January 2006 - Volume 13 - Issue 1
President’s Corner
Happy New Year! Wow 2006, I guess it is true, the older you get, the faster the time flies!
I want to thank Karen Balsh and Mike Crofoot for chairing the annual Holiday Dinner Dance. By now I am sure most of you have heard that it was a resounding success. Also I want to thank the Advisory Board and all the helpers that turned the Conservation Club into a holiday scene. A special thanks to Judy Kankel for making and donating the Christmas tree centerpieces/prizes. It was impossible to decide which one of the beautiful theme trees to choose if you were a winner. It was really wonderful to end the year with such a festive party and an opportunity to get to know you neighbors.
With another Lake Season just around the corner I hope some of you will make a New Years Resolution to become more active in the association. There are many opportunities to get involved: 1. Volunteer for the road clean up in the spring and fall (some residents meet for breakfast before hand) 2. Volunteer to help organize and/or participate in a flotilla (this could involve socializing before, during or after) 3. Plan to attend our annual meeting in July. (and the picnic that follows in the afternoon) 4. Plan to attend the monthly meetings of the advisory board (some districts need advisors) 5. Submit material or an article to the newsletter. After seeing so many of you at the party I see what a great resources are available to our association.
Judy Kankel is still willing to put together a directory for the lake area and needs input from anyone who wants to be included. You can access the directory information by a link on our web page.
In regard to the Porter Township Sewer Project: Areas that are completed and hooked up include: All of Union and US 12 as well as most all of the northwestern, western, and southern shores of Baldwin Lake, all of Coverdale and most of Long. The only sections that remain to be done include: Treasure Island, Hollywood Shores Drive, north Oak (the part at lake level), all of Hilltop and South Baldwin Lake Drive. For updates you can access the Wightman Assoc. web page www.wightman-assoc.com/porter.html or the BLA web page.
May Peace break into your house and thieves steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like superglue and may laughter assault your lips.
May your clothes smell of success and may happiness strike your cheeks.
May your tears be those of joy.
May your problems lose your address!
Simply:
May 2006 be the best year of your life.
(Source unknown)
Alice Ann Troy BLA President
COLIFORM TESTING FOR 2005
Well, another year has came and gone. As far as water testing went, it was a very important year. This was the last year of having septic systems functioning. Next year will be a true indicator of what affect they really had on the lake. We won't be guessing anymore; we will have scientific data to back it up and to compare it to previous years. I will still promote water testing for a year or two and random testing after that. Keep in mind that watershed, rain, and our inlet waterways can also produce hazards to the lake and still need to be watched and tested.
We tested three times this year. Most spots were great but we did have a few hot spots along the way. Remember we do not disclose the location unless we have three consecutive high test results. The cause of hot spots cannot always be identified, so we also want to protect the innocent. Watershed can carry coliform a long distance before it enters the lake. If there are extremely high readings we do inform the people at risk of swimming in that area and we always do a quick repeat of the testing. Almost always when we have run into that, the second test is clean, which tells us that it was a bad sample, the cause of contamination was stopped, or the holiday or heavy usage of the lake is over.
We did some retesting after Labor Day because the lab felt they had a quality problem in evaluating the results. The retest came back good. Out of 27 samples taken this year we had 4 which tested higher than 200 which is the count that the Health Dept. considers unsafe to swim in. We had 3 test between 100 and 200, 8 between 50 and 100, and 12 tested at 50 or below. I'm hoping to see all of these below 50 next year.
Carol Erbe, Water/Environmental Chairperson
HEAR YE! HEAR YE! HEAR YE!
I offered to compile and print a directory for all of us with all of the neighbors’ addresses and phone numbers…. To date, I have received only 20 responses...a disappointing percentage. If I don’t hear from you, your information will not be included in the booklet. I am setting an absolute deadline of March 12 to receive information…then I will decide if it is a “go” or not. You can mail it to me at: Judy Kankel, 70833 S. Baldwin Lake Drive Union, MI 49130 or e-mail me at jkankel@earthlink.net and please put DIRECTORY in the subject line. Only a minute of your time will provide something very useful. Thanks to the 20 who have responded already. This is the information I am requesting:
