Nick

Doug and Nick, the Gear Committee members present, discussed the need to finalize a logo before choosing any products to sell through Graphic Traffic. Nick presented 2 different types of Bald Eagle images, each with some variations, for the board to critique. Paul, from Graphic Traffic also helped develop the design samples. The goal for the logo would be to keep it simple and identifiable as related to Bald Eagle Lake, like the White Bear on the blue background is very identifiable with White Bear Lake. The logo needs to be able to fit and be legible on various types of products from glassware to clothing and flags. The board generally agreed that they preferred the more “fluid” Bald Eagle and preferred the more script-like font, but thought the head/face appeared a little aggressive or angry. The Gear Committee will revisit the design process and submit 3-4 ideas to the board for their vote. The Gear Committee will suggest possible products to sell after the logo has been designed and finalized. The goal would be to open a shop through Graphic Traffic in May.

Music on the Lake Committee –Nick

Nick talked to the band, Undergroove, and reported they are committed for the event. They will be adding another horn for the event, so will charge $1600. The band may need a platform for the drummer. Discussion occurred regarding whether to have the band on the shore or on a barge. Some suggested the band would be more visible on the shore, as they would be slightly elevated and it also provides a simpler solution to add tents, if weather requires them. Nick has images from the band to use on signage and will get those to Molly. Nick will also get Carole an image for loading onto the website and using on Facebook and Next Door. The location will be the same as it was last year. The homeowner is now Tracy Crockett. Nick and Molly will investigate finding some corporate sponsorship for the event. Nick is going to have a conversation with someone from Lake Carnelian about how they manage funding their music event.

Geese Mitigation –Mike

Mike reported at the February board meeting, that the plan he submitted to the DNR had been rejected. Mike stated he had talked with Ramsey County Parks/Rec regarding using the boat launch area to conduct the collection of geese. The Ramsey County Parks rep was comfortable with that situation and had worked with Tom (the geese harvester) on several other occasions. Matt Kocien stated water quality related to geese droppings isn’t really an issue in a lake the size of Bald Eagle, but it could be an E-coli issue in shallow waters. Mike added information to the Bald Eagle Geese mitigation application based on his conversation with Ramsey County Parks/Rec and also included information from the Benson Airport board regarding the hazards of geese interfering with flights to/from the airport. Mike re-submitted the application to the DNR the week of March 8th.

Annual Dinner – Meg

Meg was not present, but the 2020 spreadsheet and notes had been provided to the board members with the March meeting agenda, so the timelines and assignments were reviewed. Antonette will get the bid sheet file to Carole so she can order the NCS sheets to be printed by UPS. Mike had spent some time prior to the meeting to review assignments and so the board reviewed the tasks, updated who was assigned and updated the due dates for the tasks, as well. Carole will update the spreadsheet and include that, along with the other dinner notes, when she sends out the March meeting minutes. Antonette will contact Dellwood to discuss the room set up and how they plan on providing food since Covid issues will still exist. Carole feels a buffet would not be okay unless Dellwood employees were serving the food, so multiple guests wouldn’t be handling serving utensils. Dellwood may have parameters already defined for events. Anyone who has any auction items from the cancelled dinner should get gift certificates to Mike. Mike will get them to Molly to get extensions on any expired certificates for use at the 2021 auction. It is assumed Meg will want to have all the auction items at her house in order to track things and set up bid sheets. Meg needs to let the board know if that is the case. Carole and others may have auction items they need to get to whomever will be collecting them.

Follow up from prior meetings:

Lake Clean Up: The board reported that clean-up was quite simple, as the lake was left in really good shape. Brett Smith had checked the area near the reeds because a large fishing tournament took place the weekend of 2/20, but he reported to Bart that there was no debris left and he’d witnessed the tournament participants collecting trash in garbage bags before they left the lake. Carole had posted on FB thanking those who participated in the clean up on 3/6.
BEAA Matching Grants: Carole reported that information regarding the 2021 matching grants for shoreline restoration work had been sent out via mass e-mail, had been posted on Facebook and on Next Door. She also submitted an article to the WB Press on 3/8/21. She contacted Lauren Sampredo from the RCWD stating we were doing matching grants again and sent her our plan information. Lauren will be in touch with Carole if/when applications come in from Bald Eagle homeowners. Tracy Jensen, the 4^th homeowner approved in 2020, will be first on the list for BEAA funding in 2021. Funds were depleted in 2020 by the 1^st 3 grant recipients approved by RCWD. Tracy responded that she was excited to move ahead with her project and was grateful that we were going to be providing some matching grant funding to her.

New Business:

Carole reported that the BEAA email received a request from Silas Hall, looking for sponsorship for his Eagle Scout project of building and installing wood duck houses. He estimated the cost would be about $120 and he intended to install them on public land to the east of Benson Airport. It was discussed that he’d need permission from owners of any private or public property and perhaps permission from the DNR. Mike Doran volunteered to put him in contact with the person he’d talked to at Ramsey County Parks/Rec regarding geese mitigation and would also try to find someone involved with Ducks Unlimited as a possible sponsor for him.

At 7:55 pm Mike made a motion to adjourn, it was seconded by Bart and approved by all.

Next meeting date 4-14-21. 6 pm at Boatworks Commons