Manuka Lake Association

It was standing room only at the Hayes Township Hall the evening of September 2nd. The Board of Directors was delighted with such a great turn out on a Friday evening before Labor Day. President Chuck Winger began the meeting by thanking everyone for coming. He introduced the Board members that were present and then introduced Mary Sanders, Hayes Township Supervisor, along with Bob Diesing, Hayes Township Trustee, and Wayne Tyler, Hayes Township Treasurer.

Winger then announced that the Lake Association Website was up and running and all could visit by connecting to www.LakeManukaAssociation.com. He informed the audience that Craig Baetz had set up the site and had not only donated his time but the costs of setting up the site as well. Craig was presented a framed satellite photo of the Lake, a token of the Boards appreciation.

Next to be introduced was the evening's featured guest, Tony Groves, from Progressive AE, the engineering firm the Board had chosen to perform the Lake study. Winger also added that at the end of the meeting the group would be made aware of the success of the fund raising effort to pay for Progressive's work on the study. Winger informed the group that only Jack Crusoe, the Board Secretary/Treasurer knew the success of the fund raising.

Tony Groves handed out an outline of what his firm would do to study the lake. He spent a few minutes going over the outline item by item, occasionally adding a comment or two. Once the outline had been presented President Winger interrupted the meeting, apologized to Tony and asked Jack Crusoe if he could let the group in on how the fund raising had gone.

Winger had a poster-sized map of the Lake and on the sides were dollar levels that led up to the $16,000 mark, the amount necessary to fund the work of Progressive AE. Winger had already filled the Lake to the $4000 level pointing out his Board would have seen to it we would have reached that level. Jack gave Winger permission to fill in the Lake to the next level.

Tony then asked for questions. For the next 35 minutes members of the audience asked about plant eradication, what to do with the muck and asked for Tony's opinion on filling the lake with Augmentation Wells. Winger kept interrupting with requests for Jack to help him fill in the Lake on the Map. The questions about the lake went on some more and included how Lakes Wequas and Horicon would fit into the scheme of the study. Other questions regarded the drainage basin and whether area golf courses or oil and gas wells could be contributing to the low level of the lake. It was apparent the low lake level and how to raise it were important to the crowd.

Me too, Winger would shout. "Jack what about my Lake here on the wall?" Jack kept responding with, "Fill it up some more, Chuck."

Finally President Winger held up his arms and asked the audience for their support to end the Open Forum. He once again thanked the Trustees and everyone for attending and especially for the great questions and comments they shared. He thanked Tony Groves for the super presentation.

The Map was filled so there was only one level to color blue. Doing so would mean the study would be fully funded and that meant there was a lot of support from the Lake community. Winger pleaded with Jack to fill up the lake. Jack teasingly said, "First to Drukker's Island." (a muck bog drawn by Winger on the map).

"Fill in my beach." added Jack.
"Fill in Kevin's beach."
"A little more."
"Stop!"

"Nooooooo", shouted Winger. There was less than an inch to go. Jack announced the fund raising had collected $15,540. Everyone applauded. Jack pleaded for more support to fill the lake. There ensued a mad rush of cash up to the Boards table. The Lake was filled. The Open Forum a success.

Plan to attend next year's Open Forum. It will be held Friday September 1st, 2006 at 7 PM. The program will feature Tony Groves of Progressive AE. Tony will present the results of the study, a management plan and will answer your questions.

For now SAVE THE DATE, you will be notified of the location at a later time.