LONG LAKE PROPERTY OWNERS

ASSOCIATION, INC.

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NATURAL GAS UPDATE

Email from Emmit Collins

Letter to Emmit Collins

Doug will provide an update to you mid-December and set up a meeting with the group sometime in January.  We can do this via conference call or face-to-face, which ever works best for the group.

Christine Cole
Residential Retail Sales Manager
231.932.2838(Office)
231.330.8620 (Cell)

LETTER FROM MICHIGAN WATERFRONT ALLIANCE

Dear Michigan Waterfront Alliance Members and friends,

After many years of effort we have a Road End bill that has been introduced in the Michigan Senate.  It comes up for a hearing in the Judiciary Committee this Tuesday (Nov.1, 2011).

The MWA is in a full court press lobbying mode for this bill.

We need to convince Senator Tory Rocca thst this is a very good piece of legislation because it protects Michigan's lakes from abusive use.

Senator Rocca's phone number is (517) 373-7315.  You can also email him at this link  http://www.senate.michigan.gov/ima_form.asp?name=COMMENT10&form_path=e:/webforms/rep  The Senate judiciaryCommittee is made up of the following:

Rick Jones (R) Committee Chair, 24th District

Tony Schuitmaker (R) Majority Vice Chair, 20th District

Tony Rocca (R) 10th District

Steven M Bieda (D) Minority Committee Chair, 9th District

This is the link to the Bill:

Senate Bill 778  http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billintroduced/Senate/pdf/2011-SIB-0778.pdf  Please contact Senator Rocca before Tuesday.

Sincerely,

Bob Frye

Michigan Waterfront Alliance Incorporated, President

PO Box 369 

Fenton, MI 48430

Ph: 989 821 6661

Cell: 517 403 3947

Fax: 989 821 5868

skibones@aol.com

www.MWAI.org

EURASIAN MILFOIL MEETING

Saturday, October 29, there will be a meeting at 10:00 AM at the Plainfield Township Hall with EnviroScience Inc. and Fred Lewis, Township Supervisor, regarding the Long Lake milfoil problem and the weevil program.  You are invited to attend so that you can learn what the status of the program is, what steps will be taken next, and get the answers to any questions you might have.

NATURAL GAS FOR LONG LAKE

Submitted by Emmit Collins, 8260 Long Lake Rd.

Information from our meeting with DTE Energy regarding natural gas for Long Lake and Little Long Lake, August 29, 2011.

This was held at my home attended by Christine Cole, Manager, Marketing and Sales, and Douglas Koessel, Marketing Programs Administrator.

We had Long Lake, Loon Lake and Little Long Lake representation at the meeting as well as Plainfield Township Supervisor, Fred Lewis.

DTE Energy presented a survey map detailing the required street coverage necessary to provide natural gas to all customers for the 3 lake areas.  The mileage of pipe line required is around 20 miles.  A few areas where they have to bury pipe are private streets; this requires them to get right-of-way deeds from all the owners involved.

The meeting was very positive by all attending.  The DTE people are going to send out a questionnaire survey to all home owners in October.  Important questions are:

                1.        How many months of the year do you use gas and heat your home?

                2.       Are you a permanent resident of seasonal?

                3.       How many gallons of propane do you use in an average year?

                4.       Would you send a check for $300.00 to cover the hook up charge when they install the pipe in front of your home?

Natural gas requires you to change the orifices on all your gas appliances.

Come November the company will bid out the complete job.  The total cost will determine if it is a go or no go based on the returned questionnaires.

We were informed that there were over 1,000 homes involved in this area and they would accept 40% sign up as sufficient to begin the project.

In December, January, February and March of 2012, DTE Energy will be contacting al private street owners to get right-of-way deeds as well as making arrangements to start construction in the Spring.

They will begin laying pipe in April or May and will complete the total job before cold weather in the Fall.

We will be using natural gas in the winter of 2012 and 2013.  No more contracts and negotiating with the propane companies.

Advantages:

2.  No unsightly propane tanks in our yards.

3.  Constant supply, no dependence on a delivery person.

4.  ½ the price of propane costing $2.00 per gallon.  A bigger savings if price is higher than $2.00 per gallon.

5.  Increased home value with natural gas.

LETTER FROM ENVIROSCIENCE, INC.

July 25, 2011

Dear Long Lake Residents,

                On July 21^st, 2011, EnviroScience stocked an additional 32,000 milfoil weevils at our expense to help combat the Eurasian watermilfoil in the Long Lake.  After touring the lake, three original stocking sites (S1, S2, and S5) were reinforced with the additional weevils.  Please respect the buoys laid out by the association and stay clear of these areas.  Any additional milfoil fragments created by boating can cause entire new beds of milfoil to form.

                Although the Eurasian watermilfoil is still the dominant plant in Long Lake, it is on the decline.  This year the milfoil beds are starting to break up and become patchy with an increase in native plants (which will serve to out-compete the milfoil).  Additionally very limited areas of milfoil are reaching the surface and flowering.  Our biologists also found weevil-induced damage on the plants.  Based on these positive signs, EnviroScience is confident that the weevil program at Long Lake is on track.  We appreciate your patience and continued support.

                Please look for our full report this fall and we also encourage you to call our office at (800) 940-4025 with any questions.  Our hours of operation are Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m.

Sincerely,

The Lake Management Division

EnviroScience Inc.              

NEWS

BOATER SAFETY CLASS

Iosco County Sheriff's Dept will offer a MI Dept of Nat. Resources boating safety class.
 
The class will be held on Wed. June 22, 2011 from 8 AM to 3:30 PM at Iosco Regional Educational Services Agency, 27 N Rempert Road, Tawas City.
 
Class size is limited and pre-registration is required.  To pre-register, call the Iosco County Sheriff's Dept. at 989-362-6164

LONG LAKE ROAD CLEANUP 

On Sat. Sept. 11, 2010, members of the LLPOA met to clean around the perimeter of Long Lake.  After picking up 16 bags of trash, the workers were treated to pizza and soda at the Long Lake Bar.  We would like to thank the following members for their hard work:

            Norm & Toots LaPorte                    Pete & Peg Morrison

            Dan & Jane Lautermilch                  Mike Allen

            Bob & Maureen Hearn                     Christopher Allen

            Sharon Robinson                             Jonathan Allen

            Larry & Mimi Smith                         Jim & Sandy Ouillette      

            Ken & Fran Siems                                   

INFORMATION FROM GOOSE BUSTERS

To Whom It May Concern:

As a present or past customer of Goose Busters, I wanted to keep you informed of some changes that the DNR are most likely to enact for this upcoming year (2010).

These are a few of the changes:

1. They plan on charging a fee for applications ($50).

2. They plan on charging contractors a fee for being a contractor ($500).

3. They plan on charging a fee for goose roundup to the landowner ($150).

4. They plan on closing down the Waterford pens for overnight holding of the geese.

5. Instead of the Waterford pens, contractors now will have to disperse the geese caught daily throughout the State to places earmarked to be release sites of the DNR (ranging from 50-400 miles away).

6. If you have had at least 25 geese removed from site in three of the last five years, and you were not eligible for nest destruction, you will be eligible now.

7. If you live in the nest destruction areas, and you do not participate in the nest destruction, you will not be able to participate in the goose roundup.

I realize that this will affect each and every one of you, so I thought that I would give you a “heads-up” about the changes that they are planning.

What does this mean to you as a landowner who wants geese removed? You will have charges from the State in the amount of $200, and then will also be charged by the contractor doing the work. Depending on how many customers who continue getting the work done, Goose Busters will have to raise rates nominally. This is to cover not only my new fee (now $500), but also the new travel time to release the geese daily. Last year Goose Busters had roughly 350 clients and removed about 4800 geese. In the “new” map areas where we will now have to release the birds, if we pick up the same numbers, there will be an additional five hours daily on the road on average. I am sure that I would hire someone to do the other transporting, extra gas, and such for vehicles. I will most likely have to raise my fees up from a minimum of $300 up to $330-$350. As always, 1 will have the best rates available and as always, be the upmost professional at my business.

Is there anything that we as landowners can do about this? Yes! As always Goose Busters will have up to a $100 discount for recommending me to other clients. More importantly though, there are two Public meetings coming up in the Lansing area about these proposed changes. They can be found by looking up on the DNR site of Michigan.gov/dnr After you are on the site, on right side of that page there are quick links.

Click on Natural Resources Commission. Under that, click on the 2009 meeting schedule to see where the two upcoming meetings are about these changes (November 5 and December 3 on MSU campus). After these two meetings, the NRC will meet again to put into law these changes (In early January). So please if you want your voice heard, be at these meetings- I think if you pre- register you can have up to five minutes to speak, show up the day of and you can have up to three minutes to speak. Of course there is always room there to sit and hear what others have to say also.

As I stated before I had wanted to keep you informed of some of the changes that are being talked about now so that in the spring when you receive your packets from the DNR (either on-line or in the mail), you won’t be totally shocked as to what you see.

If you need any further information, you can always look on the DNR site, or may e-mail or call some of the people that have been in the “loop” with the goose programs.

Those representatives would be:

Southeast Michigan - Julie Oakes - 248-328-8113 – oakesj@michigan.gov

South-Central Michigan - Elizabeth O’Keefe - 517-641-4903 - okeefee@michigan.gov

South-Western Michigan - Vivian Conner - 269-685-6851 – connerv@michigan.gov

Head of the wildlife program - Tim Payne - 248-359-9042

Head of goose program from Lansing (making the changes) - Mike Bailey -517-373-1263

Mike Bailey’s Secretary - Shannon Hannah -517-241-2733

I don’t have the last three e-mail addresses, but the first three were their last name with first initial, @michigan.gov. If I had to guess, theirs would be the same.

If there are any other questions you may have that you think that I may be able to answer, don’t hesitate to call me. If I am not in the office just leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible. If you call and it just keeps ringing with no one picking up, I am on the phone currently. I have caller ID while I am on the phone, but not voicemail. I will call you when I get off the phone.

Thank You,

Chris Compton

Goose Busters

800-521-8777