Hello LSC fans.

We'd like to give you a quick recap of last night's Annual Meeting & Dinner.

Thank you to the Lake St. Catherine Country Club for again being our host, and preparing an excellent dinner for all attendees.

We'd also like to thank Williams Hardware in Poultney for donating a Grill Gazebo, which we raffled off to raise money for the LSCA.

We had a great crowd of folks interested in hearing about and discussing lake issues.

Thank you all for coming!

The trustees gave reports summarizing the good work of the LSCA this season - all in support of our mission to preserve, protect and maintain Lake St. Catherine.

Here is the presentation:

Some highlights:

• Ashley Leemans from the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District (PMNRCD) spoke about three important topics:

- LEAP - LEAP is a program that offers free plantings to help mitigate stormwater runoff into the lake from your property

- Lake Wise - Lake Wise is a State of VT program that awards lake property homeowners for having a lake friendly property. The PMNRCD will be providing Lake Wise assessments to LSC property owners over the next two years. Using a point based system, your property will be assessed for lake friendly best management practices. If your property meets the Lake Wise standard, you will be awarded a specially designed Lake Wise sign to proudly display on your property. If your property did not initially qualify, the PMNRCD will inform you on what to work on, and they will even offer assistance. If you would like to sign up to have a Lake Wise assessment for your property, please contact us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

- LSC Stormwater Masterplan - The PMNRCD has been working around the lake to identify problem areas where rain from storms bring nutrients and pollutants into the lake. A public meeting will be held to discuss the plan. Details of this meeting will be announced soon

• Mary Jo Teetor explained that the water clarity has been recovering steadily from the extremely wet spring that had a huge impact on the water. She also spoke about the importance of all lake property owners to make their property lake friendly. Here are a few documents that discuss best practices and outline the problems caused by runoff into the lake:

- Sharing The Edge - A Guide For Lakeshore Property Owners In Vermont

- Your Lake And You!

• Jim discussed our 2019 milfoil treatment program. This season, our 5 year herbicide treatment permit and our 10 year DASH (diver assisted suction harvesting) permit were both approved by the state. Beginning this season, we are using a new, highly effective and targeted herbicide called ProcellaCOR as part of our milfoil control program. This was applied on July 10th - and the results have been excellent. Our DASH team has also been hard at work, efficiently removing buckets of milfoil daily from many locations around the lake. You will see them working throughout the summer. Our goal is to maintain a balanced approach with herbicide and DASH to help control milfoil. This season, we are projecting approximately 2/3 DASH, 1/3 herbicide of the total acreage being treated for milfoil.

• Elaine updated everyone on our membership numbers. To date, we have 326 paid members, generating $51,300 in membership dues. Elaine then discussed our 2019 budget and the projected deficit. Pie charts can be seen in the presentation.

• Jerremy then described the appeal campaign we started a few weeks ago to try to address the budget shortfall. As we continue to receive less and less from State and local governments, we need to continually work to raise funds so we can maintain our programs. This year, we will be applying for $50k in grants from the Lake Champlain Basin Program - and we are hopeful to receive some of these funds. Two weeks ago, we sent letters to the lake community asking non-members to join and asking our members if they could make an additional contribution this season. Since the appeal started, we've had 14 new members join, collecting $6,070 in dues and donations, so we are off to a great start. We will continue to reach out to the lake community for additional members and donations. Please spread the word - and thank you for your support!

Other discussions included John's report about the boat launch and our Greeter Program, Kemi's report about the Boat Parade, and Frank's report on lake safety and the 25 new licensed boaters that passed the boating safety classes.

At the end of the trustee reports, Bob announced slate of 5 trustees to be reelected, which was approved. Bob also noted that the LSCA is seeking people interested in joining the board and becoming a trustee. If you'd like to actively participate in helping the LSCA fulfill its mission, please contact us to express your interest at info@lakestcatherine.org.

After a Q & A session, the meeting was adjourned - and it was time to eat! Thank you to everyone who pitched in the mad scramble to quickly change the dining room from stadium to dinner seating as the food was coming out of the kitchen.

We hope all who attended enjoyed our presentation and the dinner.

We had a delightful evening sharing a meal and speaking with all of our lake neighbors.

If you missed the meeting this year, we hope to see you next time.

If you have any questions about the meeting or the presentation, please contact us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

Thank you for your support of the Lake St. Catherine Association!