From the General Manager
Greg Babbitt
General Manager gbabbitt@clpoc.org
CLPOC OFFICE 10690 Pierce Rd. Canadian Lakes, MI 49346 Phone: 231-972-7651 OFFICE HOURS Monday - Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. MEMBER SERVICES Dawn McNeill Kathy Graham Jane Hensley memberservices@clpoc.org
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THE CANADIAN LAKER
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hope my article finds all of you enjoying a great summer and spending lots of time with family and friends in our great community. I am also hopeful you enjoyed some of our traditional Fourth of July holiday activities. Unfortunately, this year they were split over two weekends due to vendor scheduling issues. I trust most of you were able to attend at least one weekend and ideally both weekends. One thing that is important to remember is these holiday events would not be possible without the many volunteers and staff who spend their time and energy making everything so successful. I personally thank each of you for all that you do. COMMUNITY PROJECTS We were able to replace four subdivision signs this year, Royal North, Canadian Lakes East, Trapper Woods, and The Birches. Corporate software/hardware replacement progress continues. There are lots of details involved with this, including verifying data and validating the test software. This project will continue through the summer, and if all goes well certain portions will be implemented after verification. Castle furnaces have been replaced and air conditioning has been added. It is nice to finally have the Castle airconditioned for the events that occur during the hot summer days. Two years’ worth of delayed cart path paving was finally completed. We used a combination of our normal asphalt in some areas, and in other areas we used a new product called Porous Pave. It is a recycled rubber tire product that is supposed to hold up as well or even better than asphalt. After discussion with our engineer, we have decided to postpone any asphalt work this year until next year. The reasoning is asphalt pricing should be lower, meaning we will be able to get more done for our money and we will do two-years’ worth of work. We are still planning to restripe the centerline of certain roads in the same areas that were previously striped.
MAINTENANCE We have several maintenance items that we must accomplish every year, but I wanted to focus on lake maintenance. Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) permit changes have restricted the areas and distance from shore we can chemically treat in order to protect fish habitat. Earlier this year we had a commercial harvester come in with three machines and harvest over four hundred acres of our lakes. The goal of using a commercial harvester this year and less herbicides is to remove the weeds from the lake in order to reduce the biomass (muck) accumulation at the bottom of the lake. By utilizing harvesting, we are making active strides to lower the risk for algae blooms, which can occur following a large plant die-off after an herbicide treatment. Harvesting nuisance native plant growth is a much better approach than chemically treating for the overall health of the lakes. However, harvesting does take more time to get around to all the areas. This is a one-year experiment to evaluate and determine if this approach is appropriate. We have continued to utilize the Truxor, and it has been very busy cutting and removing weeds from various lakes and ponds. This machine remains a great tool to have at our disposal. Using the commercial harvester freed up the Truxor to concentrate on the smaller lakes and the areas where the commercial harvester cannot go. The Lake Manager and staff are doing their best to maintain the lakes while exploring alternatives for a healthy aquatic balance. Please keep in mind it will never be our intent to eradicate all weeds as we want to maintain a good ecological balance for our lakes. We want to keep the navigational/boating areas maintained while leaving other areas for good fish habitat. ADMINISTRATION My staff continues to verify compliance with Deed Restrictions and the Rulebook. This has become an area of more focus the past few years.
