The Combined Lake Delhi Recreational Facility and Water Quality District
Thursday, August 22, 2019
6:30 pm
Lake Delhi Trustees Administration Building
Delhi, IA
The regular meeting of the Combined Lake Delhi Recreational Facility and Water Quality District was called to order at 6:30 pm by President Staebell.
Trustees present: Staebell, Davidson, Burger, Herman and Leonard
Absent: None
Visitors: Wanda Davidson, Ed Schmidt, Mary & Ken Kray, Marilyn & Tom Cook, Joe Scherrman, Larry Aschbrenner and Joel Althoff.
Staebell asked for a motion to approve the meeting agenda. A motion was made by Herman, seconded by Burger. Motion carried.
Recently elected board members, Joe Scherrman and Joel Althoff, took the oath of office to become official members of the board.
Election of officers was held. Burger made a motion to continue with the same slate of officers as this past year. Leonard seconded the motion. Staebell asked if there were any other nominations. Current officers are Staebell as President, Herman as Vice-President and Burger as Secretary/Treasurer. With no further discussion, the motion carried.
Motion to approve the minutes of previous meetings was made by Herman, seconded by Davidson. Motion carried.
Claims were presented for payment in the amount of $6,972.73 from the General Fund for electricity, internet services, dam operation services, printer maintenance, lobbyist expense, clerical expense, beach cleanup, port-a-potties, LP tank rental, signage and office rent. There was discussion regarding the internet service provided by Windstream. Davidson said the service is extremely slow. He noted that Donna Kunde from Burrington Group has been looking into finding another provider. Staebell also stated that he asked Laurie Kramer to look into getting internet service for the lake office. A motion was made by Davidson to accept the claims as presented. Seconded by Leonard. Motion carried.
July financial reports were presented. The General Fund had revenues of $4,049.67 from Delaware County. Expenditures for July were $65,914.33 ending July at $1,846,165.02. The Debt Service Fund had revenues of $1,147.34 from Delaware County with no expenditures, ending July at $39,177.19. The Dam Improvement Fund had no revenues or expenditures ending July with a $30,000.00 balance. A motion was made by Herman to receive and file the July financial report. Althoff seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Leonard noted that the agenda they were given didn’t include the consideration for the contract approval with Culver’s Landscaping along with approval of committee assignments. The correct agenda was, however, posted on the website . A motion to add both items number 8 and 9 was made by Herman, second by Burger. Motion carried.
The board considered entering into a contract with Culvers Landscaping site preparation and installation of the Wall of Recognition. Leonard noted he, Todd Gifford and Lamont Davidson have been working on finalizing the plans for the Wall of Recognition. Leonard is recommending that the Board approve the signing of the contract along with a payment of one-half of the contract which is $26,884.45 to be processed by the county. The payment would be held until the engineers sign off on the plan. This would prevent holding up the project. Culvers is supposed to have the cross section drawings completed by this coming Monday for the engineers to review. Staebell asked if Burrington Group would have to sign off on the project. Leonard stated Burrington will be on site to approve the footings which is a different contract from the engineer’s approval. The process for approval of the project is to have Bill Holman from Stanley Engineers review the design and then it would be submitted to the DNR for their approval. Leonard noted that the plans have been reviewed once before, prior to the modifications, and it took less than a week to get approval from Stanley and the DNR. He said it should not be an issue. Once the drawings are complete this Monday, Leonard stated he would forward them to the rest of the Board. Burger asked about the time frame for the project. Leonard said he would confirm with Culvers but the thought is that the project would be completed this fall. Leonard noted that follow-up letters need to be sent to the donors to be sure that their recognition is stated correctly on the wall. That needs to be done before the engraving can be completed. Leonard said he would get something in writing from Culvers on a completion date prior to releasing any payment. Davidson asked a question about insuring the wall. Burger stated that once the wall is completed it will be added to the property insurance. Burger noted that Culvers will need to provide us with proof of insurance prior to starting the project. Leonard reviewed his motion that included the signing of the contract, starting the process to get partial payment from the county which will be given to Culvers once the design has been approved by the engineers and the DNR. He will get a commitment on the final drawings from Culverrs along with a completion date and their proof of insurance. Leonard made this motion, second by Davidson. Motion carried.
The next agenda item was discussion and possible action on the approval of repairs to the overhead lifting crane that will be mounted on the dam. Davidson provided information to the Board regarding the crane. He stated that there have been problems with water getting into the crane and it was proposed to lower the box. However, the proposal was to build a whole new box at a cost of $43,800. As a committee it was decided not to go that direction. He noted on June 20 the Board designated $10,000 to do repairs to the box. Essentially, the company would come in with a crane and repair the box so it’s completely water proof. The quote from Kistler Crane & Hoist came in at $14,694. Davidson this was the cheapest quote he received. He stated they would complete the repairs. Leonard asked if Davidison felt there might be some additional expense and he agreed that that was a possibility. Leonard made a motion to increase the amount that was approved in June to add an additional $7,000 to cap the project at $17,000. Burger seconded the motion. Motion carried.
The next agenda item was the committee assignments. Staebell noted he had sent out an update of assignments for review. He went over the assignments and asked for input from the Board. Scherrman made a motion to accept the assignments as presented. Burger seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Committee Updates:
Water Quality & Sediment Control: Herman noted that a group of board members and community members met with several individuals from the Iowa Flood Center. They were given a tour of the lake. The goal is to have them help with long term planning with the goal of getting funding for water quality and sediment control projects. Staebell noted that this group works closely with Stanley Engineering which is a huge benefit for the District. One comment made by a member of the Iowa Flood Center was that unless something changes he said he felt that in 25 years Lake Delhi will not be conducive to swimming, boating and fishing activities. Leonard asked what kind of comments were made regarding sediment removal. Staebell stated that their proposal probably won’t go into great detail on how to move forward with sediment removal because they would submit their thoughts to Stanley Engineering before giving any detail on that issue. Herman noted that he checked in with Homeland Security because the District still does not have closure on the 2008 FEMA project due to questions regarding the dredge site. He said in talking with a lady from Homeland Security and she said while it is moving slow she felt the closeout will come by the end of the year. The issue is that there were some historical artifacts found at the site and while it was noted in the report there has been no plan on how to remediate the issue. Herman stated the final closeout will need to include a plan fix the issue. There’s a possibility that the District would need to pay the University of Iowa Archeology Dept. to put together a report of what artifacts may have been in that area. The cost including posting the information on a website could cost upwards of $38,000 which is still thousands of dollars less than if we had to return all the FEMA money the District received. Herman also noted that he also filed for FEMA monies after the 2016 event and that money is being held up until the 2008 project is resolved. The amount we applied for was around $8,000. He stated those monies may be used to offset the cost of the 2008 project.
There were no other committee updates.
Leonard asked Davidson a question regarding the stop logs. He asked when would the gates be tested using the stop logs. Davidson said once the repairs get made they will test the gates. Staebell noted that the annual inspections are being done but the reports have not been received from Stanley.
Property & Assets: Staebell noted that the transfer of ground to Linda Slobodnik is proceeding. A survey has been done. Other documents such as deed preparation and recording fees still need to be taken care of before the actual transfer of property can be made. He noted that preliminary work has been done on another properties that could be made available to the Board at an upcoming meeting. Herman noted that there are some complexities when reviewing these properties and documentation.
Leonard expressed appreciation to Ed Schmidt and Pat Dede for allowing their property to be used for this year’s fireworks. He also noted that both the fireworks and Christmas on the Lake were a huge hit this year and thanked all those involved for their efforts.
Public Comment:
Tom Cook asked why there’s not more patrolling of the lake especially when we have people boating who don’t know what side the river they should be boating on. Staebell noted that the DNR is coming next month and the Board will be having discussions with them on how they plan to patrol Lake Delhi. He did note that the Delaware Co. Sheriff’s Department has been patrolling periodically. Davidison noted that the DNR does not recognize our tradition of boating on the right or left side. Leonard expressed that there’s need to send out information about regarding boating safety noting it has been done in the past and it might be a good idea to send out communications again. Scherrman asked about additional communications for the proper why to handle downed skiers. Leonard noted the LDRA is working on putting out communications regarding these issues.
Mary Kray asked how the District is getting contact information from new property owners. Staebell stated he has met with several road associations and received addresses from new property owners. He also stated he has the email addresses for all of the road association presidents and will send out a note to them asking them to give the District any information on new property owners in their area.
Larry Aschbrenner asked Davidson for additional information regarding the issue with the overhead lifting crane. Davidson said there have been discussions about building a cat walk to help with the issue.
He also asked about maintenance on the port-a-potties noting that North Beach was not in good shape the last time he stopped. Staebell noted that when there’s a rain event it’s hard for D & S to get down with their truck to take care of the port-a-potties and that did occur last week. He said he would call D & S to make sure everything is clean for the coming Labor Day weekend.
A motion to adjourn was made by Leonard, second by Burger. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.