May Association Meeting this Thursday!

Hey everyone!

This Thursday (5/1/08) is our next montly Lake Association meeting. Bob and Louise Kolstad are hosting. The meeting runs from 7 to 8:30, and their address is 1731 Hansack Ave.

Call the hotline for more details!

Here's an e-mail that Brian wanted posted!

April 25, 2008
Dear Lakeshore Property Owner:

We write with good news! On Tuesday, April 22, Minnesotans for Healthy Lakes scored a big victory on behalf of lakeshore property owners when the Environment and Natural Resources Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives held a hearing on our legislation (HF 4157).
MHL was granted nearly two hours of testimony and discussion time by the committee chair, Representative Kent Eken, which is almost unheard of for a legislative hearing. Typically, legislative hearings last 15-30 minutes per bill. The length of the hearing is an indication of the concern legislators have with the Department of Natural Resources management of the Aquatic Plant Management (APM) program; the DNR has regularly opposed lakeshore property owners' fight against invasive aquatic weeds. Since the House Environment committee did not hear our bill last year, this was the first time that many legislators had heard from MHL – as well from the DNR – in a committee hearing on our bill. This was an essential step in passing our bill.
Also, many thanks to Board Co-Chair Bill Goins (Schmidt Lake) and to MHL members Roger Williams (Lake Johanna), John Enstrom (Veterans Lake), Bill Pool (Whitefish chain of lakes), for their wonderful testimony. They did a great job challenging the DNR's claims and answering legislators' questions, which you can listen to by clicking on this audio link: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/audio/archivescomm.asp?comm=9000&ls_year=85.
How You Can Help in the Fight for Lakeshore Property Owners
Here are some things you can do today in the fight for the rights of lakeshore property owners.

As we move into the spring permitting season, please forward any negative interactions or unreasonable delays that occur between you or your lake association and the DNR to info@mnhealthylakes.org.

Please take some time to contribute to MHL today so we can continue to communicate with lakeshore property owners, lake associations, and resorts during the spring and summer. We need to grow our membership so we can have a bigger impact on state government and we need your financial help to get the word out to lakeshore property owners. If you can, help us with a contribution today by clicking here.

We also remind you of the proposed new APM rules that will be posted to the State Register at any time. Once posted, lakeshore property owners will have only 30 days to inform the Administrative Law Judge of their concerns and request public hearings on the new rules. Read these rules and their justification, called a Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR), now. We will be asking members to write the judge asking for a hearing as soon as the rules are posted.
Thank you for your support of Minnesotans for Healthy Lakes as we continue to fight for the rights of lakeshore property owners!
We encourage you to forward this important message to friends and neighbors who also own lakeshore property, as well as the president or chair of your lake association.

Sincerely yours,

William Iacoe, Co-Chair William Goins, Co-Chair
www.mnhealthylakes.org
P.S. Your contribution today helps us print brochures and mailings to lakeshore property owners who are LARGELY UNAWARE that the DNR is planning to drastically and permanently reduce their ability to treat aquatic weeds like curlyleaf pondweed and Eurasian milfoil in the lakes they live on. Help us get the word out by contributing now.

MHL Legislative Action Alert

MHL Legislative Action Alert

April 2008Dear Lakeshore Property Owner:

We wish to bring your immediate attention to a provision in the House Supplemental Budget bill (House File 1812) that could substantially increase the fees that you pay for aquatic plant management (APM) permits. Currently, Minnesota law caps APM permit fees at $35 for an individual and $750 for a lake association. If enacted as written, this bill will remove these reasonable and fair limits on APM fees and leave the language open-ended. The bill language, Article 7, Section 26 of HF 1812, is reproduced for your reference here:

Sec. 26. Minnesota Statutes 2006, section 103G.615, subdivision 2, is amended to
read:
Subd. 2. Fees. (a) The commissioner shall establish a fee schedule for
permits to control or harvest aquatic plants other than wild rice. The fees must
be set by rule, and section 16A.1283 does not apply. The fees may not exceed
$750 per permit shall be based upon the cost of receiving, processing,
analyzing, and issuing the permit, and additional costs incurred after the
application to inspect and monitor the activities authorized by the permit, and
enforce aquatic plant management rules and permit requirements.(b) The A fee for
a permit for the control of rooted aquatic vegetation is $35 for each contiguous
parcel of shoreline owned by an owner may be charged. This fee may not be
charged for permits issued in connection with purple loosestrife control or
lakewide Eurasian water milfoil control programs.

We urge you to immediately contact the legislators listed below (they are the conference committee members ironing out differences between the House and Senate supplemental budget bills) and inform them that this huge potential fee increase is unfair to lakeshore property owners and lake associations and will result in fewer citizens participating in the APM program. Fewer lakeshore property owners participating in the program will - and has in the past – result in "self-treating" for aquatic weeds, which will harm the health of our lakes.

Sen. Don Betzold: sen.don.betzold@senate.mn
Rep. Tom Rukavina: rep.tom.rukavina@house.mn
Sen. Richard Cohen: www.senate.mn/senatorcohenmail
Rep. Lynn Carlson: rep.lyndon.carlson@house.mn
Sen. David Tomassoni: sen.david.tomassoni@senate.mn
Rep. Mary Murphy: rep.mary.murphy@house.mn
Sen. Linda Higgins: sen.linda.higgins@senate.mn
Rep. Dennis Ozment: rep.dennis.ozment@house.mn
Sen. Dennis Fredrickson: sen.dennis.fredrickson@senate.mn

Additionally, we want to make you aware of the proposed new APM rules that will be posted to the State Register very soon by the DNR. These are the proposed rules that we have been so concerned about for the last several years. Once posted, lakeshore property owners will have only 30 days to inform the Administrative Law Judge of their concerns and request public hearings on the rules. Read these rules and their justification, called a Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR), now. We will inform you as soon as the new proposed rules are posted in the State Register. You may even want to draft your brief comment letter to the Administrative Law Judge now, so it is ready to go when you get the notice from MHL, asking the judge to hold public hearings and stating your concerns with the DNR's proposed rules. As you probably know, Minnesotans for Healthy Lakes has opposed much of what the DNR is proposing in these new rules to the aquatic plant management program. You can also help us get our message out to the tens of thousands of Minnesotans lakeshore property owners who are unaware of these proposed increases in permitting fees and proposed rule changes by contributing to MHL today: www.mnhealthylakes.org.

We encourage you to forward this important message to friends and neighbors who also own lakeshore property, as well as the president or chair of your lake association. Sincerely yours,
William Iacoe, Co-Chair
William Goins, Co-Chair
www.mnhealthylakes.org