President’s Report:: Some MLIF members attended a meeting at the Ridgefield Library with Toni Boucher and John Frey regarding the state budget and cuts to the DEEP. The town’s yearly meeting to approve smaller capital items to the Budget will be Monday, April 4, 7:30 p.m. The money for the Third Lane stream project is usually presented for approval to the Budget at this meeting.
Committee Reports:
Stormwater Drainage Project (SDP): The Third Lane Stream restoration project has gone out to bid.
Lake Management: If Aquatic Control Technologies (ACT) doesn’t receive the lake treatment permit, we will need to follow up with the state.
Egg Addling: The state DEEP contacted our egg addlers regarding some addled swan eggs near the beach. We have never addled swan eggs – only goose eggs. Watershed families should be aware that they cannot destroy swan eggs or nests.
Drawdown: We are not planning a spring drawdown.
Spillway: The tarp is in good shape and doing its job.
Newsletter: The Spring newsletter was mailed. We will plan a Fall newsletter and include the fundraising letter to save postage.
Old Business:
2014 Anne S. Richardson Grant: Aquacleaner is ordering a new type of collection bag and will restart harvesting at the northwest end of the lake in early May. We will measure progress by the area cleared, not the amount removed. They will be mainly working to remove algae and the extensive algae mats in that area.
Annual Meeting: The “State of the Lake” annual meeting was successful. One idea that came out that meeting is to test for phosphorus in the lake before and after heavy rains. This data would help us determine if we need nutrient/siltation barriers at the outlet of major streams flowing into the lake. We could test at the stream that flows into the lake by the southeast part of the lake. We will do some initial testing for pre/post storm phosphorus.
New Business:
Free Soil Testing: There is a free soil testing program run by the state that will help inform people what treatments are needed (or not needed) on their lawns. The state DEEP runs the program. We will need several drop-off sites around the lake and the samples need to be driven to New Haven. We will send out an email blast regarding the details of this project.
Social Media: Facebook can have a “closed group.” We can use our Facebook site to advertise the Soil Testing program.
Grandview Drive Issue MLIF plans to look into the Grandview Drive issue of heavily silted runoff which is draining down to Old Sib, then down to the lake, thus creating an infill of silt into the lake.
