8/23/17 – Association News

I am happy to announce that work has begun on fixing the issues that we had last summer in Silt Basin 6. It is going to be an expensive project, but a necessary one in order to continue keeping the silt under control along the east and south sides of the Lake. We expect the repairs to be completed sometime around the 1st of October and we should be able to begin pumping silt (dredging) along the east side of Sunrise Cove immediately afterwards. Weather permitting, we hope to be able to dredge for at least two months. The plan for 2018 is to finish up Sunrise and move Judy B to Sunset Cove at some point during the summer. Silt remediation is an important part of our mission here at the Association. It is crucial to all of our enjoyment of the Lake. Another crucial aspect to life at Lake Lotawana is our dam and spillway system. Thankfully, the dam passed the certification process from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and our permit has been renewed for another three years. Both the dam and the spillway have served our community quite well. If you haven’t seen the spectacular videos that Noel Runkle took of our spillway in operation during and after the big storm we had the end of July on YouTube, you should really check them out. It’s been 25 years since we upgraded the spillway that was original built in the 1930s. If you’ve been around long enough, you can remember a time when a seven-inch rain storm would have raised the Lake considerably and made it unusable for days and weeks while we waited for the waters to subside. Docks would end up in folk’s front yards. A couple of issues ago, Dave Wagner reported that it’s time again to give the spillway and the dam bridge some attention. We have our engineering firm working on some hard numbers, but it appears that we are going to have to raise around $500,000 to keep these crucial assets working hard for the community. We are working on the 2018 budget right now. I am anticipating the need for a special assessment to be voted on by the membership in November. I think you will all agree that these issues are important to maintaining our quality of life here at Lake Lotawana.

If you need to reach me for anything, please email me at janolson@lakelotawana.net or call the office at 578-4272.