Parks and Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

Oh, getting me right up. I'd like to call the parks recreation committee tree advisory board meeting to order and uh start our June 2nd meeting tonight with the pledge of allegiance. Okay, a roll call. Gary Johnson here. Kathy Stee, Mary Heinman, Thomas Byron here. Mike Abbott present. Jennifer Mueller's excused absence and Jay Erenss is not present. We have five for the quorum. We also have in attendance uh Mayor Joe Morath. We have Alderman Ron Harrell. We have Deb Abbott from our planning and zoning commission. And we have Officer Yunuzi who's our parks officer. Welcome. Thanks for your support. Uh you have before you the May 5th meeting minutes. You want to take a look at those if you haven't already. See if you have any comments or changes. If not, I make a motion we approve the meeting uh the minutes as written. Second. All right, we'll take a vote on that. All in favor approving the meeting minutes as written. Raise your right hand say I. I. All oppose. Same thing we approve. Thank you. Public

comments. I have no public comments. Okay. Uh do we want to reorder the agenda? Do we have a special guest tonight? I think going to be in on the come in through a call or uh video, right? For the to start with new business this evening. Yeah. Okay. I'll make the motion. Second. I I So the first item under news business is a presentation by the Missouri Department of Conservation regarding the city's community assistant program lakes, which is our cap lakes. Um on the Zoom call this evening we have John Schulty who is with the Missouri Department of Conservation um that he's here to kind of give a brief presentation regarding the status of our lakes um and address any questions that the committee may have. John? Yes. Hello. How is everyone doing this evening? Fine, thank you. Well, hey. Yeah, very pleased to be joining uh you all virtually. Uh would rather be there in person, but uh sure appreciate y'all having me as a guest. Uh first off, just want to say how much uh I enjoy working with the city of Fenton and our partners here in the region to provide exceptional uh fishing opportunities for our residents. uh and looking forward to just give a little bit of a brief overview of the program uh that we have going on with Fenton uh some of the opportunities ahead and hopefully have an opportunity to answer some questions that folks that uh might

have some questions. So, if it's all right with everyone, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here. Uh I have a presentation to pull up uh to show you all. So bear with me as I work through a little technical shift here. Let's see here. Let's see here. Well, should work. I apologize everybody. Here we go. Clicking on the wrong button there. And I will just confirm with everybody uh once I've got this up that uh they can in fact see uh a presentation on their screen. Can anybody give me a a verbal confirmation? Yeah, we can see it. Okay. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, yes. Once again, uh my name is John Schulty, fisheries management biologist here in the St. Louis region. I've been working with MDC for about seven years in fisheries. have a background uh working in trout culture uh initially and then had the opportunity to come back to St. Louis uh to help manage fisheries here in the region. Uh I've been doing that for about three years now and uh just to give everybody a little brief overview. Uh I typically work out of the either the St. Louis regional office at Bush Conservation Patter Valley Nature Center or we have the St. Louis urban office. So, if folks have questions or just want to stop by and uh learn a little bit more about conservation or fishing, just want to extend that offer as we kind of ease into the presentation. Folks that may not be uh familiar with these lakes, I just wanted to provide a little bit of a brief overview. So, the city of Fenton partners with the Missouri Department of

Conservation to manage uh a number of lakes uh partnership lakes through a contractual agreement known as a community assistance program agreement. And this agreement essentially is a partnership between the two agencies to help manage the lake for exceptional fishing opportunities, especially close to home uh for our local anglers. So, uh, that is most of what we're going to be talking about is is about the lakes that are enrolled in the CAP program. Uh, and the lakes, uh, some of you might be familiar with. We've got a little map showing that, uh, coming up, but, uh, one lake is, uh, Westside Park Lake. Uh, and then we have another two lakes. Uh, and one Upper Fabic Lake and then the other one, uh, Preslar Lake. there uh just kind of tucked up there in the park. And overall uh I would say that the state of the fisheries uh you know is is pretty good in each one of the lakes. Uh there's some adjustment to be made and and that's part of what we're going to talk about. Uh starting with this slide here. Um I know uh there's been some concerns namely about Westside Lake. So, we're going to kind of save that one for last, but just wanted to kind of give a little bit of a brief overview of uh the state of Preslar Lake and also Upper Fabic Lake. So, Prestar Lake um as you may know is probably the most popular lake here in Fenton. And uh we routinely stock uh that lake with not only channel catfish, but also um bluegill and largemouth bass. Uh and overall the the status of the lake seems to be pretty healthy. Uh we had a another successful electro fishing survey there this spring and what we saw on the survey is that the bass

population is robust. Uh we do have large bass in the lake as well as some intermediatesized fish. Uh probably a little bit of an overabundance of bass kind of in that middle size class. Uh but overall the bass uh population's pretty healthy. Uh, as far as the pan fish population goes, it is a little stunted. Uh, that's typically what you see in lakes uh that have uh pretty successful bass populations, and part of that has to do with the predation of the pan fish by the bass. Um, as far as Upper Fabit goes, uh, that is personally my favorite lake here in Fenton. Uh while it probably has the least amount of shoreline access, it has nice clear water. Uh pretty steepsided. Uh but that uh steep-sidedness and clear water clarity actually presents some management challenges when it comes to hosting an abundant uh fishery in the lake. Part of that has to do with habitat and the steepness of the bank. So, uh, Fenton and and, uh, Fenton Parks and and the Missouri Conservation are kind of actively working through some plans to, uh, improve habitat on that lake, as well as Prestlar Lake. Uh, next time you're out at Preslar Lake, you might notice there are a couple of cages there close to the bank, uh, marked with yellow signs. These are test cages of aquatic vegetation that we installed. Uh, and we're going to talk a little bit more about why we install aquatic vegetation later. Um, but as we kind of shift gears towards Westside Lake, which is where we're going to park most of our conversation today, I want to talk a little bit about the uh water quality and and watershed management. Uh, this would apply to any pond or lake. Uh, but in particular, we're talking about uh Westside Lake. Now uh we you generally

aim for a uh 10:1 or a 15:1 watershed ratio which means essentially you have 10 to 15 acres of drainage going into each individual uh acre of water and uh the watershed ratio for all of the lakes is very healthy uh and that's one of the reasons why these lakes are so successful. But I will mention that uh Westside Lake does have what I would consider probably a little bit of a a large watershed for how small the lake is. And this can lead to issues with water clarity, mostly when it comes to the topic of uh clay turbidity. Uh so so when you're at Westside Lake, you may notice that some of the water is not very clear. It's uh maybe almost looks tinged. uh that could potentially be tannins from the leaves that have fallen in there or it could be clay turbidity. Uh so just want to kind of touch on that. Um and here's our map just giving a little bit of an overview of where those lakes are located uh in proximity to uh the municipality. You can see I think it got cut off there, but 141 uh just bordering down at the bottom and then of course 44 just up out of the frame. So, um, and we I think we kind of touched on each one of those. Uh, but as far as the health of, um, Westside Lake, I wanted to talk a little bit about an initiative that Dan Howard and his team in in city parks are working with me to launch there, particularly at Westside Lake, and that is a floating wetland project. Now, you might be asking yourself, what in the heck's a floating wetland? Well, uh essentially it is a artificially constructed platform uh that has plants growing on the uh on the platform with some type of substrate,

typically uh top soil or mixture thereof. And essentially the reason why you want to put these plants on an island in a pond is it can help serve as a bofilter to remove nutrients and other things like that uh that may have washed into the pond. So, one of the reasons why we're looking at installing a floating wetland is that there has been some ongoing algae issues there at Westside Lake, uh, and algae, uh, if you're familiar with that in ponds is typically an indication that there is an excessive level of phosphorus in the pond. Uh, and Westside Lake, uh, I believe has some pretty high phosphorus levels. Uh, and part of that is indicated by the presence of algae. What we have seen is when you install a floating wetland on a pond that is having algae issues, uh there is a reduced need to apply chemical uh or even potentially an elimination of a need to perpetually apply chemical or an algicide. Uh one of the reasons why we want to reduce uh the amount of chemical application or algide application is not only does it cost a lot of money for taxpayers and uh municipal budgets uh but really it's it could be potentially harmful to our fisheries uh potentially harmful to aquatic organisms. uh when you're treating algae, copper uh copper compounds are one of the most common uh compounds to treat algae and that can be potentially very toxic to um aquatic organisms. So, as we kind of shift gears and start to have a little bit of a more ecologically friendly uh approach to managing these types of uh aquatic resources, uh we're hoping to implement more practices like floating wetlands. So, uh, hopefully sometime this summer, you will see a floating wetland on a pond in Fenton near you. Uh, particularly look closely at Westside

Lake. Uh, we're hoping to get one in there. And uh just to kind of close up that topic of the floating wetland and the reason why we're hoping to get a practice like that installed is that uh invariably over time, you know, these basins uh whether it be Preslar or Upper Fabic or Westside Lake capture sediment, they capture nutrients. Um, and I I just want to throw up a little infograph just to give a little bit of an idea of, you know, the potential runoff uh things that can be carried in runoff into our ponds. Uh, and really once something gets into a pond like phosphorus or nitrogen or uh nutrient-rich sediment, it it really doesn't go anywhere unless it's physically removed or extracted through some type of process. So, we're hoping to utilize floating wetlands to accomplish that, particularly at Westside. And uh we'll continue to kind of just talk about uh Westside from the perspective of uh aquatic vegetation and why we install aquatic vegetation on cap lakes. um not just here in Fenton but across the entire state of Missouri is because uh aquatic vegetation is very effective at supporting uh native fish populations and sport fish populations uh particularly uh it serves as a substrate for the food that our fish like to eat. uh also serves as cover. Uh and really the way I like to say it is that, you know, much like we all need a home to retreat to and and retire to at the end of a long day, uh fish need a place to find shelter, uh to find cover and and even rest potentially. Uh, and if you don't have that habitat element, if you don't have that refuge for your fishery, uh, not only will it potentially impact the fish you have, but can potentially impact things like

reproduction and and the success of the fishery in the long term. So, uh, we definitely like to support aquatic vegetation on lakes. Um, and really, uh, we try to hold to a very specific pallet of of planting for our cap lakes. And part of this is because uh certain types of vegetation are more easily managed uh and also render a maximum benefit for the fishery. Uh one example of this would be a spike rush. Uh we we love installing this on our cap lakes. Uh help support those invertebrates we were talking about uh as most of the vegetation selections do. Uh and also help support the soil on the shoreline preventing erosion over time. Picker weed is another shoreline emergent. Uh I really like this one uh because it supports pollinators. Arrowhead's another good one. Valin area. Uh that one we're starting to get into submerged vegetation. Uh and then another popular uh plant that you'll see at Prestar Lake uh and Upper Fabic Lake in fact and Westside Lake is spatterdoc. And uh that is a lily pad that has a yellow flower. Uh once again the reason why we choose all these plants um is because they are easily manageable. Uh that is not only in consideration of the resources that uh we are stewards of uh but also the fact that a lot of times if we are having to manage vegetation in a lake or take some type of management uh make some type of management adjustment uh it is a lot of times uh something that has to be budgeted for and it's typically not something that happens overnight. Uh in the case of Westside Lake, we have identified that there uh is an overabundance of vegetation. Uh some of

that vegetation is vegetation that we had installed, but the majority of it uh is actually uh a species of plant that I want to talk a little bit more about as we shift gears here in the rest of the presentation to talk about plants that we don't necessarily want in ponds. And you can see here uh that you start to run into some pretty big issues when you have too much vegetation in a pond. Uh one unlisted uh issue that you can run into is actually an overabundance of small fish uh that eventually if they all grow up around the same time, the same size will actually starve and stun each other out because there's not enough food available. Uh so but other issues that are even more severe than that is that uh if you have a large amount of vegetation and you treat it uh it can potentially cause a fish kill by removing oxygen from the water as that vegetation decays. So, um I just want to kind of touch on why we try to avoid having uh we try to be very specific on the type of vegetation that's in the ponds, but also the ratio of the vegetation that's in the pond. So, ideally our fishing ponds, whether it would be uh recommendations to a private land owner or in in this case a community lake, we recommend that there be no more than 30 to 40% shoreline coverage uh of aquatic vegetation on a pond. And in the case of Westside, uh I would say total coverage from the lake is probably approaching 80 to 90%. Uh and part of that is because of this plant that you're seeing here on the left. Uh it is called tail and it is a very hardy plant that grows on the bottom of a pond. Uh how it got in the lake, I'm not sure. Uh sometimes people

will have this uh on fishing equipment. uh sometimes not in the case of Westside, but it could find its way uh with a watercraft or something else like that. Um which is why it's so important to drain and dry a boat in between each and every lake that you visit if you have a a boat with you. Uh that being said, uh we are actively working with the city of Fenton to develop uh a management approach to address not only just the uh coonail but the aquatic vegetation in the lake at west side as a whole and just actively to manage habitat on each one of the lakes to optimize uh those ratios to make sure that our fisheries are maximized for our anglers. Now, I just wanted to really uh kind of breeze through uh what I consider to be probably the most concerning plant uh aquatic plant in North America right now. Uh and that is a plant that's called hydrillaa. Um hydrillaa uh is a uh bottom dwelling plant that can actually grow anywhere from two to 20 feet tall. Um, and what you're seeing in those pictures is that this plant essentially will grow from the bottom of the pond all the way up to the top of the pond and choke up uh the entirety of the water column uh even to the point where it can become a navigable uh by boat. Uh so just to give a little bit of a ballpark idea, Texas and Florida each each individually expend about $10 to 20 million annually just to deal with this one plant that you're seeing in front of you on the screen. So uh the Missouri conservation is very serious about uh

avoiding the spread of hydrillaa. Uh if anyone does identify this plant uh in any lake uh Fenton or otherwise, please let me or uh one of my colleagues know as there is a active plan to manage this statewide. It has been detected in uh St. Louis County before uh as well as the southwest region uh down around Teny County, Missouri. Uh excuse me, Green County, Missouri. Um, and you might ask yourself where where does a plant like Kyrilla come from? Well, once again, uh, we don't know for sure. Uh, but we do think potentially it could have got introduced into the US through the aquarium and pet trade. Uh, maybe someone had a goldfish or or nemo that they didn't want to uh flush down the toilet or otherwise. Not that we condone that either. uh and they decided it'd be a good idea to dump fish into a pond or river or lake and potentially we think that's how this plant uh got introduced to the US from Asia. Um, I will say um I I have not seen it since I've been here in the region, but I have helped with efforts statewide and I can tell you that it's a very extensive uh and exhaustive uh process to try to eliminate this plant from a reservoir in a region. So, just want to emphasize that and and and also just kind of preface that by saying uh this is one of the reasons why we do try to protect the vegetation and the fish and things like that that are going into our local lakes. Uh to try to have some kind of bearing on uh the potential source of where that vegetation or where that organism may come from. Uh because even though you may think you're planting a water lily or something else in the in

the lake that looks nice, there could be an aquatic organism of uh or plant that piggybacks on that uh unawares and could potentially cause uh some pretty serious implications for the ecosystems here in Missouri. So just wanted to kind of preface that conversation. Uh I think we talked most about this. Uh I think I forgot about this slide but uh you can see here essentially it's about a six-year minimum treatment process once we have detected and then I think it's an additional 5 to seven years of monitoring uh to ensure that hydrillaa has been eliminated. So just want to kind of emphasize uh the serious nature of uh managing aquatic uh vegetation in these lakes. uh and why we are are so adamant about trying to control the vegetation that's in there. And finally, I want to close out uh talking about this little critter uh which I if you're not familiar with a muskrat, uh they are uh kind of look like a beaver without a a tail, a little bit smaller. Uh I would even go as far to say is they're kind of cute, but uh unfortunately they can be very destructive uh to infrastructure uh along streams, rivers, uh banks of lakes, things like that. Uh unfortunately, these lakes that we manage in partnership here in the region are not immune to muskrat damage. Uh and part of what you'll see with muskrats is uh they essentially burrow into the shoreline and cause uh the shoreline to start to cave in on itself and then that perpetuates uh water erosion uh which which further degrades the shoreline which eventually can shorten the lifespan of the pond. So uh I know I packed a ton of information in there. Frankly, I need to uh get a little drink

of water here, but just want to go ahead and uh go ahead and open up for questions as uh time permits. And uh also just let everybody know that my door is always open. Uh phone lines always on if folks have questions about conservation or just anything fishy in general. uh questions from the board. Yeah, John. Uh that was a great presentation. Thank you. Um sir, this is this is Mike Abbott. Um one question I had was on the um floating island. How long will that take to clean up the algae? That's a very good question. uh you you know I I don't know that we have identified like a definitive timeline uh really this practice although it has been around for a very long time it's fairly new uh as far as a practice that we're implementing statewide the island uh at Westside Lake I think would be one of probably the first 10 that the department have ever installed statewide um and so basically what I've seen depending on the size of the reservoir. Depending on the number of islands and the density of the vegetation, you can potentially see a response andor a desirable outcome as far as a reduction of algae uh within that season within within just a few months. It's really a matter of getting the island launched uh the plants really just established. Once those roots have worked their way down into the water line, uh they can begin to start to draw uh nutrients from the pond. And just to give you an idea, the pilot lake that we

used in southwest region was actually a drainage uh pond below Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery, which receives a fluent from the fish uh pins, which is very nutrient-rich. And that pond frequently suffered from algae issues. And what we saw was within uh within that same season of establishing three islands uh we first saw a reduction of the need to treat and then an elimination uh for the need to treat for algae. Now this is a pond that was each season requiring uh three to five treatments for algae just to keep it fishable for a few fishing events uh as an education lake. So, uh, we've been very pleased with the results, uh, and and hopefully we'll have a little more information, uh, a conclusive information in the future to share as far as like timelines and things like that go. So, is it just the floating island or will there be treatments also? You know, uh, I I think as we shift, I I think there's a little bit of a a balance, a little bit of a shift there. I I I think you kind of ease off the pedal uh with with chemical treatments, especially as we get later into the year. Water temperatures start to climb, oxygen levels start to drop in the pond, the likelihood of a fish kill starts to go up. So really, you want to you want to taper off your chemical treatment as the growing season progresses. Uh, and I I see no reason why if uh we can get one of these islands uh in enrolled uh get the lake enrolled with one of these islands that we could potentially have one launched uh this summer hopefully. So, has MDC been doing chemical treatments on the Westside Pond? Uh we I have personally never applied any chemical to Westside Lake. Uh I have been in the region for about three

years. Um, in fact, I I have not applied any chemicals on lakes in Fenton. Um, although we have purchased, I believe, some herbicide potentially for something that we want to treat at Upper Fabic. Uh, but no, we we have not treated anything chemically. We typically either provide herbicide to the partner or try to help essentially try to purchase herbicide for the partner or just provide technical guidance for a partner if they have herbicide on hand. Don, for clarification, the city of Fenton does treat it based on your recommendations. Exactly. That that would be that would be where we're there's been two treatments within the last month. Yes. Yes. and and and what I have received from and I'm sorry to if if that was confusing at all, but uh yeah, last time I spoke to Dan, it was about an hour before this meeting and he had assured me that they had treated the lake for a second time and had seen a pretty good response from the algae. So, hey John, I got a question. This is Jay Erenss. Uh I was a part of a volunteer program for a lake about the size of Westside where we used the lake rakes uh the large aluminum rakes and we basically raked out the algae that we could basically reach along the edge and uh is that something that would help out a little bit if we got a volunteer group together to rake out the algae along the edge? you know, and and I did not talk too much about potential management approaches for for dealing with aquatic vegetation, but certainly raking can be effective to uh how do I say really try to remove a lot of that biomass and plant matter, organic matter from the lake. When you're dealing with something

like coonetail uh that can spread or respout from fragmentation, basically you're going to still need to marry that to uh some chemical treatment more than likely along with we're also looking to stock some grass carp this summer as well. Um, but that being said, uh, yeah, I I I I think raking is definitely a management practice that could be beneficial for not only the algae, but really that that tail that's that's also pretty heavy in there. Uh, just one of the big reasons we don't typically talk about mechanical removal is that it is very labor intensive. Uh, and frankly, I mean, until you've had a big handful of uh, you know, soupy algae squirting through your fingers, you know, I don't know a lot of folks can appreciate uh, you know, how intense that labor could be. But, uh, all that being said, I've done my fair share of algae raking, uh, and trout farming. So, uh, if you all are going to do something like that, let me know. I would certainly be interested with or without a triangle to try to help out. Yeah, that'd be good to know because then because the second half of that kind of falls into Dan's lap of if we rake it, then it's got to be removed, which then requires resources to get it out of there because it is very heavy. Um, and if you leave it too long, it gets pretty stinky as well. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And and probably you would Yeah. Probably want to work with Dan or somebody to to have those that removed. Uh, I would think composted would probably be ideal. I don't think there's any reason for for something like that to need to go to a landfill. Uh, I have a question. Sorry, this is Robin Hills. You said there's only a handful of these uh floating islands. Is there some place that we could actually see one so we could see what they look like?

Yeah. Uh we've got one in the region uh that is established and that is I I believe it's on Lake 35 at Bush Conservation Area. Now, if you're going to drive out the Bush Conservation, double check with me after the meeting so I make sure I gave you the right lake because I think they're it's either 33 or 35. Uh but those lakes are not under my management. Uh that's Denise Auto. Uh she's my counterpart that works there. Uh so that is the only established island that I know of in the region. Uh we did just launch our first floating wetland uh in the urban space at at Little Creek uh nature area which is in Ferguson Florescent. Um just right there off Dun Road. I'm not sure what accommodations it would take to to get folks down there to check out uh the floating wetland we have there at the education pond, but certainly if I can help facilitate that, folks are interested in going down there, take a peek at that island, uh I would I'd be happy to be a part of that. Uh yeah, thank you. Hi John, this is Heinman. Um, can you give us like I guess my question is the size of the island dependent upon the size of the lake? And then the second part to that is once the island is established, is it meant to stay there and be maintained permanently as a way to help manage um the nutrient loads in the lake? Yes, excellent, excellent question. Yeah, I I mean really these these islands are viewed as being kind of a fixture to to the lakes they're installed on. Um really it is that initial establishment period uh that requires the most cost uh the most attention to detail labor. Uh once the islands are established what we have

seen is that the maintenance is fairly low. Uh in fact uh we've seen where you're you're basically only checking these things once or twice a year just to assess if some of the plants need to be replaced. Uh, and that could be done with something as simple as basically just a couple of people with either a small boat or a kayak that can go out there, uh, remove the island from the anchoring that, uh, it is held to and bring it to the shoreline. As far as the size of the island, uh, that's completely dependent on the size of the reservoir and kind of what we're hoping that desired outcome to be. You know, are we looking for a really quick response? we'll probably need to go with a larger island or more numerous uh islands. Um if we're just kind of dipping our toe in the water and want to see how we react uh or the fishery reacts or residents react to this new practice, um then you know I I would certainly say that's an option as well. Um, but you know, just be aware kind of that the the smaller the island, the less vegetation, really probably the the slower the benefit or the lower the benefit rendered from uh that bofiltration the the roots provide and would would a consideration be um in that watershed runoff if that's because I think over there in Westside Park you have a lot of residential and people are fertilizing and I think you know that's why you have elevated um numbers there because you have runoff. So I guess would that be taken into consideration like the size part of that because of just the watershed area itself? Yeah. And and and uh what I was talking to Dan is is more than likely what we would like to do is is get some preliminary water testing particularly for phosphorus and nitrogen. Uh it's

it's pretty low cost uh to get that information and and uh just kind of a low threshold. And then once we get these islands installed, I think it would be really great to come back one year later and do water testing to say, are we seeing any changes? And then probably that following year or even periodically beyond that. Uh there are programs that are available for water testing. um we can provide water testing resources, but kind of something that I had pitched to Dan, especially as we start to get into the topic of floating wetlands, is view these things as a little bit of an educational resource. Uh you know, when kids are out there fishing or or you know, hopefully we're able to activate these lakes uh in the future more as educational spaces. Uh but I but I would definitely think uh you know you know these these islands aren't just there to render uh a service for removing the algae. They they have a bunch of benefits available to them and and certainly I'm happy to kind of discuss you know those peripheral benefits uh that I think are pretty exciting. John Tom Byron here. Um, just in talking about the educational benefits and everything and I don't know if there this may already be in the works or in planning or anything, but do you guys erect a sign or a billboard or anything letting the people that go there know what's going on with that and the benefits from it? Yeah. So, so we don't have uh standardized signage for the floating wetlands, but what we can do is is essentially develop some customized signage to install there at the lake. And certainly if you all would like to explore that as uh a part of the project that is certainly something that we can kind of take into consideration as as uh one of the funding uh cooperative uh components that's available. Uh so essentially how projects like floating

wetlands and erration are handled on the cap lakes is through the elk cap docket uh which is uh essentially a cost share agreement between us uh the Missouri Department of Conservation and a partner uh to partner to fund a particular project in this instance uh a floating wetland. And essentially what that looks like is it basically breaks in uh down to essentially potentially a 50/50 split on the cost of uh the total cost of of uh purchasing the island, installing the island and and that. So and signage would would certainly be included in that. And for the size lake we have, what might that cost be? Do you have any idea what the range would be? Uh, I mean, I I would expect uh total I I think what me and Dan had talked about and usually I I try to put a ceiling well above what, you know, some contingency in there. Uh, but I I would say anywhere from $5 to $7,000 uh should get what I would consider to be an island uh that would be impactful if that's a single island. Uh if you split that one large island into a couple of smaller islands, that might be a little more aesthetically pleasing, uh that cost could bump up into potentially the $8,000 range. Uh everything said and done. Uh but on like I said, I I kind of provide those ballparks with some generous contingency. Uh and that is the total project cost. So the split between Fenton and the Missouri Conservation would essentially likely break down to be about uh you know three to $4,000 a piece. Okay. Any other questions for John? I have one. Hi. Hi John. This is Nikki. Um

the the question I have is I know your funding year starts on July 1st and I assume that the applications would need to be in before or right around July 1st to try to get in quue for the funding for a floating island. So yeah, and and essentially uh me and Dan started talking about these floating islands about this time last year. Uh really the practice uh the guidelines for implementing these t types of practices were a little bit in the ether when we started having these conversations. Uh thankfully things have become a little more uh a little more clarity as as far as getting these types of projects implemented. Uh, and I have essentially kind of got Finton, I don't want to say pre-approved for this project, but you all are already listed uh, in my list of potential projects for this summer to gain approval for. Uh, as long as that is something you all want to move forward with. Um, and essentially how that works is I'm a member of the community conservation team. Within the community conservation team, we have uh the uh LCAP group and that is a number of community and private lands professionals here that work for conservation in the region who essentially approve these types of projects. So I'm actually on the board that approved these types of projects. And essentially how it works is we just walk through and and kind of list what these projects might look like. uh what that uh contingency you know project with some contingency likely will be uh and then you know starting July 1 that funding will start getting divvied up. So, but as far as like where you all are at in the process of being approved for this project, uh essentially you all are we don't have to I guess the question is

is do we have to submit a formal application and as we do for our other community grants that we apply for or thankfully no no no uh thankfully this is uh this is a it's a cost share project. So really the way we handle that is it's at the discretion of our uh community planners such as myself uh or community foresters like Eban Parker uh you know we handle these uh projects on a case-bycase basis uh partly based on need but also uh you know partner preparedness things like that a number of different considerations. So, you all are essentially preapproved. Uh, like I said, I I I don't want to say you're preapproved, but uh essentially you guys are in the queue. Uh, I think was the language you were using there. So, what what we're waiting on is I I would say uh once Dan and I and and his team kind of have solidified a number and of course approval uh a formal approval from this council or or whatever other required um whatever other required approval may be needed on the end of Fenton. It would have to be a recommendation that obviously the EU would make but it would also ultimately have to go through the port of alderman. The decision would have to go through the board. U did you want to say something? You you sir, would you like to speak, sir? Hey, John Joe Morath. Um, my title is mayor and I because I fielded a lot of questions about the algae the last month or so and even last year. So based and I've kind of changed my attitude a little bit because we recently bought a farm out in Washington, Missouri and it's got a a pond lake um the size of Presler Lake. So is it fair to say that

the algae is not invasive? It is just the the results of what you had mentioned runoff from uh uh fertilizers and so forth. Our pond sits at the top of a hill. So, we don't have any uh there's no cattle. There's no uh the only thing that we have is the bedrock up there or up top and you can see a lot of the rock. So, that would be the only thing. But the algae so that I can report back to those that had inquiries and had questions on it. It can be controlled. It's not necessarily invasive. Is that correct? Yeah. No, I I I would not really that term invasive, you know, it gets tossed around. Typically, we we use invasive uh very broadly, but really what that means is that this is something that essentially shouldn't be there. Uh and and really uh in the case of algae, algae is supposed to be in ponds. In fact, it is a very important part of the pond ecosystem. It's just I think it's important uh uh to emphasize the fact that much like a fish tank, uh these ponds are artificial aquatic ecosystems that really kind of ride a a balance. Uh it's a little bit of a balancing act. And uh when you're talking about urbanized or suburban watersheds that have uh nutrient uh dense runoff uh or in the case of a farm that might have runoff from an equin field or some other type of agricultural operation um you know that those types of issues cause excuse me don't cause algae they cause algae to become an issue I guess is the best way to say it. So uh you know when when phosphorus levels and nutrient levels in a pond are in a healthy normal balance you will not

have an overabundance of algae. The other thing is uh the overabundance of the tail I believe is causing the algae to have even more success. Partly because it's artificially raising the bottom of the pond. Because as that vegetation grows up, it's creating a substrate for that algae to grow on, which the algae grows actually only on the bottom of the pond or where light can penetrate down deep enough where it has a little bit of a substrate to develop and then it kind of once it's colonized, it moves up uh and floats in these dense mats that we see up top. So, um, really, and and I know I'm being a little long-winded as I apologize as I usually am on these answers, but essentially, yes, uh, uh, you know, algae is is actually good for ponds. It's just the overabundance thereof, much like vegetation, really starts to cause some issues. Uh, and and also, I think uh, just I I think just our mindsets. I I grew up in Bowwin, Manchester, St. Louis. Uh, I I typically thought about ponds as being something like what you see at a golf course or something else like that. And frankly, those ponds that look really really nice are not necessarily very good fishing ponds. A lot of times those ponds that are aesthetically pleasing uh are actually the opposite of of being healthy for a fishery. And I think it's just important to to emphasize that we not only manage these parks to be aesthetically nice, but when it comes to the functionality of these ecosystems, my goal as a aquatics manager is to make sure that anglers have a chance to to catch a fish and and have a tight line every once in a while. So, okay. I I appreciate that and it it changes my whole attitude on the the algae. And yes, from our perspective at our pond and here in the city of Fenton and what

some of the residents viewed as as inconvenient and everything, you know, it's aesthetically not pleasing. I get that. Um, but I have to tell you, in the last two weeks, I had some of the regulars that live out there come to fish, and they they didn't think it was a detriment at all. They said, "That's where you're going to catch the fish." And it they were right. They started throwing it in that algae and I'm telling you they caught bigger fish than we ever did. However, um fortunately for us, the owner of this property was a 45 year uh employee of Missouri Conservation Department. Um he actually built the pond and his wife said they initially started with bubblers and fountains and found that really wasn't effective. It kind of pushed that algae out to the side. So they quit that practice long ago. Um we also worked with a conser former conservation agent um who now is away from Missouri conservation has his own pond company and he suggested half the rate of uh uh cut trainine copper as you'd mentioned earlier and we did it at half the rate. I put it in Sunday evening two weeks ago. I went out Wednesday it was completely gone. So, okay. It was pretty quick. Now, I don't know if the situation here is the same as out there, but I've kind of changed my mind on how invasive that that algae is and like you say, it is beneficial, but I have more information now I can get back to some of my residents and it can be controlled. Yes, it can be controlled and please feel free uh you know if you have concerned residents uh by all means uh or or you yourselves have questions or ponds, please reach out to myself or one of my colleagues. Uh I am uh not the uh

private lands fisheries biologist for uh the area out there around Washington. Uh but I would say I believe Buck Bratcher would be a resource. But certainly if you have any questions or or dealing with algae, let me know. I will just preface at at coming back to the use of copper compounds. They are very effective at like temporarily controlling the algae. Uh but in the long run, what we have seen is that algae is a single cellled organism. Uh so if you kill 99.9% of that algae uh and you're successful killing that margin, which you're usually not, what happens is you're left with a very small margin of algae that could potentially become resistant to a copper compound. Uh and what we have seen in fisheries uh here in North America is that actually down in Mississippi and in the south they have a strain of algae that is copper resistant uh that really cannot be chemically treated anymore. So that's one thing that we also try to hedge up against with the chemical treatment. That's why we're really excited about these floating wetlands and some of these other practices that uh can kind of break up uh some of the management practices that that maybe have gotten a little stale. All right. Thanks, John. Any other questions? Last question. Sounds like we'll probably getting back to you in a month here. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be talking to Dan. I do just want to highlight uh I know we kind of talked about a lot of really technical stuff and and really honed in on Westside, but I did want to just emphasize uh that this weekend is free fishing weekend. So, uh, if anybody doesn't have a fishing license or hasn't been fishing in a while, definitely recommend getting your family and friends going fishing this weekend as, uh, you do not need a fishing license for the entirety of this weekend. Uh,

and along with that, I wanted to emphasize the, uh, awesome fishing event that Fenton put down uh, there at Westside Park. Uh, was really I I didn't get to stick around. There was some uh going on up there in North City with the tornado uh with another event that I had. Uh but I was very pleased to to be a part of what you all had down there and hopefully the lake will be in even better shape uh and we'll have even more participants out there for next year's uh fishing event. So really appreciate you all's time and and uh just know uh as I said always happy to discuss this or or other fishy topics uh with my friends and uh fellow fishermen here in the St. Louis region and fisher people fisher women too. Don't forget about the fisher women. Thank you very much. Appreciate this. Very interesting. Yes. Well, well, thank you, Dan, and and thank you, Nikki, and along with the rest of of the group today. Uh, it's been an honor speaking with all of you and and look forward to working more with you all here in the future. Okay, thanks. We'll uh double back then to the earlier agenda items. So just for clarity, do we as as the park board need to make a recommendation to the aldermatic board to pursue floating islands um at Westside Lake? Yes. So, I would like to make a motion to make a re recommendation to the part to the almatic board that we pursue um placing floating islands in Westside Lake as a way to as a management tool to control the algae population. I'll second. All right. All in favor of what

she said is say I. I. All oppose. Same names. Pass. Thank you. Thank you. So that'll go forward to the next alderman. Have that for January or J July, I should say. All right. And so we double back. We're at old business. Is that right? Old business discussion regarding the bid. Have a memo from Nikki on that memo. Kind of said business as usual. We're still waiting on a bid to the finalization. Waiting on the It's It's just to be continued. Yeah. Okay. And the other item was a discussion regarding improvements to Fabric Nature Preserve overlook other me right with the same story. Okay. New business we just had. Uh we move to the tree advisory board items. Old business none. New business none. Correct. All right. Park reports. Budwe. The park looks fine. I only had one thing that I had mentioned to uh Jane about some of the blocks that have like looks like water has washed them down like on the trail going to the pavilion. Um so it's it's just a little hazard thing. That's all. But everything else checked out fine. Everything looks good, the grass and everything. So all right. Thank you, Marramac Greenway. Uh I've had that. It looks pretty good. The boardwalk is getting to s a few signs of some mold and uh probably needs power washing and the weeds and the

growth in the back of it, river side of it have gotten big enough now some of the grape vines and things are crawling up onto the boardwalk. So, we probably want to hit that with some Roundup or whatever is appropriate. Riverside Park, Valiant Park, Jennifer's not here. Any comments on that from anybody? Okay. Uh, West Side, Jay. Yeah, generally the park's in really good shape. Uh, I'd sent some pictures over to Dan about some of the down trees from the storm. Um, most of them are off to the side of the trails around the pond. Um, primarily that's the only major challenge and obviously we covered all about the lake pond today. So, other than that, that's really it. All right, Fabic Nature Preserve, Mike. Overall, Fabick's looks real good. Um, both ponds are nice. Trash cans are being emptied and taken care of. Uh, benches at Presler Lake have erosion around the base, tripping hazard. Um, some of the ground around the ponds, Presler Pond would need over seating, lot of bare dirt. Um, mostly mowed. The mowing looks real good. Uh, there is a path, a grass path down on the east side down from the upper pond that hasn't been mowed, but it's been very, very wet. I kind of waited through it, but hopefully when it's dries up, they'll be able to get in there and that back again. All right. Thank you, Mary. Fenton City Park. Well, if you haven't been by yet, uh, two out of the three signs have been installed and they look great. They look fantastic. Um, for people that were there on Arbor Day and did the

plannings, um, we the the island was mulched. Thanks, Ron. Ron came out, Jen came out and helped us throw mulch down there. And so, that whole island there is mulched. And I know that they've been coming by um, on the regular and watering the new plantings um, over there. And Fen City Park is looks great. It's hopping. It's been busy down there. Um the only thing I will actually have one comment and then a question. Um on the back on the back stretch like that stretch back by the creek there's just a lot of dirt there and I don't know if the city has some mechanism where they could weep or scrape. Um but there's just this overtime with the rain and stuff. There's just it's just a lot of dirt there. And the question I have is that I noticed that the purple martin uh birdhouses are up in the field and it seems like they have purple martin activity and my question is um only because we had purple martins as kids in my yard. Um does anyone ever like bring those down and like clean them out like on a yearly basis? Okay. I'm gonna investigate and see like if there's a a time that if that was a question for me I can tell you um not that I ever recall. Okay. Well, I'm gonna I got to do some research and and and and see if that's like a thing that my dad used to do it. I think I think it was just trying to get rid of the sparrows. I don't know if that's like a maintenance thing. Purple Martin houses. That's all I have. All right. Uh, Heroes Memorial Thomas along with Oldtown. Nothing of real significance to report. Um, really needs attention. I mean, just the ongoing general maintenance, you

know, weeds, things like that, but, uh, no, nothing of drastic concern at either location. All right. Thank you. You got announcements from and updates from the staff. Okay. Sorry. Within your packet, you'll find kind of an update on the different capital plan projects. Mary stated the the biggest most recent would be the um two of the three signs were delivered. Unfortunately, one was uh damaged in transport. Um but it should be installed in about uh 2 to 3 weeks. We are looking into landscaping to go around um each of the signs. Uh the we've been informed that the new bathroom for Fabic is going to be ready for transport probably about the third week in June. However, we are waiting on the permit to be issued by St. Louis County. So, that's going to be the hold up at this time. And then and um and then we are moving forward a contractor and I'll kind of let Robin go through this with what happened last month, but a contractor has been selected for the playground um up at Budwe and the the board did elect to go with Vernon Jones. Okay. Um so um last month we approved to gather more information from the public about the new name for the up there. um the approval to increase the um budget for invasive species was approved to improve it that you had recommended to go to 100,000 and then the ordinances for the forestry services and the um native

species were both um passed and um as Nikki said Burns and Jones was selected at the board meeting to be the contractor and um we're going to move forward with selecting the playground and hopefully Uh it will be once the goes to the board hopefully it'll go through in July and that was when the 8week clock will start. It'll be installed in 8 weeks. Um, it is going to be a little bit smaller than the initial because it turned out that that was going to be a I mean it's going to be more size of Valiant, which is a decent sized playground for Budwe because it was going to be a monster over there. And when you only have 12 or 15 parking spots, a little hard for there to be a massive playground over there. So, it'll be more of a pocket park playground like Valiant or uh Yeah, Valiant. That's all. Oh, do you know where there'll be a swing set? There will be a swing set. Okay. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Oh, in the next food truck June 20th. All right. Looks like far as I can tell, we're done then with the meeting. Need somebody to pose an adjournment. I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. All right. All in favor of journing, raise your right hand and say I. All oppose. None. Next meeting is July 7th. Thank you.