Here is a copy of an email I sent out yesterday regarding the death of our LD Treasurer, and an update on our lake management activities …

Good afternoon.

I am sad to report the sudden passing of Mrs. Vicki Bellows, a fellow board member of our Lake Iola Lake District … and also our Treasurer.

The details of her passing do not matter, as she did an excellent job at keeping track of every taxpayer penny we spent and fought hard to make sure that every bill she paid was properly charged to us. She will be missed. RIP, Vicki.

As Chairman of the Board, I am the backup Treasurer and I am in the process of picking up the duties of the office. I am definitely not as organized as Vicki, nor Lyn before her, so if anyone would like to join our board, and become Treasurer too, please let me know. Until then, please bear with me …

I still have my weed harvest fee dispute to continue with the WDNR, so regarding the blanket permit for liquid herbicide spraying, I no longer will consider individual pier treatments as that will take up too much of my time and unnecessarily delay spraying in the channels. I will contact WL&PR to go ahead and just consider the four main navigation channels for spraying this year. If I have time, I will be glad to work with individual property owners to customize their pier cleanups later this year, including self-application of granular herbicide that will take an individual permit from the WDNR to do. Otherwise, let’s plan for a better 2023 season to further develop our own programs that do not require the blessings from our almighty Wisconsin DNR.

As many of you know, this has been a rather challenging year for us regarding our weed harvesting program. Oscar is doing a fine job managing the program for both personnel and equipment safety reasons, and I am considering this very much a training year. Eddie continues to work with the new operators, so the program is still in good hands.

Thank you for your support, your consideration and your understanding at this rather difficult time. Our next board meeting is planned for August.

Regards,

John Bertelson Jr.

Chairman, Lake Iola Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District

(715)-341-1032, (715)-347-1874 or (715)-572-9040