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From the President's Desk
by Tom Cox, TMLA President
AFTER ONE OF THE COOLEST JUNES on record, summery weather returned on Tuesday, June 29, when the sun shone and the temperature soared into the mid-eighties. At the sandy bottom in four feet of water at the end of our dock the thermometer read 65°, not as warm as in recent past years at this time, but warm enough for Sarah's first swim of the season. What a joy when the sunshine and warmth of summer return!
June's cool weather notwithstanding, in the final month of spring your Association was showing signs of its usual vitality:
 | OUR MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY, PHOEBE ALDEN, reported that of our 663 members, 615 (93%) have paid their dues for this current year, 2003-04. Thirty members are new this year. | ||||||
| DAVE LOSBY AND BOB NELSON, who coordinate the Adopt-A-Highway program on the south and north sides of the lake respectively, reported that already a number of volunteers have been out picking up trash from along the sides of Highway 50 and the Lower Ten Mile Lake Road. Perhaps the most intriguing finds were the dead porcupine in a bucket along the shoulder of Highway 50 (Jerry Mills), and the twelve wood ticks "found" by Don Willis along CSAH 6. | ||||||
| OUR ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY COMMITTEE is managing our lake water testing program which has been continuous since 1976, and with the advice of a special working group made up of Al Griggs, Jim Schwartz, John Alden and Marty McCleery is developing a plan for future testing with sound science as its foundation. | ||||||
| TREASURER JOYCE MCMANUS reported that Association finances are in the black, with expenditures running within our budget. | ||||||
| SPECIAL THANKS TO ROD OWRE AND AL GRIGGS, who have agreed to co-chair the Fisheries Committee, taking over from Larry Urbanski and co-chair Don Brown, who has asked to be relieved of committee responsibilities. Larry is making a steady recovery from the stroke he suffered last summer. He has again offered to provide a repository for fish heads, which may be dropped off at his house on the north shore where they will be frozen until they are delivered to the DNR Fisheries Office for counting throughout the summer. | ||||||
| LORRAINE STROMQUIST AND SUE EIKENBERRY invested many hours early this spring in the sorting, reorganization and filing of the History Committee's many resources, including the multiple notebooks of historical records gathered by the History Committee during Willa Shonkwiler Martin's tenure as Chair. Meanwhile the Committee continues to solicit and collect family histories from Ten Mile families, with a view to publishing a book of Ten Mile history within the next two or three years. | ||||||
| AS USUAL, LOON COMMITTEE members have been diligent this spring managing loon nesting platforms and monitoring Loon habits and hatches. Bob and Kim Moe provide a Loon Committee update on Page 12 of this Newsletter. | ||||||
| DON HARRIS, SAFETY COMMITTEE CHAIR, reports that the safety and no-wake buoys were in place timely this season. We are indebted to Committee member John McManus for a donation that made possible the purchase of two additional safety buoy solar lights. There are now three solar lighted safety buoys, one at the entrance to Long Bay, one at Forseman (Hoppe's) Point and one at the entrance to Lundstrom's Bay. | ||||||
| WALT KANE REPORTED that on June 17th, Ten Mile's water level stood at 1378.87', which was 2.8" lower than on the same date last year, 5.5" higher than on November 1 last fall, and 1.1" higher than on May 16th this spring. | ||||||
| IN EARLY JUNE ZONING COMMITTEE CHAIR RANDY VOSBECK drafted a letter which
went over my signature to Paul Fairbanks of the Cass County Environmental
Services Department outlining the TMLA Zoning Policy established last summer.
Randy's letter spelled out the Association policy not to get involved with
issues that may have an impact only on adjoining neighbors and do not have an
impact on water quality or overall land use. Our Zoning Committee does attempt
to monitor all planning and adjustment issues around the lake with a view to
ensuring that the County has all the information that is pertinent to a given
issue, but recommends TMLA Board action only on those matters that may have an
impact on the lake and its surroundings as a whole. In such cases, it is
Association policy to notify the ESD in writing of Association thoughts, issues
and concerns. In addition, when the Board votes to present its opinion to the
Planning Commission or the Board of Adjustment at a public hearing, the opinion
will be presented by our Zoning Committee chair, our Watershed Coordinator, or a
Board member as an official representative of our Association. Individual
property owners are of course free to comment on matters affecting their
property, but they speak for themselves, and not as representatives of the
Association.
| WITH THANKS FOR THE COMPUTER EXPERTISE and good offices of Don
Hoppe, the Board has approved the publication, after two seasons in the making,
of an enlarged, detailed and attractive Ten Mile Lake map showing the names of
bays, coves, points and shorelines as well as the locations of buoys and other
lake features together with a marginal array of street numbers to help residents
pinpoint residential locations. Copies of the color map will be available at
$5.00 each at the Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 7th. Printed on quality
11" by 17" stock, the maps may, at their owner's discretion, be
punched and folded so as to fit conveniently into the current Ten Mile Property
Owner's Handbook. A larger version of the map, suitable for wall mounting, will
also be available for ordering. | YOU CAN FIND MUCH of the latest news of the
Ten Mile Lake Association, including an up-to-the-minute live web cam photo of
the lake looking toward Long Bay from Bob Iverson's north shore front yard, on
the TMLA website at www.tenmilelake.org. | WITH AN ACTIVE PROGRAM such as we
support, the TMLA always has room for more volunteers. Consider the work of our
nine Association committees, and see whether there is an Association activity
that you'd like to support with your involvement. You may find out more about
the Association's work from any of the Committee chairs or Board members listed
on Page 2 of this Newsletter. And, of course, Board meetings are always open. If
you'd like to attend, please give me or any Board member a call.
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