Centennial Celebration Update – The Centennial Committee after several meetings have some great plans coming together. One of their requests is to move the celebration to 2028. Rationale is that the lake was officially created in 1927, not till December. The first Deed Restrictions were filed in 2028 with lake construction started. If we push one year the celebration does not conflict with Homes Tour and gives some separation from this year’s 250 National theme. The decision was made to move the celebration to 2028.
Grass Carp Rescue – after I wrote the last article, Brad Barnhardt pulled a miracle out his hat and we have our Grass Carp delivery for this year already in the lake. They were delivered after the July 4th holiday. Osage Fishery transferred the 300 fish to a pond for temperature adjustment and delivered by refrigerated truck. The fish were $8.00 each with a delivery fee of a few hundred dollars. Thank you to Brad and the fisheries committee who are great volunteers that really care about our lake and we are lucky to have their support.
Socket Fiber – you probably remember me announcing Brightspeed installing Fiber around the lake last year. Well that still may happen though their project is moving slowly. Socket Fiber, Inc. (https://www.socket.net/) out of Columbia, MO and expanding to the rural areas around Kansas City has moved quickly and will start installation of their facilities as this paper hits your mailbox. The construction starts at Gate #5 and in L block with the goal of completing the entire west shore before moving to the north shore, then east shore. About 9 months total time to install the main fiber line. Home hook-ups will start to be available as they bring sections online. More information will be coming from Socket Fiber as their project progresses.
New Association Office Windows – all new windows were installed on the east side facing Stafford Preserve. The original windows were single pane with all the seals and caulking long gone. The office staff has seen snow blowing through the corners and you could hear the window blowing through the gaps. What triggered the replacement was not only the economics of heating and cooling, but one of the large windows had cracked to the point of being replaced with plywood. The new windows installed by Santa Fe Glass are 1″ Gray over Low E tempered insulated units at a cost of $14,000. A great price for such custom sized window and installation.
New Sidewalk and Patio – since my last article I have pictures to share of the back sidewalk and patio final structures. We are now ready for the Lot-A-Smoke event this fall with a flat properly draining patio for the band setup.
New Gate #3 Curb – after the resurfacing of the Gate 3 to Gare 4 road the roads committee learned our entrance circle curb was damaged. The attempt to fix with asphalt just didn’t pass the litmus test. The decision was made to replace it with a concrete curb to improve the look and longevity.
Dredging has begun now that the Silt Basin #3 overhaul is complete. We hired Solitude Lake Solutions to support water testing, starting with samples from Waterfall and Quantrill Coves to establish an initial nutrient baseline. I’ll report the test results in my next article. Solitude was contracted to also meet our weekly state testing requirements when we begin releasing water from Silt Basin #3 back into the lake. The operations crew completed test runs after connecting the dredge pipe and equipment, then began dredging at the mouth of the Tri-Cove intersection. Our goal is for the crew to make one pass down the center of each cove to help manage aquatic vegetation before focusing on full cove dredging.
Remember the new “NO WAKE ZONE”!
Silt Basin #3 – the total cost of the Silt Basin #3 renovation (remove dirt, replace the old drain, fill and cap the old drain, recontour the bottom and patch sections of the clay liner) was $336k. Going forward we now have a structure that can handle our long term dredging needs for the northwest portion of the lake. The new drain has a rock weir inside the basin to help filter water prior to the new drain, which now empties into Bandit Bay eliminating flooding issues with the original drain.
Silt Basin #5 – Allstate Consulting inspected the clay liner, drainage system identifying a few tweaks needed before we stamp the basin ready for use. This is the primary basin for dredging Sunset Cove and several of the smaller coves on the southeast shoreline.
Silt Basin #6 – working with Allstate Consultants we have mapped out our plans for removing dirt from the basin to the new property acquired in 2025. We have applied with Missouri Fish and Wildlife for a “Land Disturbance” permit that will allow the clearing of the land we purchased over a year ago. This basin supports dredging of Sunrise and Mallard Bay along with smaller coves in that area.
You’ll see our crew start to take down most of the trees and underbrush in preparation for moving the dirt from the basin. We do have to preserve identified trees for the Bat Habitat through October 15th of this year. After which we will remove the remaining trees to enable full use of the property.
Mid-Year Financials – with the year half over here is a snapshot of the Association Financials for 2026. Also, Ways & Means starts the 2027 budget planning in the next few weeks. The last few years of planning will enable views of our long term needs for reserves and key infrastructure projects.
The below numbers through June 2026 reflect our financial stewardship is on track.
- Revenues = $2,626,460 vs. budget $2,508,900, 105% of budget.
- Expenditures = $1,186,314 vs. budget $1,163,733 102% of budget
- Road Reserve = $1,391,267 year start balance, spent YTD $626,469 with $350,000 additional spend expected.
- Dredging Reserve = $214,952, spent YTD $336,185; plan to leave money in reserve and not reimburse the general fund for YTD expenses.
- Capital Reserve = $137,650 with planned spend of $146,731; once the reserve is sufficient to reimburse the planned spend, money will be transferred to the general fund.
The general cash position for the LLA is very good with the sale of V66 this year; the position allows using General Funds and pushing out pulling Reserve Funds to replenish the cash position needed to operate each month.
Sincerely,
Jeff Clemow
President