Lake Waubeeka News

We’re going to try again this year…last year, every single open mic night got rained out. Let’s hope we have better luck this year!

Once again we’re going to try and do open mic every Pizza Party Friday evening. Dates for those are (all Fridays) June 25, July 9, July 23, August 6,
and August 20. So mark your calendars, and come out and play, sing, read poetry…whatever you want!

We suggest you sign up in advance so we have an idea who wants to perform and can make any necessary arrangements. You can sign up by email (openmic@waubeeka.net) or by phone 778.6678 (Jamie)…or just come on down and join in!

See you on the beach!

I am personally appalled at the way the board has neglected the lake this year (and in recent previous years), both in terms of budget and action. The harvester sits idle most days, except for what appears to be the occasional joy ride by a “volunteer”. Last night for example, just before it got dark, someone took the harvester out for about 30 minutes, doing what appeared to be “donuts” in front of my dock. This morning thousands of new floaters were pooled up along the western edge of the peninsula.

Only on a few days have I seen anyone operating this expensive piece of equipment for more than a couple hours at a time. When it is operated, thousands of floaters are left behind and no attempt to clean up the floating debris is made…instead they take root and worsen the problem.

Note that I live on the lake and work at home. My office has line-of-site view of the harvester in its parking spot…where it has sat idle for most of the summer. When it is operated, I watch in frustration as it is operated incorrectly, doing more damage than good.

This year lake water SMELLS absolutely awful. The abundance of decaying biomass (weeds and dead fish – earlier this year we experienced a week or two where dozens of small fish washed up along the western edges of the lake) and the proliferation of Blue-Green algae are most likely the causes, but since we are now into August and no testing has yet occurred, I cannot dismiss bacterial contaminates as a potential additional cause.

I have already heard of homeowners considering dumping herbicides into the lake on their own to combat weed and algae growth around their docks, and while I do not know of anyone who actually did this, I would not be surprised if it happens…especially if the board continually fails to act.

The fact alone that no board member has had responsibility for the community’s most valuable asset is a breach of the trust which the membership has placed in our board. If the mismanagement continues, one can safely assume that legal action against the board is also possible, as homeowners seek to protect/recoup the asset value of their homes. Regardless of whether a management company is brought in to work with the lake, the Board MUST assign a chairperson to the Lake Committee, and prioritize Lake Management and its budget above the numerous non-essential activities which routinely receive higher priority.

I have previously (more than a year ago) researched and forwarded information re: the SolarBee product to the board, and no action has been taken. We researched it further this spring and found out that they no longer lease these units and each unit for a lake our sized would be approx. $30,000. Our lake would most likely require 2 (or possibly 3) units to be effective…although we could start with one to determine its effectiveness. I think we still need to do additional research as to their effectiveness in controlling milfoil, however initial indications are positive.

I have attached some additional information for review.
*SolarBee General Info: SolarBee PDF
*SolarBee Website: http://solarbee.com/freshwater.html
*SolarBee Case Study: NY; 7-15ft deep lake with Eurasian Milfoil and Blue Green Algae problem effectively controlled within 2-3 years: http://www.solarbee.com/Installations/ny66.html

Both Sarah and I have repeatedly volunteered to serve on the non-existent Lake Committee for years, but as there has been no chair-person on the board, there has not been a Lake Committee to serve on. If something EFFECTIVE is not done soon, we will soon be faced with significantly fewer and more expensive options…such as dredging. These costs would likely be many times greater than a couple of SolarBees…and would devastate the aqua-system requiring years of follow-up restorative activities at additional cost.

This community has surely WASTED more than $30,000 a year over the past few years, while spending next to nothing each year towards managing and supporting our lake.

It is time for change.

Well, it finally happened. Sooner or later, I knew it had to. Someone actually read my blog!

For the past couple months I’ve been posting, never sure that anyone ever would see what I wrote. But yesterday, a couple of people told me they don’t agree with me! Yay!

It’s fine with me that someone disagrees with me. In fact, if they agreed, they might never have told me they read the blog in the first place.

Hell, I might even learn something from someone who has a different opinion and sees fit to express it. Isn’t that what freedom of speech is all about?

The part that got me a little down was how they perceived what I had to say. They were upset at me because they felt that, based on what I wrote, I didn’t like living here in Lake Waubeeka.

Hmm. That made me think. It also made me go back and re-read everything I’ve written.

It’s true. Some of the things I wrote are heavy with discontent. I have been a bit quick to hand out the blame and criticism, and slow to notice the positives. As I read my past posts, I tried to picture what someone who doesn’t know me might think.

Yeah. It does seem like I am quite the unhappy camper. Oops…my bad.

Let me set the record straight.

All criticism aside, I love this place, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else. We were thrilled to be able to buy a house in Lake Waubeeka, and to this day we have no regrets. In fact, it is because I care so much about this place that I wrote what I did.

Yes, I was critical. Yes, I was concerned. I am concerned still, and I want to do my part to make this place better. I’ve served on the board, and quite honestly I think I can make a bigger difference by writing my thoughts here for all to read.

Writing is an art. No matter how good you become at it, there will still be those who misinterpret what they’ve read. There will also be plenty of folks who disagree with what you have to say…and I look forward to hearing from you.

I’m probably wrong about stuff as much as I am right, and I don’t mind people telling me about it. By signing up, you can post public comments for all to read (It’s 100% free and I promise you won’t get any spam). Or if you prefer, you can email me ( jamie@waubeeka.net ) or come by and talk in person.

One other thing…I am looking for other Waubeekans who would like a place to write their own Lake Waubeeka blog. If you are interested, please let me know and I’ll make sure you get set up. It would be much more fun if I wasn’t the only loudmouth with an opinion here.

Thank you for reading, and please let me know what you think!

I just got mine. A bright yellow LWA Volunteer T-Shirt.

I didn’t expect it. It was just handed to me. A thank you for organizing the Open Mic nights at the beach.

I think it is just great. Not just because I got a free T-shirt. It is a lot more than that (though I am pretty psyched about it). The real reason it’s great is because lots of other people are getting them too. In recognition for stepping up and doing good things for the community.

This is one of the little things that can make a big difference. Saying “Thank you” like that helps encourage people who are already volunteering to do more. It can help inspire others to do the same.

It’s a great idea. How cool a place would this be if EVERYONE earned a T-Shirt?

Tonight we’ll be doing our second Open Mic night at 6PM on the Paul St. beach…weather permitting of course. If we get thunderstorms, we’ll probably have to cancel it. There is no rain date currently scheduled, but keep watching here for updates.

We will also have Open Mic on Thursday August 28th at 6PM.

Everyone is welcome to come down and participate or just enjoy the music.

I remember when we first moved here. We rented a home for the first two years, and even though I was not able to participate in the process, I attended the annual meetings. I was impressed with the professional way in which the business of the community was carried out. It was one of the factors which influenced my decision to buy a house here.

We bought our home in 2000. The annual assessment was then around $1300. This year, including the $100 “special assessment”, the annual fee is a couple hundred dollars shy of DOUBLE what it was just 8 years ago.

Double folks.

I realize that cost of living has risen, but seriously…70% increase over 8 years is just a little bit more than keeping up with inflation. Meanwhile, in the face of these abominable increases, the services we receive have deteriorated. I can only conclude that there is a problem.

In 2000, our security gate had human beings on duty 24/7. The automated gate was supposed to save money. The $100,000 per year we paid for those security guards went away, and the annual assessment increased anyway.

The roads have never been in worse shape. The lake is neglected, to the point that trying to get a single testing for coliform each summer requires an effort. The playground and tennis courts are a disgrace. Many community facilities are simply dreadful eyesores, despite thousands of dollars worth of beautiful flowers and the hard work of our devoted beautification committee.

Meanwhile, the board has taken an active role in causing community discontent. Homeowners who have had walls and fences in front of their homes for 40 years recently received certified letters threatening legal action. The former President of the community tried to make a motion for the board to submit the community records to an audit, and the President refused to allow it.

REFUSED TO ALLOW IT. Wait a minute. Something is very wrong here.

The meeting notice that I received specifically said, “Discussion of such other related matters raised by members at this meeting.” The motion was certainly a related matter, pertaining to questions about the special assessment we were asked to vote on. Yet, the President did not even request a second to the motion, denying due process as prescribed in the bylaws.

This is not the same community I joined 8 years ago. The current leadership has replaced the original spirit of the founders of Waubeeka with a new spirit, steeped in bickering and rules. Forced compliance has replaced volunteerism, and democratic governance has been replaced with totalitarianism.

Totalitarianism? How can it be…we still get to vote, don’t we?

But is it a fair vote if only one side of the issue is allowed to be presented? If we are asked to make a decision, but are not presented with all of the facts, is the vote to be considered fair?

In truth, yes.

In all fairness to those who serve on the board, if we don’t make an effort to become involved and informed, we deserve whatever we get.

At the last budget meeting, not enough people even showed up to call a vote.

Yes, we deserve everything we get. We deserve to keep paying more for less and less. We deserve to see our lake become a weed choked swamp. We deserve to see our property values fall as the quality of life here continues to deteriorate.

But, we can fix this. If we all take an interest in these things, and if we become informed and involved, we can each make a difference. We can bring back the spirit of cooperation that built this place. We can bring back the community that we all thought we were joining when we bought our homes.

We can do it. But we can’t do it without getting involved.

I cannot think of anything else to call it.

By now, unless you are in a cocoon, you have heard about the boy drowning on our beach. I was in my home office yesterday when I got a text message on my phone: “Alright wtf is going on down at the beach” (for those not familiar with text message lingo, this wtf is short for “what the fu..”).

A few phone calls later, we knew. We all knew. The official notice had not been given, but no one survives 45 minutes underwater.

A day later, I’ve had some time to reflect on this terrible thing which happened. Hindsight is 20/20 they say, and so it seems to me that we need to learn from that which we can now see clearly.

We should not try to place blame, because we are all at fault. Instead, we should move forward and look to prevent something like this from EVER happening again.

Here are some of my thoughts. I’m sure many of you have others, and please feel free…no feel obligated…to share them below in the comments, so that we can do better to protect our children and our friends.

Lifeguards. If we had a lifeguard on duty, might this tragedy have been prevented? Perhaps. We will never know for sure, but it couldn’t have hurt. If for no other reason than one more trained person who could have helped in the rescue effort.

As a former board member, I recall the discussion coming up a couple of times. The policy of “Swim at your own Risk” was defended as protection for our community against lawsuits, and the notion of having Lifeguards at the beach dismissed because it would create undue liability and insurance obligations.

What about protecting our kids? Isn’t that more important than preventing a possible legal action against LWA?

Weeds and water clarity. Would the people searching for this child have found him sooner if the lake had less weeds and the water was more clear. Probably, but once again we’ll never truly know.I can say this though. In the 9+ years that we’ve lived here, never has the lake been more weedy and murky. We need to address this immediately, and take whatever steps are necessary to manage this problem. The weeds are a risk for entanglement, and the water clarity is important for safety.

Awareness. We are all guilty of this. Every parent on the beach has probably let their mind and eyes wander from their child in the water at one time or another. We all take care of each other up here, and that can even work against us, lulling us into a false sense of security. Of course, we still need to do that, but we all need to try harder. Even those of us who are already almost perfect.

Truth. Despite the account in the newspaper, stating that no one has ever drowned here before, this is, as I understand it, actually the second or third (although one was a heart attack while swimming). Water has risks. Know them, understand them, and don’t allow yourself to believe in false security. If your child doesn’t know how to swim, put a USCG approved life vest on them…and get them some swimming lessons.

I can hope and pray that this would never happen again. But, more importantly I can act, and do everything I can think of to prevent it. My heart goes out to the family of this child, to whom I am sure this is a devastation beyond words.

No one is at the beach today. Some of the kids say they never want to go to the beach again. That’s understandable.

It is also temporary. Soon enough, the beach will be full of children, playing in the water. Dreaming about their tomorrows. For most of us, this tragedy will fade into the past. Life will go on, and old habits will return.

But now we have an opportunity. A chance to act, while this horrible accident is on all of our minds. A chance to try to bring something good from it.

A chance to ask ourselves: What can we do for our children’s tomorrows?

Yes, the weeds are pretty bad this year. Kudos to our harvesting team for doing their best to keep up.

Rather than rant about the weeds though, let’s talk about some good things that are happening.

A couple of interesting things are going on with regard to the weeds in our lake. First, Candlewood Lake is currently testing the use of Milfoil Weevils as a control method for the growing milfoil problem there.

Bob Evans (the director in charge of the lake) and several other concerned Waubeekans are all watching and waiting for the results. Nobody hold your breath though…this is just beginning, so it may be a few years before anything is known.

Another interesting thing we’ve stumbled upon (thanks to Scott Keller for bringing this to my attention) is a solar powered device which uses agitation and mixing to offset the nutrient production cycle, effectively starving weeds and controlling algae growth. This product, the “Solar Bee” is available to be purchased (and better yet leased), and requires virtually no maintenance or utility cost to operate.

I have informed the Board and we’re all currently looking into this. Hopefully, if the science of it makes sense, they’ll consider adding a budget item for a trial lease of one or more of these. The sooner the better…that’s all I can say.

With all the talk about budget, it is incredible that almost no one noticed that the Board allowed a mere $275 for lake testing. Our most precious shared asset, and it’s health being ignored. Unreal.

In my previous post from yesterday, I objected to the proposed $25,000+ special assessment. Let me be clear that, if it had been for lake testing, studies, weed mitigation efforts, I would gladly (OK, not gladly…but willingly) pay the $100. I cannot however condone more wasteful and unnecessary spending…based on wasteful and careless budgeting. But, I digress…

Here’s some info on the Solar Bee, as well as a link to the News Times article about Candlewood’s efforts with the weevils.

Candlewood Lake:

http://www.newstimes.com/ci_9798604?IADID=Search-www.newstimes.com-www.newstimes.com

More about Weevils:

From Enviroscience (the company working with Candlewood Lake)

Solar Bee:

http://www.solarbee.com/index.html

Case Studies:

http://www.solarbee.com/Installations/ny66.html

http://www.solarbee.com/news/Waterworks1003.pdf

More Info:

http://www.solarbee.com/freshwater.html

http://www.solarbee.com/equipflowpattern.html

Does anyone think it strange that, a few weeks after the community budget was approved, suddenly an extra $25,000+ special assessment is being levied due to poor planning?

I understand that sometimes we estimate incorrectly…I mean, sure, we’re all human. But 5% of a $500,000+ budget? Insurance and paving…Really? Don’t we get bids from our vendors and make them stick to them?

This may be one of those “forest for the trees” deals…but can anyone else see the benefit to reviewing the current budget and finding some ways to trim it? Seriously.

With oil prices poised to make us all scream “Uncle” this winter, I can’t imagine that I am the only one who thinks that the extra $100 will be better left in my checking account.

Last Thursday (July 10) we hosted the first open mic night on the Paul Street beach.

Thanks to everyone who came out to listen and to Bob Masi and everyone else who helped make it possible. We’re hoping to do another one really soon, and maybe even make it a regular event for the summer.

So, keep watching for notices for the next event, and get ready to come out with your instruments and have fun!