Minutes
of UKPOA Meeting 7/17/2010
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The meeting was called to order by President Steve Shanesy who then introduced the UKPOA officers.
Attendee introductions followed.
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UKPOA has agreed to participate in a Neighborhood Watch program.
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President Shanesy introduced the first of two speakers for our meeting, Deputy Sara Wolosek
of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, who coordinates the Neighborhood Watch program for the county. Deputy Sara has been with the Sheriff’s Office for ten years. She divides her responsibilities
between being on the road part-time and serving as Crime Prevention Officer. Her duties include giving
talks to area lake associations, child fingerprinting and acting as liaison between local residents and the Sheriff’s
Office.
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With regard to the Neighborhood Watch program, Deputy Sara says, “The program works.” She
cited the example of a recent string of burglaries on Little Bearskin Lake. Five to seven seasonal homes
were hit. Fortunately, a witness saw an unfamiliar vehicle with a man smoking nearby, got the license plate
and reported it. Her advice: Be observant. Write down unfamiliar
license plates and save them in a drawer for future reference. Take a picture with your cell phone, as
one of our residents did of an unfamiliar truck parked along Cedar Falls Road.
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Burglary is the largest
crime in Oneida County according to the Deputy. Monday through Thursday are the most likely days to get
hit. Burglars are also looking at obituary notices for recent deaths and are looking for prescriptions,
guns, coins, electronic equipment and jewelry. Keep a record of the serial numbers of guns, major appliances, TVs, stereos,
etc. If you are seasonal residents, take your guns with you. Let your neighbors know
if you’re going to be gone, perhaps give someone a key. The Sheriff’s Department
will do house checks, time permitting, if called. Deputy Sara can come over to your home and do a security
check, inspecting lighting, locks, windows and alarm systems.
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Neighborhood Watch signs are a huge deterrent. To
that end, a show of hands was taken in favor of using UKPOA funds to purchase signs for placement around Upper Kaubashine
Lake. Harland Lee will contact the Town Chairman for signage permission as well as requesting if the Town
of Hazelhurst will put up the signs for us if we pay for them. During a question and answer session,
Deputy Sara was asked if she was aware of a report of a peeping Tom on East Kaubashine Road. She was not
and asked that the person who saw the peeping Tom contact her. She can be reached at (715) 361-5100, Ext.
5842 or swolosek@co.oneida.wi.us. Anyone interested in checking for sexual offenders in the area can log on
to www.familywatchdog.com. .
The Neighborhood Watch program materials and a sign-up sheet were provided at the back of the room.
Patti Bakken, Steve Shanesy and Chris Briquelet will serve as co-captains of the program. Look for further updates
on this program, and please contact Patti, Steve or Chris for further information.
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Our next speaker, Sara Schmidt, now employed by the Division of Natural Resources/Ho Chunk Nation,
was then introduced. Sara is the UW-Stevens Point graduate student who studied our lake back in 2008 as
part of her thesis for her Master’s Degree. Her study involved a review of the littoral zones of
12 lakes in the northern Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada area. The littoral zone is defined as the
near-shore area where there is enough sunlight to reach the bottom and where plants grow. Sara’s passion is learning about lakes. Of the lakes she reviewed for her study, Sara calls
Upper Kaubashine her “favorite lake”, as our lake is quite diverse in types of habitat. She
found no Eurasian milfoil. Sara stressed that fallen trees should be left in the lake
to increase fish habitat. She shared some slides taken of bluegills and their nests and advises that large
bluegill males (with orange bellies) be let go during spawning season.
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Jessica Orlando of the UW-Stevens Point will
be taking over the project for two summers (2010 and 2011) and measuring fish habitat. She is proposing
to electro-shock the fish, which is not harmful, to aid in her study. Harland Lee reminded us that the
DNR should be called to return to shock the lake as well.
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After thanking our guest speakers, President
Shanesy moved to Upper Kaubashine topics:
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·
There is concern of unauthorized access across
Melcher property; Fuzzy Mallek is caretaker and will put Steve in touch with Dr. Melcher.
· Due to an early spring, the fish crib project has been postponed until next year; contact Chris Briquelet
to volunteer (chrisbriquelet@yahoo.com).
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Congratulations to 4th of July
Regatta participants and thanks to the Briquelet, Stanton, Sowieja and Beckley families for the fireworks. Apologies
were given for the change to the 3rd due to weather.
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With regard to boat launch access, Steve Shanesy
may grant access to property owners by telephone call request; Beckleys will grant access to property owners on Memorial Day
and Labor Day weekends. No jet skis, please.
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Please remember
to send in your Association donations. These monies will assist with postage, Neighborhood Watch signs,
speaker expenses, etc.
· Concern was expressed that some residents were unaware of the meeting date and time which
had been posted on the website. Future communications will be sent via e-mail, website and USPS mailing.
· Steve Shanesy announced that he and
Renee will be putting their lake home up for sale next summer and that he will be resigning as President of UKPOA.
Volunteers for officer positions would be appreciated.
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Mark
your calendars: Next annual meeting date is Saturday, July 23rd, 2011.
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Meeting
adjourned.
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Minutes
of UKPOA Meeting 7/18/09
The meeting was called to order by President
Steve Shanesy who then introduced the UKPOA officers. Attendee introductions followed. President Shanesy then quoted the UKPOA Mission Statement as shown on our new website (www.upperkaubashinepoa.com): “The purpose of the Association is to preserve and protect Upper
Kaubashine and its surroundings, and to enhance the water quality, fishery, boating safety, and aesthetic values of the lake,
as a recreational facility for today and for future generations.
Our speaker, Water Guard Deputy Warden John Preuss of the DNR, was then introduced. WGDW Preuss
is one of seven such deputies in the State of Wisconsin and covers 12 counties. There are over 15, 081
lakes in Wisconsin, making it third in number of lakes (more than Minnesota). Much of his time is spent
on the prevention of invasive species through education of the public. WGDW Preuss brought handouts, samples
and pictures of several invasive species affecting our area such as rusty crayfish, Eurasian milfoil and zebra mussels.
Sources of invasives include shipping ballast water in the Great Lakes, fish migration, aquariums, and boaters and
fishers who empty their live wells improperly and carry weeds on their boats and trailers. WGDW Preuss
informed the group that having a lake with invasive species problems can decrease the property values by a staggering
thirteen (13) percent.
Some rules with regard to prevention of the spread of invasive species include:
1. Clean
weeds off boats and equipment including, but not limited to, ropes, tackle and props.
2. Drain water from bilges on boats.
3. Follow new rules about minnows including: Fishermen cannot transport minnows in water from one lake
to the water of another lake.
4.
No live fish to leave the lake.
5. Rules apply to shore fishermen as well as lake fishermen.
If anyone has any concerns about possible invasive plants, grab a specimen of the plant, put it in a baggie with water
and take it to the DNR on Highway J for identification. The Meier family on our lake had a questionable
plant, which was shown to Deputy Warden Press who assured us that it is not Eurasian milfoil. President Shanesy urged UKPOA members
to please be careful to safeguard the health of our treasured lake. If you have a boat landing,
please chain it and control access to our lake. We must self-police to insure that we do not fall
victim to invasive species.
David Field reported
that our water clarity test showed clear to twenty-five (25) feet this spring.
With regard to the riparian rights
violations issue, the UKPOA board is continuing to pursue the matter of a non-homeowner having boats moored on our lake with
the DNR, as well as having our legal counsel in contact with the DNR.
The issue of perch/pan fish stocking
was again brought up by Steve Shanesy to the DNR,
which declared that ours is a healthy, self-producing lake with good cover,and, therefore, the DNR has zero interest in stocking our lake. In the past, we
stockedour lake through a commercial stocker; it
is the DNR’s decision not to issue a permitto
us for commercial stocking.
A show of hands was taken for interest
in a winter crib-building project.UKPOA will provide
the materials out of much-appreciated donationsto
the UKPOA fund. Chris Briquelet volunteered to head theCommittee; Steve will post details on the website.
Positive feedback and appreciation were given for our new website.Again, that address is www.upperkaubashinepoa.com. Corrections and updates to the lake map were requested. Updated
lake maps will be sent out in the fall.
In the future, newsletters will be sent out via e-mail to those who have submitted their e-mail information.
Those without e-mail access will receive theirs via US Mail. To have your e-mail information included
in our database, please send your info to mtbeckley@gmail.com.
Treasurer Harland Lee announced that he still has ten to twelve copiesof the lake history book available at the price of $10.00 each. Anyonewanting a copy please contact Harland. Appreciation
was expressed to the Beckleys, Briquelets and Stantons for the spectacular fireworks show again this year. Meeting adjourned.