Planning Commission - Special Meeting

There you go.

We're going to get going. I'm going to call the order here.

You need to call the roll. Call the roll. Josh. I'm here.

Kim. I'm here. I have Joe Bush. Where are my notes? I just made that real again. OK. We have a quorum.

Sorry, guys, this is the most informal lake board ever, but welcome.

Additions and corrections to the agenda back in December. Is there anything back in there? I don't think there's anything. It was a real short and brief one.

I don't have any. Well, yeah, I gotta keep them there. Minutes. Oh, skip the agenda, sir.

Well, I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. Okay, we can approve the agenda.

Anybody wanna second me? Kim, you're about it. All right, any changes to that thing?

And then the draft minutes for December.

I can make a motion to approve those as well.

Motion by Josh and seconded by Kim.

I guess we should vote on both of those together. How does that sound to you?

Good.

You can call it if you want.

Agenda? Yeah. Calling all that, I don't know.

Oh, all at once? That's kind of what we're just doing right now. But you do have to call the roll, Mr. Chair, or just say all in favor.

All in favor? Aye. Okay.

There aren't anybody here to be opposed, so way to go.

Brings us to the Treasurer's Report, and Joe Bush is not here. Brings us to the election of the riparian representative. We received three.

Applications? Advertisements for the riparian rep were sent out. We had three interested candidates who submitted their information. That information was passed along to the board members via email. And if any of them are here today, why they're interested as well. Otherwise, the board can...

Don't all rush to the mic at once, but come on up and introduce yourselves.

And thank you for your applications.

Yeah. So I'm retiring on Friday.

All right. Hey, congratulations.

49 years in the distribution industry.

Wow.

And, you know, people ask you, you know, what are you going to do? But one thing I'd like to do.

Great.

Appreciate your time. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thanks.

Art, Nino, don't all jump at once.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hi.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I have a couple of follow-up questions to the other two. Is it Nino and Jeff? Okay, Nino, you said you have served on a board before Jeff. Have you? Anyone have tech experience? Great.

This right-firing position also includes the secretariat part of the job, which means taking notes, meeting minutes at every meeting, and then translating those for the next meeting forward so we can approve those minutes.

The current secretary is losing his job.

Former quasi-secretary. Yeah.

Josh is moving on with his other responsibilities, so we need someone else to fill his shoes. We had one member who we lost this last winter, unfortunately, so we're filling that position.

I believe the secretary also needs to be the keeper of all of the records and sort of the historian.

I have a very large three-ring binder that I think you passed on to me or Roger Bergman did when I landed in this seat, so yeah. For those in the audience, the Lloyds Bayou Lake Board has one local commissioner by statute, the Ottawa County Commissioner in whose district Lloyds Bayou resides, and that's why I'm here in this role. My other Day jobs is I'm currently the chair of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners. And so that has added quite a bit of workload. And so the secretarial position, I just said, I can only handle so much. So yeah, there you go, Kim. Well, we have three of us here.

I do have one question though. I'm the township rep. No one here is from the township, correct? I mean, you are. I live in the district. You do. So you're not on the Bayou, you're- On the Bayou and the Township. Okay, I'm sorry. You're not on the Village side, you're on the Township.

Okay. Doubledly qualified, so to speak. Well, I believe the way these work with three of us here, all three of us, because we are a five-member board, THREE OF US WOULD HAVE TO UNANIMOUSLY OR AGREE ON THE SAME PERSON. OTHERWISE WE CAN'T DO A SIMPLE MAJORITY OF THREE. IT'S A MAJORITY OF THE WHOLE BOARD. IS THAT RIGHT? OR IS THIS LAKE BOARD DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHER ONES I'VE BEEN ON?

YEAH, IT'S THE MAJORITY OF THE BOARD. IF YOU HAD FOUR PEOPLE HERE, IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE THREE OUT OF THE FOUR. IF IT'S ONLY THREE, IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE UNANIMOUS. I, you know, before the meeting started, there was the question on whether or not there can be more than one riparian rep. I don't know the exact answer to that. I do know some boards have more than just the standard five. I think the statute just makes that the minimum of what you need. However, I can't, since I can't confirm you can't have more, I think. elect a member now, and then if other candidates are still interested and that is an option and the board wants to have more members, they can potentially. I just don't know off the top of my head. I'd have to maybe talk to Kyle a little bit.

More the merrier. Most times. Those are all paddling in the same direction. Ah, ah, ah, lake board. Well, can I, I'm just gonna throw this out there given that, you know, I appreciate the, all of the applicants coming forward and the added value that each member could bring. is definitely there. So I would be interested in expanding the board if that's something that everybody else is. I think for me for today, based on the fact that his attendance at these meetings is probably better than my attendance at these meetings, I'd like to nominate Art to fill that position at this time. And if anybody would want to, I guess we'd have to have a second, and then we could vote on that if you wanted to. Or if nobody seconds it, then that motion dies. I've been doing this a little bit. So, yeah. Would anyone care to second my motion?

I can second that.

All right. All right. I better take notes here. Maybe for the last time. or we could have discussion on it.

Well, I'd like to nominate Jeff actually. Oh, there you go. We have a need for our website help with just posting minutes and things like that. It's very minimal on what to do and it seems like you have the background to do that. I'm not sure, Art, if you have background for that. Right. But we do need some help in that regard. So it seems like you have the background for that. So I'm going to hand it over to Jeff for that.

Awesome. So we'd have to have a second in order to vote on Jeff. Kim, would you care to second?

I will second that.

Okay.

Although I'd like to just ask, knowing now more fully what these rules require, we're looking for a secretarial position and a tech person. Are you still both interested in applying at this point?

Nina's like, no problem, but nobody nominated me, so...

Yeah, absolutely, yep. No, that's fair. Okay. That's all I have.

You would call the vote for, so we'd have a vote on each one individually. Sequentially, because Art was nominated first, we'd vote on Art first. Okay. So you just say, all in favor of Art, say aye. Okay. And then if you don't, then it's just two of us, so it's not a majority.

Right.

And then we could go to Jim.

Okay. All in favor of Art?

Aye. I intended to vote for Art, but I, because I know his history and his commitment to the board. I have interest in the other candidates as well, and I'm interested in the potential of bringing that forward at another time. But I will go with Art today.

Okay. And interested in Jeff? Okay.

Okay, so Arts would fail because it only got two votes. Sorry, Art. Now we can vote on Jeff, so you can call that. So all in favor of Jeff, say aye.

All in favor of Jeff, aye. Aye.

You can vote for Jeff if you want to.

Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know.

And also say no. And then what we would do is we'd wait to vote again until the next meeting when we have Joe Bush here. It's a majority.

We're changing your vote. Yeah.

Art's a good guy. I think Jeff. No. Well, if somebody doesn't get enough votes in the first round, then you can vote for somebody else in the second round.

I am fine with completing this action today and voting for Jeff, although, as I said, I am interested in other people being a part of the board. And maybe we can look into that if Jared, I'm sorry. Yeah. You can maybe look into the statute or what needs to be done.

Yeah. Art and Nina, are you comfortable with also serving on the board if that's an option?

All right. Great. Well, Jeff, you're now a member of the board. Get up here.

We didn't say effective immediately. Congratulations.

Well, yeah, you can wait till the next meeting, I suppose, if you want.

And Art, I hope you keep coming. Nino, great idea on the light flashing thing. I'm going to think about that as far as boats go. And thank you for coming. And definitely, guys, continue to come. And Art, we know you'll be here and really appreciate you for that.

ALL RIGHT. BACK TO YOU, SIR. NO PROBLEM. THAT BRINGS US TO THE SURVEY UPDATE TREATMENT PLANS FROM PROGRESSIVE. I'LL LET YOU TAKE THIS OVER.

YEAH. I had provided a document that outlines the kind of project work journal to the board here, basically showing what's been done up to date cost. The plant control program starts with, as of this year through 2028, starts with an annual budget of $25,000. There has been so far two treatments up to date conducted on May 14th and another one on June 16th. The first treatment was a large treatment targeting your early season invasives, coral leaf pondweed, Eurasian watermilfoil. Your second treatment was kind of a touch-up area of Eurasian watermilfoil over by the kayak launch and canal there, as well as the other, the east side canal by the access site there. Those treatments basically totaled $10,895, leaving a remaining balance in this year's budget of $14,105. That should be more than enough to cover another additional algae treatments and the harvesting that's anticipated for this time. It also included two maps that outline what was performed so far up to date and the type of aquatic herbicide products utilized. The June 16th treatment was supposed to come with an LG treatment. I believe PLM is still waiting on an amendment prior to July 1. Based on what we have received, I don't appear they have conducted that work yet. Yeah, so that was for the canal treatment. There was an additional full lake LG treatment that was supposed to be scheduled. So any members who are, I don't know, Art, if you've received a sign recently. In the past like couple like two week or two Okay, so then they would have conducted that LG treatment I By the lake today, it looks like that North kayak launch area still has quite a bit at We're also expecting some rain this week hoping that I'll kind of flush some of that out and Harvesting, so for a little background, we had to apply for a USACE section 10 waters permits to harvest Lloyd's bio because it's connected to the Grand River, so it is federal waters. With that permit process, PLM, Lake and Land Management, who's the awarded contractor for the harvesting, applied for that permit. They are still in the review phase with EGLE. USACE has kind of given their input, and I think they're okay with everything. EGLE is still a little bit of a holdup as far as that. So odd, so for residents background, Spring Lake went through the same permitting process this year. Eagle gave them a no permit required. So letter, but Lloyd's Bayou is for some reason is. They're basically right next door to each other and they're the very similar scope as far as what's going to be harvested. They're both connected to the river. I still anticipate a permit being granted this year. However, we anticipated a mid-July harvest. Based on the delay from that review, I would suspect that harvesting probably won't be until later in July, if not early August. Coast Guard Festival being a very touristy time of year, if it gets close to that time, we will postpone the harvest until after. prior to, we don't want. Harvesters are large and they're slow and they can kind of.

Is there anyone at EGLE that you can call and say, what's up?

So I, yeah, we've been in talks with them. The concern comes with like their wetlands unit. They're concerned about potential wetland impacts, which we're not harvesting wetlands. It's the exact same division, the exact same office, just the perimeter is a different person. Different perimeter. Apparently, the person who permitted or reviewed Spring Lake's materials, I guess, difference of opinion than the person who's reviewing Lloyd's. So they're meeting with EGLE, I believe, next week sometime, I think. Just this and to kind of sort out reasonings why a permit might be required through EGLE.

When you say they, who do you mean?

PLM.

PLM, okay.

They have been copying me on the correspondence, and I've been providing assistance where I can, but ultimately PLM is going to be the permit holder, so they're the ones.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, so mechanical plant harvesting is basically the cutting and removal of submerged vegetation using a... Specialized piece of equipment called a harvester. It's like a large barge that has about a seven to eight foot cutting head that goes into the water, cuts the plants, and it collects it onto a conveyor system that then they offer. Not for like cattails or... Covering everything that has standing water, essentially. Harvester can navigate about... The target areas really are the shoreline, developed shoreline areas in front of people's docks and navigable areas, the navigational lane out to the river, as well as the East Canal and the North Kayak Canal.

Okay, they did. Ma'am, were you the one who sent the email?

That little cove area off the edge there. I can confirm it was marked on the map for treatment for May. It was not marked.

Oh. I got an email from someone. Are you guys in the, I'm seeing a little node of the lake or is that another dot? 73? Correct.

Have you all lived there a long time? Almost 10 years.

About 70 years old.

We used to try to canoe back in there, and oftentimes it's so full. Historically, we call it the Amazon River Cruise because there's, like, slashing bush to get through there. You know, it just gets really full. So I think it's historically been a problem, but it's been better over the years at certain times too. But you would know better.

Talk with the applicator and see if they have any notes of...

Yeah, Jared, definitely if we've got one individual assault, get all the way back in on one approach and another that did not. I'd like to make sure they're actually...

I think the main canal is fine. It's that little cove area between 71, 72, and 73. There's a little cove.

Okay, to the north.

And then that north section, maybe even 73 to 74, it is shallow there. And when they're coming out of the canal, I guess... I'll confirm with them. They typically document well whether or not we stopped or couldn't get to an area. They're supposed to let me know so we can adjust the invoice.

Yeah.

Too shallow. We weren't able to get in that area. We couldn't treat it. Well, we're not going to pay you for that.

Well, yeah, and get a boat that you can get in there with because.

Right, and typically at that point they use backpacks. I just spoke about my name.

Yeah. I'm 15.

I wondered about that because you both said 69.

You're Christine Boovey. Well, that's completely different. You sent me the email, which I forwarded on to you guys.

Okay, I did receive that email, and I did reach out to them and told them to get in there if they had to use a backpack sprayer. Basically, when they use a backpack sprayer, if they can't get to your area by foot without permission, they'll essentially just go to your property dock on your door and say, hey, can I walk? I will confirm both.

Here it sounds like you have two assignments, right near 73 on that north shore, where it's shallow and up there on 15. Although it was a tag team effort for a moment there. You guys divided at the end. It's all right.

The other thing I had, I think that was quickly website. So the board is aware, I don't know about the residents, the website domain was being run by the late Mr. Fritz, who was the previous riparian representative. He kind of set up the website as a kind of a new revamp of the Lloyd's Bayou Lake Improvement Board and how we communicate to the residents because in previous years, essentially the village and township had their own kind of sub tab websites that would, they tried their best to keep communications up. wasn't great, wasn't working out, so this website was created. In his passing, we had some issues trying to access that website ourselves, but as of, I think, a couple weeks ago, Brad was able to get a hold of the Fritz family. I was able to obtain a login and log into the website, so I was at least able to update the meeting date. and the vacancy, I think a few other things. I'm still working through how best to replace some of that material and add material to it. I think I added the treatment map that was most up to date. So with that, there still is the ongoing issue of because he owns the domain still in his name, so it's his phone number, email associated with it, we already have the login. I was able to assign myself as an administrator so I can still go in and edit the website whenever I want. However, down the road, Progressive is no longer consulting with the board or anything like that. The domain really should be switched over to a generalized email and contact information that can always be accessed, even with board turnover, consultant turnover, however that might be. With that is another conversation with the Fritz family because in order to do that, you basically need to confirm your identity and you need to have a code sent to the original phone number or email. And they only last for like, I think, 10 minutes. So there's a couple options. One is to contact the Fritz family and see if they're willing to set up a meeting with the board to basically conduct that work to get that transition in place. I know it's probably not. otherwise there may be a way to basically just cancel and start a whole new website again which website so then we are you're changing again if that was the case what I would do is I would basically clear everything on the website put the new website domain once we had up or running on the old domain saying here's our new website go here and then that would expire at the end of the Currently we are paying the domain fees progressive. We're just covering the cost.

We're not Just to get the board by How we want to do that those you're wondering though if we if we released the domain and it's through GoDaddy and then we then immediately purchased the domain and kept the same name and

You could do that, it's just your website would be down for however long until you get your new website up and running. My coworker at my office handles all of our website startups for our boards, so he would know exactly how much time and effort that would take if we were to do something like that for the board or whoever, if the riparian rep wants to spearhead that. We have a Jeff now.

Yeah. GoDaddy has, I mean, we could probably talk to their tech people and find out if they can do that. I mean, they must have this kind of situation. You can.

You can basically shut down the website and then that domain technically becomes available, that name becomes available for anyone to use. It's just a matter of, I think you have to shut it down first. And I don't think you can start creating your new website because you have to establish a domain first. And I don't think you can start doing that until the other one is shut down. So there will be a period of time. I personally recommend that since I am able to take over as administrator, I can at least upload the information this summer for treatments and stuff. Come wintertime, maybe when people aren't using the website as much, that transition can be made. Or like I said, we could reach out to the Fritz family to try to get that transition. And moving forward when a new website, if a new website is developed, I recommend just a generalized Gmail account be created or some sort of email account or have like the Drain Office create, use their email and phone number because they'll always serve on the board. Kind of the one person that would always, like the Drain Office or the Water Resources Commissioner, their office will always be a member of the board so they should always have access to that information. Kind of just an update. Like I said, for now, I will do my best to keep the website active. I'm still learning. We use Wix instead of GoDaddy, so Wix is a little bit different. Software GoDaddy. So I did notice that like we had a bunch of contact submissions from people on the contact us. I just saw that the other day. I tried to respond to a few people. Some of them were just robots and then other ones I couldn't really respond to. So I'm trying to keep up with that this summer at least, but I will be uploading the treatment maps as they become scheduled and update the meeting dates so people at least know when the next meeting is and they'll know when the upcoming treatment, or they'll have the map for the treatment. For this summer, and like I said, once the summer dies down, we get into the winter months when the lake is less active, we can...

Yeah, that's a good suggestion. I don't think Kathy Fritz is going to keep his cell phone on forever, and I think you should approach it as a new website startup.

Or maybe, Jeff, if you have any thoughts on this, you could bring them to the next meeting. I don't know if you have experience with GoDaddy, but it just seems like they could do this.

Yeah, I could definitely look into it. I can dive into it more, and I will. I just was able to get access not too long ago. But there's definitely options to keep the domain, just outlining what I think are the options. As long as the board is okay with me being the administrator, I will continue to do that. Ritz did a really good job with that. quality to start, but I'll try my best to keep at least the bare minimum of information updated on that website.

Great, that's appreciated.

And I just want to put out my position is I'd rather we keep the domain. I don't want to lose that forward momentum and if we can, but so maybe that's something we can

Any more on the survey update treatment plan?

No, my next survey is scheduled for July 7th. Okay. We're all reassessed conditions. You know, if anything pops up before then, let me know. That survey will just be, you know. Tells you concerns, any invasive aquatic submersed variety plants, and as well as preparing for harvesting.

All right, next agenda item is the FOIA procedures and guidelines. Yeah, I can help out with that one if you want.

We had a FOIA request, so Freedom of Information Act request from, I think it was a resident, doesn't matter who it was, and it pointed out that we don't actually have as a board an official FOIA process that we have adopted ever. So what this is is going to be a motion to adopt this procedure, and then maybe, Jared, you can put this on the website or something so that people know what they need to do when they have a FOIA request. It is already. Oh, well, we should probably adopt it then, huh? Well, I would like to, I've got a draft motion here. I'll just read this off and then we can vote on it. I'd like to make a motion to confirm approval of the FOIA coordinator's administrative adoption of the board's FOIA written procedures and guidelines and written public policy summary of the same. That is my motion. Would anyone care to second that?

I'll second that.

Josh and Brad. And, sir, you can ask us all in favor if you want. All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

All right. Motion carries. Well, good. Our website's now up to date. Oh, our website's already up to date. Jared, relax.

Good work, man. Okay, now open up to public comment. Anybody want to come on up?

Come on up. Actually, come on up because we got the microphone on. It's official. Nobody's going to hear you at home. And so that I can write it down, what is your name?

Oh, I know. Christine. Christine. That's the culvert you're talking about on the bike path over there? Okay. Right. Gotcha. Yeah.

Very aware of it. happen to know? You said you've had contact with these people and asked them?

Hey, turn the light off.

I've gone on my dock and said, hey, you know, it is really disruptive. It's almost like third counter space invading and coming down third counter.

Are they supposed to be pointed at the water? Are they spearfishing or are they, I don't even...

And the machine, the boat is so loud. And they do, do you know, have you, you see them drop in?

Yeah.

So that type of boat is for spearfishing for carp. It is a big issue across the state. I don't know the legality of whether or not those lights... hours of operation or anything. So that would probably be something to reach out to the... The only thing I can kind of gauge is public disturbance of some form.

When was the last time that they did that? I think we addressed this several years ago, or at least I brought it up, and I don't think there was much that we could do or did.

Can you contact the sheriff's department who has... authority, I guess, over the bio. Of course, they don't come down there very often.

You probably have to call simultaneously.

There is a noise ordinance that's in effect for the side of the bio, which is 1030, I believe. Generators, the ordinance, you can call, but to get somebody down there again is hard. Here.

Yeah.

Jared, I'm wondering if two things that Mr. Suave, well, I guess two. There is some, there are some things that we can, individuals can pull out, is that correct? As long as they don't do it mechanically?

Yeah, so you can rake, cut, pull, shovel without any sort of permit required. Anytime you get into that is operated, not by hand or from a hand device then bead rollers that attach to people's docks that have a motor that slowly roll on the bottom uprooting the plants or creating it so plants can't grow buck blasters that blow along the bottom bubblers or if you were to hire someone with like a backhoe plants and sediment those all require a permit but there you can everyone's free to go in and There's a website called Weeders Digest that sells all these types of tools that people utilize and they have reviews on them. I found that a thatching rake is really just the best to grab onto the plants to uproot them, but some people like the ones that have a barrel that you can actually push. Those are free to...

Thank you. The second one on the lights, and I understand Kim, you guys have brought this up before, and I suspect on the waterways, is it a state of Michigan? It's not a local ordinance? I mean, in the city of Grand Haven, 10, 15 years ago, we passed an ordinance regarding lighting and At the time, we had a lighting ordinance that provided that if you were a commercial building and you were shining on it and you abutted a residential property, there were only so many, I learned about this, foot candles of light that could spill over onto the adjacent property at the property line. we then once LED light bulbs started to come out and people could go nuts with LED light bulbs in their house lights, we passed an ordinance basically saying very similar to what the commercial was, but it was from residents to residents. Is there something where I understand that on the water, that light is, you know, everybody perhaps can do that, but once it starts to hit private property, just like noise, Is there something that we can?

Yeah, so there would be a township village ordinance, maybe a county level thing, but yeah.

The county wouldn't do it, I know that. It'd be a local ordinance.

It'd be local. So the state basically kind of controls the water and the fishing activity itself, whether they can even fish there, that's up to the state. But yeah, lights that shine into people's properties causing a disturbance would have to be something that the local township or village that you could advocate for to have some sort of ordinance in place that restricts light usage such as that or however you phrase it. I don't know how that works for lighting. something along those lines or like between these hours you can't you have a disturbance so people you know those fishermen still in theory could go to the undeveloped sections like the wetland areas or often the river where there aren't any private properties and shine their lights and do however they want

Or they can shine it out away from the shoreline, such that there's some distance to the other ones before it hits. Anyway, that might be something worth looking into. Is it Spring Lake Township where you are? Okay, I don't know if it's a village. So Spring Lake Township. Is it both?

They do the perimeter, and they just scour the perimeter with their lights.

I'll ask Gordon.

But, I mean, if there was an ordinance already, you just need to call the Sheriff's Department. Then we need enforcement. That's the Sheriff's Department. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, I'm sure.

Absolutely.

Oh, you can't just do blackout blinds? What do you mean, man?

Between the noise and the lights, it's amazing. If you can do it within the time, Catches you got to catch them red-handed, but I mean if they're out there could be done a while Call it as soon as you hear the noise and then maybe they'll respond go hang out at the dock and just wait for him to get in Okay, any more public comment Board comments Nothing for me, sir

And we'll set our next meeting date.

Did we meet last year? Joe's out of town. Sorry. Well, he's on a cruise. He said, you can join me if you want to.

Jerk.

Sorry. Let's see here. We'll tell him.

And Jeff?

Do I need it? Yep. What date are you saying?

Not sure yet. Okay. But usually it's once a month. We usually meet four months.

Yeah, I have down May 19th, July 21. Oh, no, these are my calendars off.

July 20th would be a Monday.

Historically, the board has met again in either late July, early August.

Yeah.

And their final meeting is usually in fall, sometime in October, November.

That's, yeah, I was just thinking early August, if that's... Yeah, that would be closer to when the harvesting is either...

active or we'd love a report or a hey it's getting done tomorrow kind of thing okay so i'm going to august on mine let's totally shoot for uh monday august 10th does that work 4 p.m you guy you good with that i think

Hey, dude, you just got appointed, man. You got Art sitting over there just waiting. Nino's ready to rock. I'm just joking with you. We have lives.

Rock, paper, scissors or something. Something low-tech.

Right. 4 p.m.

Okay.

Good. Right. You get to adjourn us if you want to. We're going to be adjourned.

Yay.

Thank you, everybody, for coming. I appreciate it. Good to see a good crowd here.

Yeah, thank you.

August 11, right? August 10.

10. 10, 10.

You know, you're welcome, man. Yeah, you too.

Yeah, thank you all for your applications and interest.

Oh, I'm in 2025. That's why. That's what's going on. Oh, I do have a question. Okay, I got it. You good?

Yep. All right.

All righty. Is there something about you're looking to not be?

I would love to not be chair.

Oh, really? I thought you wanted to.