Douglas Lakeshore Association
Board Meeting
September 13, 2008
Minutes
Present: Sheldon Wettack, Arlene Philp, Jay Hernly, Pat Woods, John Blair, Joe Milauckas, Wayne Kidder, Vince Beckman, Al Lyon, Mary Kay Baker
Sheldon called the meeting to order at 9:20 a.m. Thanks to Al Lyon for hosting the meeting.
Approval of minutes. The minutes from the June 21, 2008 Board meeting were approved as written. The minutes from the July 26, 2008 Annual meeting have not been published. Wayne will email them to the Board once his computer hard drive is repaired and he can get to the minutes.
Treasurer’s Report. Arlene Philp handed out the report and explained that we have more money in our account than last year at this time with our balance of $5,482.22. It was noted that we purchased new signs were made that came out black and gold instead of blue. We have 20 of these left over. It was also noted that the tent for the Summer Social was about $450 more than last year because it had to be free standing and not a pole tent. The Saugatuck Yacht Club had planted new grass and the tent had to be set up on the cement. The treasurer’s report was unanimously approved.
Old Business
Insurance. Al Lyon reported that in the past the Association had not had Director’s Insurance but they were told by an attorney that it was necessary to have this. This topic can be shelved from further discussion but we need to make sure that the insurance is renewed each year. Mary Kay Baker will contact Arlene for a copy of the insurance and email a summary of the policy to the board members.
Membership. Arlene will bring this topic up as needed. As a realtor she is aware of who is moving into the area and does invite them to join the Association.
Signs. Signs are available and they are at Arlene’s. This topic can be dropped from the agenda.
Website. It was decided that the website needs to be updated with current information. If possible, it is helpful to have copies of the old minutes still available for new or current members to go back and re-read. John Leben has volunteered to be the webmaster for our website. We just need to give him the updated information. Jay Hearnly will be in contact with John. Currently the User Name is: member and the Password is: DLSA618. Please note that these are case sensitive. Jay will look over the website to recommend what needs to be changed and will get back to Sheldon with his suggestions. Once they agree, Jay will let John Leben know.
Collins Development. Still at the Planning Commission who is waiting to get the final approval application filed by the developer. Keep this item on the agenda for now.
121 Street Suit. This is in Ganges Township which is really out of our jurisdiction. Sheldon will talk to their Lake Shore Association to give us a report so we know what is happening with our neighbors to the south. It was suggested we could swap agendas and minutes. Leave this item off the agenda.
West Shore Cottages. No new updates on this project at this time. This project could potentially affect a big part of the lakeshore so it is important to leave this on the agenda.
Swingbridge. The developers have sued Douglas. There was a discussion about if our Association should be involved in this issue for if we do get involved, what other projects would be getting involved with? The issue is not about the specific project, but the way Douglas is handling the zoning and development. Keep on the agenda for now so that we can stay informed.
Rental Houses. Keith Charak letter submitted to Douglas City Council. The issue is that people can rent their houses on their own without going through all the same rules and regulations that B & B’s have to go through. There have been complaints that so many people are renting a house at a time. Also, some houses are now being posted as rentals by the day. Currently there have not been a lot of complaints to the Township about problems with rentals. You need to formally sign a complaint in the Township but people are afraid to sign. They usually have issues with the renters and NOT the owners. In general the less renting of homes on the lakeshore the better it is for the value of the property owners. A lot of the houses are rented through the agencies. Over 400 residences in Douglas and over ½ are being rented. South Haven did a lot about this issue and we could learn how they addressed this issue. Jay was will ask Keith Charak for an update. Al Lyon will head a small subcommittee of Arlene Philp and Mary Kay Baker. They will see what are the current rules and regulations, what is allowable and what isn’t. Al Ellinson is the Township Zoning Administrator to contact.
New Business.
Summer Social. Al passed out a written summary of the 2008 Summer Social. At the next meeting he will show how much it cost compared to the last few socials and the number of people attending each year. Our total costs were around $3800 – 3900.
We raised $1200 from the Auction to give to the SCA. We still have not made the donation at this time. We said the proceeds would go to the SCA. There was discussion about how much of the proceeds from the auction to donate and it was decided unanimously to give the entire proceeds of the auction to the SCA. In the past, even though the Social does not break even, we have always given away all the proceeds from the auction. The silent and live auctions are a great ice breaker for the Social. Pat’s daughter was a terrific auctioneer and was the reason we raised so much money. There was a request to choose groups that specifically deal with lakeshore issues to donate to in the future. The Board will discuss this in advance of next year’s Social.
The Board decided that there might be better attendance if they move the Social back to the last Saturday in June. This way it will not be the week after Fritz’s lakeshore party. Mary Kay Baker will call and try and reserve the Saugatuck Yacht Club for June 27, 2009.
A new Social Committee was formed. Pat Woods, John Blair, Al Lyon and Jay Hernly will all be co-chairs and share the responsibility. It is possible that they will change the platform of this gathering.
Annual Meeting. The Board agreed that we need to move the date of the meeting back to the first or second Saturday in August so as not to conflict with Venetian weekend. We have the Annual Meeting because it is in our By-laws to elect the trustees each year. In order to increase attendance we ought to focus on topics that specifically pertain to our membership and not outside speakers that folks could hear speak at a separate event.
Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance. The report on August 26 Town Hall meeting was that it was well run, informational and had good questions from the audience. The Deems got a standing ovation for resisting Mr. McClendon’s lawsuit. There are lots of issues with the environmental quality and critical dunes issues that might prevent some of the development. David Swan was very positive and about 300 people attended. Mr. McClendon has purchased 770 acres in the area – he owns more land than the city of Saugatuck. Sheldon is our representative to that Board. He may have to ask some of us to attend some of their meetings in his place.
Lake Shore Drive. Joe and Wayne reported on the September 9th public meeting on the Lake Shore Drive repairs. The Township let everyone know what has happened so far and what they have been doing to get funding to fix the culvert. They have 80% of the costs to fix the road so far. Goal is to get the road fixed this year – it is a 90 day process. They can’t put out the bids until they have the grant money in hand. The funding is to be used to replace the culvert that is there but they have asked to put a larger drain in and they got permission to do this.
Looking to the future – residents are still concerned about the safety of the road, getting emergency access, folks are speeding in the area, too much fill is being brought in for some of the new houses that are being built, storm water run off is eroding the bank, and there are some piecemeal drains that have been put in but they are not integrated with the whole system and can lead to holes in the system.
The drain commissioner was not at the meeting. The Township has created a sub-area master plan to pay more attention to this district. Need emergency access to the area – we need to look into all the options on how to accomplish this and pay for it. The next step is to set up a subcommittee – task force – and lots of people in the area want to be involved to start to brainstorm solutions to get emergency access. Originally it was thought to abandon Lake Shore Drive and put in a new road behind the houses. Folks didn’t want this.
This is the action item that SHOULD involve our organization’s time! Reach out to those who are not members and bring them into this issue. Solution options so far: go along interstate right away to feed into the south end, develop a 129th Street extension as a spur to the west to provide emergency access – the focus had been on the south section – because the fire department has been pushing this. There needs to be a focus between Wiley and the washout too. They need to provide emergency access to both deadends on either side of the washout. Cost factors, property owners personal desires such as opening LSD to the whole public, expenses they might have if a new road was built to build new driveways, etc. Funding is a big factor – but two people lost their lives!!! We need to look at long range planning to resolve this issue.
Joe Milauckus said that in terms of funding… LSD is a “county primary road” – this means for it to get repaired and paved – it comes out of the county millage we pay. The rest of the township – local roads repairing has to come from the township. The county will pay for the engineering, the township pays the repairs. 20 years ago the mill was increased to pay for these. We just renewed our 1 mil and the other mil is at .84 so we pay 1.84 mils in road repair. We generate $470,000+ from this mil. We should not be afraid to ask for them to repair our roads and find a solution to the creating an emergency access road!! The township decided many years ago (15 – 20) to pave all the gravel roads in the township. These are not nickel and dime projects. Bottom line: if someone says there is “no money” correct them – the county might be able to help out. Maybe there is emergency funding from the state or federal government. The emergency access road does NOT have to be a public road! Sheldon, as president, will contact the Township about the DLSA Board’s participation on this task force. Joe and Wayne indicated that they would help with this.
Bill Nelson is integral to this process he would like to get funding to do a revetment project like the one that fixed the old washout. Joe said that the costs of this will be astronomical even though it saved Lake Shore Motel’s property. There is a lot of emotion and pre-conceived opinions. We have to have an effort to flush this all out. Bill Nelson sees the revetment as the solution and we need to keep his eyes open to other solutions. Lots of those present do NOT want the road reopened to vehicle traffic.
Lake Shore Drive. Pat mentioned that there are drain issues and water run off issues along Lake Shore Drive in Douglas too. There is standing water on the road and water seeping out of the bank. She has been to see Ryan at the city. They have Williams and Works engineering firm looking at this. In a separate matter, Joe Bredeman is suing the City of the Village of Douglas over the water runoff from the new house being built next to Arlene’s house.
There appears to be one central issue – drainage along Lakeshore Drive. It was decided to wait to see what happens with the Bredeman lawsuit and also to hear how Pat’s issues were addressed. This is another item that the Association should be actively involved in on behalf of our members. One suggestion was made that we ask the Douglas City Manager to come to one of our future meetings to give a report on how the drain issues are currently being handled.
Lake Shore Drive and excessive speed/public safety. Excessive speeding has been a concern of many of the Association members. It was asked if a study should be done to reduce the speed. If the county or city comes out to conduct a study and determines that the average speed is greater than the posted speed, they may actually raise the posted speed! Lake Shore Drive is a county road and they set the speed. We cannot add speed bumps. John Blair reported excess speeding along the S Curve from Lake Shore Drive to Campbell Road and eastward on Campbell Road. An acquaintance had their dog killed there this summer. A police officer claimed there was no speeding along Campbell Road.
John Blair: Last Thursday, Max Rogers and one of his Dept. of Public Works employees put stakes out for "No Parking" signs across from John's house, even though this area between McVey Drive to George Holmes' driveway has been public parking for decades. It was recommended that John speak directly to David Kowal, the City Manager about this issue and not meet with Ryan Kilpatrick as he had planned.
.
Water Levels. Joe reported briefly on the Upper Great Lakes Level Study regarding the proposed dam structures on the St. Clair River They are studying weather the St. Clair River should put in control dams to increase the level in Lake Michigan. We would NOT support any damming – Joe can write a letter to be signed by Sheldon stating the Association’s thoughts.
Dredging. Report on the placement of dredge material from the pier dredging project will be moved to next meeting.
Meeting Schedule. We will meet on a bi-monthly basis unless there is a reason to meet more frequently. The next meeting will be help on Saturday November 1 at Mary Kay Baker’s house, 2959 Lake Shore Drive. Refreshments will begin at 9:00 a.m. and the meeting will begin at 9:20 a.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Kay Baker, Secretary