By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

NORTH WEBSTER — A scheduled presentation by Nate Bosch, director of Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams at Grace College, to the Barbee Property Owners Association Saturday morning, Aug. 15, was cancelled.

Bosch explained the study he was going to be discussing was not far enough along yet to present.

The presentation has been rescheduled for the Barbee Property Owners Association’s September meeting with Adrienne Funderburg, research program specialist for the Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams presenting.

The association’s directors still had a lot to talk about. After a summer of no activities due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Barbee Property Owners Association is planning a lighted boat parade for Saturday, Sept. 5. Those interested in participating are asked to start lining up by the Old Christian Church at 8:45 p.m. The parade will leave around 9:15 p.m. and is expected to take about 90 minutes.

A director suggested the Barbee Property Owners Association may want to create an elevated walkway on wetland property it owns on Big Barbee similar to what the Syracuse-Wawasee Trails and Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation has recently done in Conklin Bay, on Lake Wawasee.

The suggestion was greeted with approval with another director noting it would be a wonderful way to expose people to the wetlands. There is state grant money available for such projects.

Neil Schwartz, weeds committee chair, reported the first treatment for starry stonewort was recently done on 5.5 acres of Sechrist Lake. The cost was $450 per acre. The vendor doing the treatment suggested doing a second treatment to make a difference.

Schwartz noted there is a serious problem on the south end of Kuhn Lake with algae. He attributed the problem to the hot weather this summer as well as low water levels. There were questions about how a 10 % amendment the Department of Natural Resources provided for the treatment of weeds could be used.

A motion was made and passed to do a second treatment of starry stonewort on Sechrist. Lon Sloan, association president, asked for volunteers to do a rake survey to see if the weed is in deeper water.

Bill Thompson, committee chairman for buoys and signs, reported two signs recently disappeared and were replaced. He needs five signs for the annual meeting. He would also like to see all the signs brought up to date.

The buoys are not in too bad of shape, but all that have been put out have been hit by watercraft. Several will be worked on when they are brought for the season.

Thompson noted he wants to spend the winter bringing everything up to date. Larry Brey, association treasurer, suggested a potential vendor who could help out. Thompson said he expected all the work to cost around $1,000.

The association has several lit buoys and Thompson would like to purchase a few more.

Membership in the property owners association has grown to 581 members. It was noted if the membership goes over 585, it will be the highest membership the association has had since 2014.