September Newsletter
Next Meeting: Oct 13, 9:00 A.M. at Community Christian Church McCardle & Main Streets
(printable view)

CONTACTS

Email cglakeassoc@yahoo.com Web Site: cgclakeassoc.org
Chair: Curt Brungardt Vice Chair: Joyce Hutter
Treasurer: LuAnn Fuller Secretary: Fred Vance 

Chairman’s Comments

I am happy to announce that the second City Lake Special Commission is making good progress and our discussions have been extremely fruitful. All members of the committee are negotiating in good faith and are committed to finding an agreement where all parties will be successful. We are currently exploring and discussing various options for long-term financial stability. One of the current options being considered is a 99 year lease that will include various clauses that provide protection and security for lake homeowners. With that said, I would like to ask for your opinion on what you believe should or should not be included in such a long-term lease. Please either email your ideas to the lake association email at cglakeassoc@yahoo.com or write me at PO Box 13, Council Grove, KS 66846. This is your opportunity to be heard.

New Boat Loading Dock

The Lake Association is happy to announce that, on August 28, the Council Grove City Council, approved the purchase and construction of a new boat dock for the city lake. The old pier type dock, the old boat house, and a large tree stump have been removed, and construction of the new dock is well underway.  We would like to thank all those who wrote letters and made phone calls to the council members.  We would also like to thank the city council members for their support of this much needed lake improvement.  Finally, a special thanks to Council Member Steve Shephard whose leadership on this issue was the critical difference.  JD Jones made the motion that the city accept the bid of $17,300 (Adams Lumber Company) and up to $3,000 in demolition charges for the old dock.  Steve Shephard seconded the motion.  The city council approved the new dock with a vote of 5-0, with funding for this project from the infrastructure account and not the general fund and traditional budget process. 

In the spirit of cooperation Curt Brungardt offered Lake Association assistance in writing a grant to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks in the hope of recouping some of the city's construction costs. Please take the time to thank the council members for their support.  It is our hope that this action by the City Council will spark a new spirit of cooperation between the city and the Lake Association.  The Lake Association leadership will use this opportunity to build a stronger more positive relationship with the city.

Enhanced 911 Implementation at the City Lake

Enhanced 911 (E911) capabilities are finally coming to the City Lake! The other part of that news is that to meet the standards and allow the E 911 system to interact properly with maps and GPS systems, the roads must be assigned names and the cabins assigned address numbers, which are referenced to the mapping system. We’ve spent some time talking with Morris County Sherriff, Scott Coover, to better understand the system and the required changes. Basically E911 will allow the location of an incoming 911 call to automatically be displayed on a screen, the mapping systems can accurately locate the sequenced street addresses on a map and even provide GPS based driving directions. The enhanced system will work with both landline and cell phone calls. 

None of us like change and these changes are not easy to assimilate, especially since a city ordinance recently required most of us to change our existing cabin address signs. The city also recently changed or replaced several road signs at the City Lake. After considerable research, and talking with Sheriff Coover, the Lake Association leadership feels that the Morris County E911 changes are necessary and will greatly enhance emergency response and could literally be a life saver.

Naming the Roads

The City Council, acting on a motion by Councilman Steve Shepard voted to allow the Lake Association to name the roads. We were afforded a unique opportunity to create impressions of our lake community by naming the “roads”. The road names had to be completed by September 24. This did not allow time for a mailing to collect suggestions by mail. The best we could do in the short time frame was to distribute the information by email and ask home owners to print and share this email with friends and neighbors who don’t use email. Thanks to all of you who have sent emails or called about naming the roads at the City Lake. The response was tremendous. We received over forty emails and numerous phone calls with over 400 different suggestions for road names. The leadership expended a great deal of effort in sorting and placing the suggested names on roads where they were suggested.

The Lake Association executive board discussed the E911 implementation issues at the regularly scheduled exec board meeting September 15. Members of the executive board also reviewed the changes with Lake Association Attorney Bill Frost. Numerous changes will be required by both the City and Lake Home owners. We will make the lake map with the new names available at the earliest date possible.

Water Wagon Donated

Steve Adams of Adams Lumber & Homestore has donated a trailer with a large water tank for watering the plants and flowers at the entrance signs to the lake. This will make the task of maintaining the plantings much easier. Steve thoughtfully outfitted the trailer with new tires and even furnished us a proper size trailer ball for towing. Please take time to thank Steve for his interest and furnishing the water wagon.

Fall lake Clean-up

Good News for City Lake Residents!! The Pride Committee of Council Grove is promoting a Community-wide Clean-up the Month of October. The city has scheduled Monday, October 29 th as FREE pick up day for the City Lake. All items must be sorted into two piles or the city WILL NOT pick them up. Please call the City Clerk at 620-767-5417 the week prior to Monday the 29 th and give her your address and the list of items to be picked up. All limbs, leaves, brush, mulch and compost are to be in one pile (not in bags or boxes) and all household items, furniture, trash, rubbish, garbage, Freon free metal appliances (those with a red tag only) and tires are to be in a separate pile. Also, we will make sure that the brush dump, east of the dam, will be open on the previous weekend, Oct. 27-28 th for those who want to haul their own limbs, brush, leaves, mulch, or compost. NO plastic bags or boxes are permitted in the brush dump.

Gibson’s Recycling, a Council Grove business, will accept old appliances, with or without Freon, metal and scrap iron. They are open Monday- Friday 10 am-6 pm and Saturday mornings. Call 620 767-7471 for more information. Questions about the pride clean- up week should be directed to Cheerie Baker, 620 767 6403, or Diane Bolton 620 767 5807. Thanks, ladies for getting this organized for us and coordinating with the city.

Items Allowed for Community-wide October Clean-up need to be sorted into two categories.

Items Not Allowed

Construction or demolition waste
Oil
Iron, fence wire
Dirt, rocks, or brick
Dead animals
Ammunition or explosives
Batteries
Household hazardous waste (spray insecticide, etc)
Paint, paint stripper, varnish, agricultural spray
Gas tanks
Asbestos waste
Any waste that requires KDHE authorization

Lake Properties Appearance

As the Lake Association leadership discussed the Pride Committee clean- up efforts and surveyed the conditions of the commons areas at the lake it became apparent that some of us need to place emphasis on maintaining our own areas.

Items that have been brought to our attention are: boats and trailers that obviously haven’t been moved recently, some embedded in tall weed patches and even some with trees growing in them!; Old lawn mowers, and other equipment scattered about; Brush piles left in the commons areas; Old piles of dirt, sand, etc, grown up in weeds; Several old, (some currently tagged) vehicles, stored in congested high traffic areas.

Almost every month we receive suggestions (gentle complaints) from home owners about these types of situations. Please take a look at your area, and see if you might easily improve the appearance. We all want to be proud of our lake community! If you find you need help with one of these items, please email us or call and we will find some Lake Association volunteers to assist you.

Council Grove High School Booster Club

This past month, the lake association has joined and financially contributed to the local Council Grove Booster Club. The Lake Association is proud to support our local young athletes. Go Braves!!!

New Web Site

This winter the Lake Association leadership is going to completely revamp the Lake Association website. Please email your suggestions and ideas as well as photographs that we can use for the site. Photographs can include scenic, boating/fishing, family, etc.

Holiday Party

Several people have mentioned they would like to have a holiday party, thinking it might be a good idea to move from the “serious business” mode and give ourselves an opportunity to have fun and become better acquainted with one another. This article is for polling the membership to determine if there is enough interest to pursue the party idea AND to see if someone will volunteer to step up to the plate and organize the event. Please send your comments and thoughts to cglakeassoc@yahoo.com or to P.O. Box 13, Council Grove, KS. 66846.