January 15, 2007 Meeting

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE TOWN OF BARNES EURASIAN WATER MILFOIL COMMITTEE HELD JANUARY 15, 2007

Present: Stefania Strzalkowska, Ingemar Ekstrom, Mitch McGee, Pam Toshner, Gus Gustafson, Lee Wiesner, John Kudlas, Patti Joswick, Jim Joswick

Absent: Barb Romstad, Dave Pease

Guest: Frank Koshere, water resources biologist and aquatic plant management coordinator with the Wisconsin DNR in Superior

The meeting was called to order at 6:45pm by Chairman Ingemar Ekstrom.

Ingemar asked if there were any additions, deletions, or discussion on the minutes of the last meeting. There were none. Lee made a motion to approve the minutes. Mitch seconded the motion. All were in favor. No one opposed.

Each committee member then briefly introduced himself to Frank Koshere, at the suggestion of Ingemar.

Ingemar then turned the floor over to Patti who briefly discussed the second letter sent to property owners on Tomahawk/Sandbar Lakes. The letter dated December 21, 2006, was directed to those property owners who had responded to the first letter and expressed a desire for further information on containment and in lake management of Eurasian Water Milfoil. The letter highlighted three documents which are posted on the Town of Barnes website, www.barnes-wi.com. Ingemar then gave each committee member a copy of a letter he had received in response to our second letter. The author of the letter has done extensive reading on EWM and gave her view on a possible best solution to the problem as well as the need to regulate use of power boats and personal watercraft until the EWM is controlled. Pam then suggested that in the next letter information should be sent out concerning the AIS Control grant application that Stefania is working on. In posting the above three documents to the town website the Town Webmaster had rearranged the EWM material, putting the committee info at http://www.barnes-wi.com/page.cfm/43 and the educational material at http://www.barnes-wi.com/page.cfm/369. He asked for the input, additions, and suggestions of committee members. Ingemar suggested for our next committee meeting in February that we all look at this on the town website and provide feedback then which would then be referred to the Webmaster.

For the next item on the agenda Pam gave each person a DRAFT copy of the notes from a meeting December 19, 2006, in Madison between the DNR and the Corps of Engineers concerning the EWM situation on Tomahawk/Sandbar Lakes. Pam stressed that since these notes were in the DRAFT stage they were not to be reprinted, copied or made public until the final stage. Since Frank Koshere was present and available to answer questions and address concerns the floor was open to discussion. Briefly some of the ideas discussed were: *range of no treatment vs immediate treatment *what is really affected2 lakes vs whole town, state, surrounding lakes

*2007 summer---plant survey, pre-treatment test of wells

*funding---control, future. Project costs will be a cooperative venture by the US Army Corps of Engineers, Wisconsin DNR, State Grants and some local funding.

*pros & cons of treatment---necessity, types, participation of scuba divers, check for native weevil population (weevils dont have shoreline habitat arrangement for them to be an issue) *Tomahawk would be research lake, Sandbar reference lake only for the duration of study. Then a plan for extensive containment of EWM would take place. This would happen initially on Tomahawk Lake, then later on Sandbar Lake. Treatment will be comprehensive on both lakes..

* test water quality, pre-testing of ground water for wells, establish the gradient *extensive discussion of DRAFT

*dont know enough about EWM statewide

Ingemar brought the discussion to a close, suggesting a meeting with all property owners. The meeting was set for Sunday, May 27, 2 pm at the Town Hall. This is the Memorial Day weekend. At this time a proposal can be formed for the containment of EWM before the August 1 deadline for the submission of the grant application for funds for this project.

On the agenda next was discussion of the AIS Control Grant Application by Stefania. The document itself was discussed as well as clarification of the numbers for expenses. Stefania agreed to edit the document again before the February 1 submission deadline.

Ingemar established the next committee meeting to be Monday, February 19, 6:30pm at the Town Hall.

John moved to adjourn the meeting. Mitch seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 9:15pm

Respectfully submitted, Patti Joswick