For the preservation, protection, and maintenance of Lake St. Catherine
On Saturday, August 24th, the Lake St. Catherine Association held their fourth and final meeting of the 2019 season.
The Trustees gave their reports on many topics - Click here to see the full meeting agenda. Meeting minutes compiled by Kemi Mcshane.
August 24th 2019 Meeting of the Lake St. Catherine Board of Trustees
Lake St. Catherine Country Club, 8:30 AM
Meeting called to order by President Jim Canders at 8:30 AM
Present: Ken Abt, Elaine Bagley, Kemi McShane Bostock, Jim Canders, Frank Callahan, Jeffrey Crandall, Jerremy Jones, Martha Pofit, Mary Jo Teetor, Bob Williams, Nancy Liberatore.
Absent- John Belnavis, Rob Goldman, Ed Laird, Phil Pope, Rob Nesbit.
Hello good folks of the Lake St. Catherine community.
We'd like to let you know that the LSCA Fall 2019 newsletter is now available.
In an effort to save on printing and mailing costs, we've decided to only print a short run of copies and distribute them to Otto's Cones Point General Store and the Wells Country Store. If you'd like a printed copy, please feel free to pick one up when you are out and about in Poultney or Wells (starting around noon today). Thank you to Otto's and WCS!
The digital version is now available online via our website through this link: Click here to view the Fall 2019 Newsletter, or click on the image below. When you click on the link for the newsletter, you will be able to view it on screen - and be able to zoom in or out using the controls on the bottom of the screen. Or, you can click the download button in the top right corner to save a copy to your computer to view with a PDF reader or print a copy.
We hope you'll enjoy this edition of the LSCA newsletter.
We welcome your comments: info@lakestcatherine.org.
Thank you for your support!
Are you a member yet? Maintaining the lake costs approximately $125,000 annually. Grants, membership dues and contributions make up the majority of our funding. If you'd like to help, please consider becoming a member or making a donation. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and any contribution that you make is tax deductible.
On Saturday, July 27th, the Lake St. Catherine Association held their third meeting of the 2019 season.
July 27th 2019 Meeting of the Lake St. Catherine Board of Trustees
Meeting called to order by President Jim Canders at 8:00 AM
Present: Ken Abt, Elaine Bagley, John Belnavis, Kemi McShane, Jim Canders, Frank Callahan, Jerremy Jones, Ed Laird, Matha Pofit, Mary Jo Teetor, Bob Williams. Rob Nesbit via Google Meet
Absent: Jeffrey Crandall, Rob Goldman, Phil Pope
Hello LSC fans - we have some great news to share with you about our membership and donation appeal.
A few weeks ago, we sent letters & emails and published postings on our website and Facebook pages detailing our projected budget shortfall for 2019. You can read that posting here. To summarize, we've projected that funding all the programs and services at the level we need to this season will result in a $30k shortfall. Fully funding our 2019 budget without raising additional funds would result in depleting almost half of our savings.
So, we decided that we needed to reach out to the lake community to try to reach non-members, asking them to join - and to our current members, asking if they could make an additional contribution this year to help us make a dent in our projected deficit... and you have responded.
Here is the great news: since our appeal began on July 17th - 21 new members have joined, and we've received just over $20k in membership dues and and donations!
This is amazing. In just over 2 weeks, you've helped us eliminate two thirds of our projected deficit.
Thank you.
We'd also like to thank you for all the kind words we've received... notes in sent in with donations and membership applications, emails, Facebook replies, face-to-face conversations around the lake and at the annual meeting. We appreciate them, and they certainly help to keep us motivated to fulfill our mission of the preservation, protection and maintenance of Lake St. Catherine!
We also hope that you can help us spread the word to your neighbors, friends and family. Let them know about the good work we do for the lake, and ask them to become a member, or make a contribution.
If you have not become a member yet, we hope to earn support.
Information on how to become a member or make a donation are listed below.
Finally, we also want to mention that we are not just relying on our membership for funding. In the Fall, we will be applying for approximately $50k in grants - and we are hopeful we receive some of those funds. We will also continue to work with State and local governments to increase and maintain our current funding levels with them.
Thank you for your continued support of the Lake St. Catherine Association!
Become A Member:
To become a member (or renew your membership), you can join on our website by filling out the form on our Become A Member page, using a credit card. Or, you can fill in this 2019 Membership Application and Donation Appeal form and mail it in with a check.
Make An Additional Donation In 2019:
There are a few ways you can make a donation to the LSCA. You can visit the Donation Page on our website, or click on the blue Donate button at the top of our Facebook page to make your donation by credit card. Or, you can fill in this 2019 Membership Application and Donation Appeal form and mail it in with a check.
Hello LSC fans.
We'd like to give you a quick recap of last night's Annual Meeting & Dinner.
Thank you to the Lake St. Catherine Country Club for again being our host, and preparing an excellent dinner for all attendees.
We'd also like to thank Williams Hardware in Poultney for donating a Grill Gazebo, which we raffled off to raise money for the LSCA.
We had a great crowd of folks interested in hearing about and discussing lake issues.
Thank you all for coming!
The trustees gave reports summarizing the good work of the LSCA this season - all in support of our mission to preserve, protect and maintain Lake St. Catherine.
Here is the presentation:
Some highlights:
• Ashley Leemans from the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District (PMNRCD) spoke about three important topics:
- LEAP - LEAP is a program that offers free plantings to help mitigate stormwater runoff into the lake from your property
- Lake Wise - Lake Wise is a State of VT program that awards lake property homeowners for having a lake friendly property. The PMNRCD will be providing Lake Wise assessments to LSC property owners over the next two years. Using a point based system, your property will be assessed for lake friendly best management practices. If your property meets the Lake Wise standard, you will be awarded a specially designed Lake Wise sign to proudly display on your property. If your property did not initially qualify, the PMNRCD will inform you on what to work on, and they will even offer assistance. If you would like to sign up to have a Lake Wise assessment for your property, please contact us at info@lakestcatherine.org.
- LSC Stormwater Masterplan - The PMNRCD has been working around the lake to identify problem areas where rain from storms bring nutrients and pollutants into the lake. A public meeting will be held to discuss the plan. Details of this meeting will be announced soon
• Mary Jo Teetor explained that the water clarity has been recovering steadily from the extremely wet spring that had a huge impact on the water. She also spoke about the importance of all lake property owners to make their property lake friendly. Here are a few documents that discuss best practices and outline the problems caused by runoff into the lake:
- Sharing The Edge - A Guide For Lakeshore Property Owners In Vermont
- Your Lake And You!
• Jim discussed our 2019 milfoil treatment program. This season, our 5 year herbicide treatment permit and our 10 year DASH (diver assisted suction harvesting) permit were both approved by the state. Beginning this season, we are using a new, highly effective and targeted herbicide called ProcellaCOR as part of our milfoil control program. This was applied on July 10th - and the results have been excellent. Our DASH team has also been hard at work, efficiently removing buckets of milfoil daily from many locations around the lake. You will see them working throughout the summer. Our goal is to maintain a balanced approach with herbicide and DASH to help control milfoil. This season, we are projecting approximately 2/3 DASH, 1/3 herbicide of the total acreage being treated for milfoil.
• Elaine updated everyone on our membership numbers. To date, we have 326 paid members, generating $51,300 in membership dues. Elaine then discussed our 2019 budget and the projected deficit. Pie charts can be seen in the presentation.
• Jerremy then described the appeal campaign we started a few weeks ago to try to address the budget shortfall. As we continue to receive less and less from State and local governments, we need to continually work to raise funds so we can maintain our programs. This year, we will be applying for $50k in grants from the Lake Champlain Basin Program - and we are hopeful to receive some of these funds. Two weeks ago, we sent letters to the lake community asking non-members to join and asking our members if they could make an additional contribution this season. Since the appeal started, we've had 14 new members join, collecting $6,070 in dues and donations, so we are off to a great start. We will continue to reach out to the lake community for additional members and donations. Please spread the word - and thank you for your support!
Other discussions included John's report about the boat launch and our Greeter Program, Kemi's report about the Boat Parade, and Frank's report on lake safety and the 25 new licensed boaters that passed the boating safety classes.
At the end of the trustee reports, Bob announced slate of 5 trustees to be reelected, which was approved. Bob also noted that the LSCA is seeking people interested in joining the board and becoming a trustee. If you'd like to actively participate in helping the LSCA fulfill its mission, please contact us to express your interest at info@lakestcatherine.org.
After a Q & A session, the meeting was adjourned - and it was time to eat! Thank you to everyone who pitched in the mad scramble to quickly change the dining room from stadium to dinner seating as the food was coming out of the kitchen.
We hope all who attended enjoyed our presentation and the dinner.
We had a delightful evening sharing a meal and speaking with all of our lake neighbors.
If you missed the meeting this year, we hope to see you next time.
If you have any questions about the meeting or the presentation, please contact us at info@lakestcatherine.org.
Thank you for your support of the Lake St. Catherine Association!
Hello LSC.
We'd like to take a moment to thank our 2019 Business Sponsors:
Bear Construction
New Construction, Renovations, Siding, Roofing, and Decks
Phone: (802) 688-6112
Email: bearconstruction1315@gmail.com
Lake St. Catherine Cottages
Cottage Rentals 70 West Lake Road
Phone: (802) 773-0100
Phone: (802) 645-0093
Lake St. Catherine Country Club
Golfing, Pro Shop, Bar & Grill Dinner Specials Fri & Sat
Phone: (802) 287-9341
Email: lsccc@comcast.net
Haun Welding Supply
Household Propane and Cylinder Gas Delivery
Phone: (518) 743-8944
Email: glensfalls@thehaunedge.com
Williams Hardware
Hardware, Housewares, Paint, Lumber, Rentals & More Since 1946
Phone: (802) 287-5791
Email: williamshardware@truevalue.net
Northshire Living
A complete kitchen & bath showroom, home remodel, and interior design
Phone: (802) 367-3151
Email: office@northshireliving.com
New England Lakeside Realty
Helping Families Find Their New Homes In Vermont's Lakes Region
Phone: (802) 645-9001
Email: vtlakeside@comcast.net
Woodard Marine
Boating, Service, Rentals Located on Lake Bomoseen.
Phone: (802) 265-3690
Email: info@woodardmarine.com
Lakes & Homes Real Estate
Offering years of expertise in Rutland County
Phone: (802) 671-8042
Email: lakesandhomesre@gmail.com
All have made a $200 contribution to the Lake St. Catherine Association for the 2019 season - thank you for your support!
You can find them listed on the Sponsors page our our website, and they are listed in our Spring and Fall newsletters.
If your business would like to be a Business Sponsor, you can fill out our online membership form here: Become A Member.
Thanks again to our 2019 Business Sponsors - and all who have contributed this season to help us fulfill our mission to preserve, protect and maintain Lake St. Catherine.
On Saturday, June 22nd, the Lake St. Catherine Association held their second meeting of the 2019 season.
June 22nd 2019 Meeting of the Lake St. Catherine Board of Trustees
Meeting called to order by President Jim Canders at 8:32AM.
Present: Ken Abt, Elaine Bagley, John Belnavis, Kemi McShane Bostock, Jim Canders, Jeffrey Crandall, Jerremy Jones, Mary Jo Teetor, Bob Williams.
Absent: Rob Goldman, Ed Laird, Martha Pofit, Phil Pope.
President Jim Canders called for the meeting adjournment at 10:57. Motion for adjournment was made and seconded. Meeting adjourned at 10:57.
A few weeks ago, we told you about an upcoming workshop on installing infiltration steps on your property.
Infiltration steps minimize the potential for erosion and runoff. As a result, they prevent excess nutrients, sediments, and other pollutants from entering the lake.
It is extremely important that we ALL take a good look at our lakeshore property and mitigate potential areas of stormwater runoff into the lake. Stormwater runoff carries pollutants and nutrients that help to feed weed growth.
The Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District partnered with the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) for an educational opportunity on infiltration step installation. Justin Giebel, coordinator of the VYCC lead the installation and education of PMNRCD staff on this project.
The day started out with Justin leading the PMNRCD staff in an icebreaker which incorporated some safety, stretching and humor. Justin asked each member of the circle to lead the team in a warm-up stretch of their choosing, list a safety tip for the day, and then bestow a super power to the person on our left. The catch on the super powers? They had to have an inconvenient side effect. That lead to some funny exchanges as the crew got ready for the day ahead:
Everyone then got right to work:
Here is a time lapse video of the installation of the first 2 steps:
As they were working up to the 3rd step - a BIG problem presented itself:
A GIGANTIC rock. But, as you'll see in the photos below, a plan was created and implemented to accommodate the rock - and incorporate it into the design.
...and here are the results:
Before:
After:
There is now a safe way to walk into the lake AND infiltrate runoff water before it enters the lake!
Through Lake Education and Action Program (LEAP), the PMNRCD partners with homeowners along Lake Saint Catherine and Lake Bomoseen to provide education and promote good land stewardship practices to protect the water quality in the lake. The District combines forces with a team of Poultney High School student interns to provide native buffer plantings and invasive plant removal activities, complete educational surveys, and go door-to-door with information about a variety of water quality topics.
...and now they have added infiltration steps to their skill set!
If you are interested in installing steps or buffer plantings on your property through the PMNRCD LEAP Program, please contact Ashley Leemans, LEAP Coordinator at ashleemans@gmail.com.
An excellent job by all involved!
Hello Lake St. Catherine fans,
We are posting this message and sending letters to you today to inform you about a significant budget shortfall we are projecting for 2019.
Each year, the Lake St. Catherine Association works to raise money for our seasonal projects by securing grants from the State of Vermont, the Towns of Wells & Poultney and from environmental groups. We also reach out to lake property owners and the lake community to collect membership dues and donations.
This year, we are projecting taking in $111,112 in grants, membership dues and donations, and projecting $141,273 in expenses. This will result in a $30,000+ deficit, greatly reducing our savings from approximately $70,000 to $40,000. Please see the pie charts below for the breakdown of our income and expense projections for 2019.
While we’ve been steadily increasing in both the number of members - and the total amount collected from membership dues, support from state and local governments has been decreasing. For example, in 2019, we will receive approximately $7,000 less from the State of Vermont and $5,000 less from the Town of Poultney.
As of this writing, we have 302 paid members who have made contributions from $35 to $5,000, totalling $48,600. That’s an average contribution of $161. 85 members contributed more than the base $100. Thank you to all who have contributed to help support our mission to preserve, protect and maintain Lake St. Catherine.
However, consider that there are approximately 700 properties on the lake. That means that less than half (43%) of the lake property owners are contributing to help fund our collective efforts for the lake. If these 400 potential members joined with a $100 contribution, we’d be able to cover our budget shortfall in 2019. Although we will keep trying to reach out to those 400 potential members, we realize that it’s unrealistic to think we could get every one of them all to join.
Maybe you are one of these 400, and you have decided to not support the LSCA. Maybe you don’t like that we spot treat the milfoil with herbicide each year, or maybe you have another reason. Well, as part of our milfoil control program, we also employ a very dedicated and hard-working dive team that swims down to the lake bottom to hand pull milfoil and remove it from the lake (this is called DASH, diver assisted suction harvesting). As part of our long term plan, and as we have for several years, we’ve been increasing our acres of suction harvesting and decreasing the acres of herbicide spot treatments. Support our dive team and help support the lake.
We also employ a dedicated team of young adults that work in our Greeter Program at the Lake St. Catherine boat launch. Lakes within driving distance of LSC contain invasive species that we DO NOT want to be introduced into our lake. These include: zebra mussels, spiny waterflea, starry stonewort and asian clams. The Greeters inspect boats entering and leaving LSC, educating boaters on these invasive species and how to make sure their boat or trailer does not carry an invasive hitchhiker to another lake. Support our Greeters and help support the lake.
We test the water for E coli and water clarity, we offer two free boating safety courses each season so boaters can get their license, we purchase and maintain navigation and shore line protection buoys throughout the lake, we organize the annual boat parade, we work with environmental groups to work on runoff issues around the lake, we share lake news with the community through our website and Facebook pages - and we collect membership dues and write and apply for grants to help fund all these projects.
If you love Lake St. Catherine as we do, we hope you can find at least one of these initiatives that you can support, and you’ll become a member, make an additional contribution for 2019 or make a donation.
More Information:
Why are you writing to me?
This posting is an appeal to the lake community to help us reduce the projected $30,000 deficit for the 2019 season.
We will continue to spread the word about what we do for the lake and try to reach the 400 property owners that we wrote about on the previous page. They are all potential members. If you are one of them, please join us!
But, we are also appealing to our current members. Can you help us by making an additional contribution this year?
What other means does the LSCA have to raise funds other than membership dues and donations?
Last year, we wrote 4 grants to apply for funds totalling $50,000 from the Lake Champlain Basin program. Although we were not awarded any of the grants, we learned a lot about the process and we’ll be ready to apply for them again this year with a better understanding of what will be needed to earn them.
We are also searching for additional grants from other agencies and organizations that we can apply for.
Why is there such a large projected budget shortfall this year?
Our state and local government support has been declining each year. As state and local budgets decrease, these decreases get passed down to supported organizations. We mentioned some examples of these decreases on the previous page for 2019, but here are a few more: in 2016, the State of Vermont granted us $50,000. This year, it will be $27,000. In years past, the Town of Wells granted us $20,000, now it’s $12,000.
We are certainly very thankful for the continued support from the State of Vermont and the Towns of Wells and Poultney, their budget crunches have an impact on us. We need to work to raise additional funds to cover these cuts or we will not be able to maintain the standard of milfoil control that we’ve set over the past 15 years. We cannot let that happen.
Also, costs have increased.
This year, we will be using a new, highly effective and milfoil targeted herbicide called ProcellaCOR. As compared to the herbicide we have used for the past five years (Renovate), with ProcellaCOR, we’ll use 200x to 400x less herbicide, the recommended water restrictions for recreation and household use are just limited to the day of treatment and may resume the next day, and lake water may be used for irrigation after 1 week (it was 90 days) - and it will be more effective in taking out problem areas of milfoil. However, it’s more expensive.
We also want to keep our dive team in the lake, removing as much milfoil as they can throughout the season.
What can I do to help?
If you are not a member, please become one. See the below on how to do that.
If you are already a member this year, please consider making an additional contribution to us this season.
Please, spread the word about the Lake St. Catherine Association. Speak to your neighbors - ask them if they are members. Tell them about all the good work we do for the lake, and ask them to support us like you do.
Projected 2019 Income:
Projected 2019 Expenses:
Thank you for your continued support of the Lake St. Catherine Association.
UPDATE: All 2019 recommended water use restrictions have been lifted. - 7/18/19
In cooperation with Misha Cetner from the Vermont Department Of Environmental Conservation and SOLitude Lake Management (SLM), the Lake St. Catherine Association would like to inform the community that the lake will be treated for milfoil on Wednesday, July 10th, 2019.
On May 16th, biologists from SLM and our DASH suction harvesting team visited the lake to perform a milfoil survey. They have identified areas to be treated with the aquatic herbicide ProcellaCOR and areas to be suction harvested.
This season, the LSCA needed to apply for a new 5 year permit for milfoil treatment, which we did in December of 2018. This new permit was not approved by the state until 5/10/19. There was then a 30 day comment period, then a 30 day notice period, which set the treatment date at July 10th. We did all we could to try to maintain the schedule that we've had in the past, but that was unable to happen this year because of the approval delay.
5 areas, totaling 38.1 acres will be treated with the new herbicide: ProcellaCOR. As compared to the previous herbicide, Renovate, ProcellaCOR is highly selective to milfoil, much less is used during the application, and the water use restrictions are significantly reduced.
During and after the treatment, please be aware of the following lake water use restriction recommendations:
• NO USE of Lake St. Catherine waters and water from the outlet stream FOR ANY PURPOSE including boating, fishing, swimming, domestic (household) use or irrigation, the day of treatment on:
Wednesday, July 10, 2019, beginning at 9 am
• Swimming/wading, boating, fishing and domestic (household) use may resume on:
Thursday, July 11, 2019, beginning at 9 am
• USE of water from Lake St. Catherine FOR IRRIGATION PURPOSES including for watering lawns, trees, or other plants may resume on:
Wednesday, July 17, 2019, beginning at 9 am or earlier based on sampling results, please refer to the website below for results
Please refer to www.solitudelakemanagement.com/vermont for additional information and updated water use advisories and recommendations.
Along with the herbicide treatment, 15 areas, totaling up to 65.8 acres have been selected for DASH. DASH is an acronym for Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting. This process involves scuba divers using suction hoses powered by a surface compressor to selectively remove milfoil from the lake bottom. They will be working throughout the season to remove milfoil by the roots in these designated areas.
Here is a map of the treatment areas for ProcellaCOR and DASH:
Treatment Notice:
Are you a member yet? Maintaining the lake costs approximately $125,000 annually. Grants, membership dues and contributions make up the majority of our funding. If you'd like to help, please consider becoming a member or making a donation. The LSCA is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization and any contribution that you make is tax deductible.
Links:
- LSCA Permit Application - Draft Permit - SePRO ProcellaCOR® EC Specimen Label - SePRO ProcellaCOR® EC Safety Data Sheet
If you have any questions about the upcoming milfoil treatment, please email us at info@lakestcatherine.org.
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