August 2025 General Meeting Minutes

LOWPOA Meeting Minutes August 2, 2025

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

1. The Lake of the Woods Property Owners Association met on Saturday, August 2, 2025 at the Bremen Conservation Club

community center building. Mike Nate called the meeting to order at 9:00 am. This was followed by the Pledge of

Allegiance.

2. Board of Directors Roll Call:

A. B. Present: Julie Boynton, Elaine Keller, Deb Lane, Mike Nate, Joe Skelton, Rodney Kitchen

Special Guest: Sandy Sanez, Simplee Stated Gifts, Plymouth, IN

3. Review and Approval of Minutes

A. The July General Membership meeting minutes were reviewed. Joe Skelton made a motion to approve the minutes. Rodney

Kitchen seconded the motion and all board members agreed.

4. Treasurer’s Report

A. agreed.

Julie Boynton made a motion to approve the July treasurer’s report. Elaine Keller seconded the motion and all board members

5. Sandy Sanez, Simplee Stated Gifts

A. B. Sandy Sanez, owner of Simplee Stated Gifts shared details on a fundraising opportunity for the Lake of the Woods community.

Lake of the Woods residents can set-up private shopping event parties directly with Sandy.

i) The individual setting up the party is the hostess. The parties are set-up for 2-hour windows of time outside of normal business

hours.

ii) As the hostess, you may invite up to 20 guests to come to the shop and do some private shopping together. Drinks and snacks

are provided as well as games and prizes.

iii) iv) v) Each member of your party will receive a 15% off discount on any items purchased during the event.

As the hostess you will receive a $30 gift card.

When you identify Lake of the Woods as your affiliation when setting up the event, 10% of all proceeds from sales during your

event will be donated to the LOWPOA weed fund.

vi) vii) You could also choose to add a craft class project if you would like (stained glass, wood painting, etc.)

Sandy provided flyers with the event details to pass out to meeting participants.

(1) The flyer information will be posted online and on FB by LOWPOA as well.

viii) Please contact Sandy directly if you are interested in setting up a private party shopping event.

6. Events and Fundraisers

A. Cruise In Car Show – will take place on Saturday, September 6th 3:00 – 6:00 pm.

i) We will be selling mums as a fundraiser at this event. Small mums will be available for sale at the event and tickets for

larger mums from Hahn’s will also be available.

ii) Beary’s Food truck will also be present.

iii) The event welcomes all cars, golf carts and motorcycles.

B. Trunk or Treat

i) Sunday, October 26th; 2:00 – 4:00 pm

ii) Bens Pretzels and T&C Cheesecakes will be available.

(1) Each child receives a $2 coupon for use toward one of these food vendors

iii) The event committee is also planning to have a feature event for the children such as a puppet or magic show, balloon

twisting, face painting, etc. Details are still being worked out on this portion of the event.

7. Conservancy Update

A. Mike Nate noted that a preliminary ruling has been made. We will be working with the lawyer to determine the final facts that

need to be addressed and what next steps might be.

8. Weeds

A. B. Tom Power asked if we expect to having any more spraying of weeds this year.

Mike Nate noted that it is likely.

1 | P a g eC. D. E. F. Aquatic Weed Control (AWC) is planning to come out again to perform the mid-season check of the lake.

A guest asked if all of the weeds will be sprayed.

i) Mike responded no; we cannot spray all weeds because:

(1) Native weeds cannot be treated

(2) We do not have enough funds to treat all invasive weeds such as Starry Stonewort (SSW).

(3) Only the most densely affected areas will be treated based on boat/residence use patterns and recommendations from

AWC.

Julie shared that thus far this year, AWC has identified 20.6 acres of SSW. They will check the SSW growth again when they

come ack out for the mid-season check.

Brian Denk noted that he has done some research on what can be done with lake weeds that are pulled out by hand.

i) Once dried, the weeds can be used as fertilizer. He wondered if we might be able to pull together a group of folks who

might be

interested in doing this.

ii) Mike noted that perhaps a farmer might be interested in receiving the dried weeds, but there is likely some sort of prep work

that would be required.

iii) It was also noted that if you plan to burn pulled lake weeds, they must be dry first. Otherwise, a great deal of smoke will

occur.

9. Old Business

A. B. Four of the six ditches have received ditch filters. The remaining two ditches should be installed next week.

Lake of the Woods Welcome Signs – 1 more sign will be installed at 4th Rd. & West Shore on the Anthony residence property.

i) The location has been marked and we hope to have the sign installed in the coming week.

C. Julie Boynton shared the below updates from the previous meeting:

i) The easement documents provided by last month’s speaker, Nick Witwer, are available on the website. You can also

provide your email if you are interested in having copies emailed to you.

ii) If you are interested in being on the board, please let one of the current board members know. There are 3 open positions.

(1) Elections to the board will take place at the next meeting in September.

10. New Business

A. B. Given rainfall in July, the dam was opened on July 26th and closed on July 29th. Current water levels are good.

A member noted that the porta potty at the public boat launch is in deplorable condition; full and over-flowing.

i) Julie Boynton agreed to reach out to the DNR about this issue.

C. Brian Denk shared the following BCC update

i) Everyone around the lake has been notified by the US Postal Service that we are no longer allowed to hang items in bags

on the outside of mailboxes. The BCC will work through their FB page and meetings to provide updated information on

events.

ii) A Day at the Lake will now become An Evening at the Lake this year.

(1) The event will take place on Saturday, August 30th from 3:00 - 8:00pm

(2) 3:00 pm Reptile Show

(3) 4:00 pm Magic Show & Balloon Twisting

(4) 5:00 pm Dinner (brats, corn on the cob, etc.)

(5) 6:00/7:00 pm Music

iii) Brian noted that the July 4th Fireworks were fully funded by private donations.

11. Julie Boynton made a motion to adjourn. Elaine Keller seconded the motion and all board members agreed. The meeting

adjourned at 9:39 am.

12. The next LOWPOA meeting will take place on Saturday, September 6th, at 9:00 am at the BCC building.

Respectfully submitted by Julie Boynton, LOWPOA Secretary