Patty opened with the Financial Report. A copy is attached. If you have any questionsplease contact Patty at: aonedoglover@hotmail.com
Communication: The Board acknowledged that there has been a lack of communicationfrom the Board to the Membership. Minutes have not been posted or sent out. Meetings will now be held using Zoom as a tool which would then transcribe the minutes. The Board has addressed items without sharing that information with the membership. We are now having a meeting in January for an open floor discussion. It will be held like the County Council Meetings, email your questions/concerns to the Board and you will have the floor for 5 minutes with the Board then responding to your questions/concerns. Date will be emailed once it is confirmed.
State of the Lake: DHEC inspects the dam and the spillway every two years. They have wanted the back side of the dam cleared off, not just burned off. We bit the bullet at the end of last summer and hired someone to clear the back side. This entailed getting the trees and other debris cleared off so any erosion would be easily seen. The spillway might need maintenance due to the fact that the fabric between the pillows is eroding. On the spillway the weeds need to be sprayed and killed which would avoid roots breaking up the concrete.
Lake Lowering: The lake will stay up this coming winter. As always there were opinions voiced about how low to lower the lake, whether it should be every year or every other year. Some were in favor of leaving it up two years then bring it down. All were correct in their reasonings. Lowering it every year kills the weeds back to the lake bed surface, but does not kill the roots. Lowering helps remove some of the silt and mud from the lake.
But others say that the mud gravitates to the middle of the lake and settles in the deeper area, making the lake shallower. The grand question is how low to lower the lake. As you are aware this spring we were in the middle of a 130 year drought and it took the lake longer to come up. If it wasn’t lowered that much would the lake have come up sooner?
These are questions the Board faces before the lake gets lowered again.
Maintenance of the Lake: Tom Woodson brought up items that will need to be addressed in the next year, i.e. dredging the pond at the end of Lisa Lane and the pond on Bonner Road. They are both filled with silt that would otherwise be in the lake. The silt needs to be removed from the ponds and put somewhere where it won’t wash back into the lake. If
we fix the fabric around the spillway pillows of concrete that would entail concrete pumping into the spillway.
Rough Budget: Tom Woodson presented a rough budget which was emailed out before the meeting. This showed that financially we are really not saving any money for future expenses. The question is should we raise the dues or should we put into effect an assessment for future expenditures. Or both? Presented were two plans for assessment for spillway and dam repairs.
1) An assessment to raise $250,000 over five years would be $322.58 a year per member based on 155 current members.
2) An assessment to raise $500,000 over five years would be $645.16 a year per member based on 155 current members.
PLEASE NOTE: Tom and Patty have determined that there are 129 members currentlypaying dues so the above numbers would need to be adjusted. A member who lives off lake questioned if there can be a tiered system since those who live off lake are limited in their use of the lake.
Fish Committee: The Fish Committee is looking for volunteers. They are looking at ways to help the bedding of fish, putting structures in the lake where fish can hide. They are looking at adding Golden Shiners and Tilapia. Tilapia would breed and feed the bass in the summer, and would slow down and die in the colder water which would let the bass feed off
of them and get ready for winter.
David Simmons and Peggy Brigance were voted back on the board. Tom was voted in as President and David was voted in as Vice President.