Crockery Lake Association
Board Meeting
July 17, 2024
Chester Township Hall
1. Call to Order: 7:01pm
2. Roll Call: Present – Betsy Ludwick, Dan Atwood, Bob Blauwkamp, Greg Slater, Paula Humphrey,
Jason Bueschel
Absent: with notification – Tyler Heitzman, without notification – Mollie Gaggin
Audience: 7 people in attendance – Jody Hyde, Troy Goodno (Township Trustee), Kyle & Janice
Stahl, Carl Elliott, Tom Ludwick, Keri Bueschel & Joe Bush
3. Guest Speaker: Ross Simpson, Eden Lakes Innovative Water Solutions. Mr. Simpson spoke to us
about “TimberChar” and it’s use in lakes to reduce pollutants. They are currently using their
product on several area MI lakes with good success. They also work within the parameters set by
EGLE. Prior to speaking with us tonight, Mr. Simpson did an estimate if this product would be used
in Crockery Lake he estimated the initial cost to be $39, 960, or approximately
$525/riparian and that cost would be reduced in each successive year for a 3 year service
program. Additional information and their success with this system on other lakes can be found
on their website: www.edenlakes.co, out of Spring Lake, MI.
Several expressed their thanks for Mr. Simpson’s presentation and thank him for coming out to
speak with us.
4. Approval of Agenda: Bill Marks moved to approve the agenda as submitted. Bob Blauwkamp
supported that motion. The motion passed by unanimous vote of the members present.
5. Call to the Audience: Troy Goodno remarked that the fireworks display on the 3rd was very good.
6. Committee Reports:
A. President: Betsy Ludwick
1) She commented on the “ugly lake” condition and that she has received several calls and
emails regarding the poor condition of the lake. Based on those contacts she reached out
to EGLE, the Ottawa County Health Dept. and wasn’t able to make any headway. She
shared an email reply from EGLE that basically said “we know Crockery Lake is eutrophic”.
The county parks department doesn’t do any testing at Grose Park for water quality.
2) Betsy has continued to update lake residents via our website, the Facebook page and our
CLA newsletter.
B. Secretary’s Report: the minutes from the June meeting were emailed out to the board
members for revisions prior to tonight’s meeting. Any recommended changes have been
made. Once the minutes are approved they will be posted on the CLA website. Motion to
approve minutes was made by
Dan Atwood, and supported by Bob Blauwkamp. Motion carried by unanimous vote of the
members present.C. Treasurer’s Report: Greg Slater
Our current financial report was reviewed. We currently have 58 active CLA members. The
general fund has a balance as of 7/15/24 is $4,659.78. Fireworks Fund after our final payment
for 2024 show will be at $4,788.06, leaving us in need of $2700.94 to meet our 2025 Fireworks
Expense of $7500 by December 31, 2024. Other funds balance of $6,585.70 for a total of
$16,033.54 in our account. Motion to accept the treasurer’s report as submitted was made by
Bill Marks, and support was made by Dan Atwood, this motion carried by unanimous vote of
the members present.
D. Events: Mollie Gaggin wasn’t in attendance, report was given by Betsy Ludwick. She saw great
participation on July 3rd for our boat parade (9 boats participated), several lawns were
decorated and it was an all around great community feeling. Many people from the
surrounding community came to Grose Park to watch the fireworks display.
1) Bill Marks reported that our current budget of $7000 would mean a smaller show for 2025,
but he has let the company know that we would like to schedule them again for July 3,
2025. Betsy Ludwick will post “Give Butter” again on the website and in the newsletter to
generate additional contributions. Many thanks to Bill and Dan for suggesting we
encourage contributions through Paypal and Venmo by posting signs at the boat launch, at
the park and on streets coming into the lake. Several donations were generated by posting
these signs. A motion was made by Bill Marks that we give a gratuity of $200 to the Gunkel
family this year to express our appreciation once again for the use of their field. This
motion was supported by Dan Atwood, and the motion carried by unanimous vote of the
members present. Bill and Dan will visit the Gunkel home personally to deliver the money
and to ask if we can reserve the field for our 2025 Fireworks Show. Discuss followed that we
consider raising the Fireworks Display budget to $7500 for 2025 to cover a larger show and
our gratuities: $100 annual donation to the Chester Township Fire Department Rosel
Memorial Fund and $200 gratuity to the Gunkel Family for the use of their field and funds to
cover a show of the same size as 2024.
E. Communication: Betsy Ludwick
Communication was discussed previously under President’s Report A.1)
F. Lake Management & Education
1) Our guest speaker this evening was Ross Simpson of Eden Lakes, Innovative Water
Solutions. Dan Atwood commented that he was skeptical to use this product on our lake
and recommended that we talk to residents of Silver Lake to see what results they have
witnessed.
2) Betsy will try to scheduled a representative from the company “Sludgehammer” to speak at
our August meeting.
3) Lake Treatment for weeds and/or algae: Betsy explained the reasoning behind our delay of
treatments given that we are working with RLS testing our lake to get the needed permits
from EGLE for lake remediation. If conditions seem likely that we would have an algae
bloom we would move to have a treatment preformed.
i. RLS will test Crockery Lake by the end of July.ii. EGLE and Ottawa County Health Department have both declined to test our lake to
determine if it is safe to use.
iii. Chester Township has voted to give us needed funds up to $5000 to apply to the
testing being done by RLS. Discussion followed: It was discussed that we exhaust
the current monies available in the SAD, use the monies needed up to the $5000
allotted by Chester Township and then use the funds out of our Lake Clean-Up Fund
to finish paying the testing expense for 2024. Money will be needed for lake
remediation and a new SAD will need to be pursued to cover that remediation.
iv. Joe Bush with the Ottawa County Water Resources Commission is working to use
grant monies awarded for some of our lake remediation.
G. Welcome Committee: Paula Humphrey
We currently have 2 new homes under construction on the lake. Both are previous owners
rebuilding new homes. We have one home on the market, the family has already moved out.
Once the home sells, Paula will reach out to the new owners.
7. Around the Table
A. Dan – we need a cash app for the “Fund-A-Fish” income.
B. Jason – nothing
C. Betsy – Mollie Gaggin hasn’t been attending meetings and participating on the Board on a
regular dependable basis and according to our By-Laws can be replaced by a 2/3rds vote of
CLA members in attendance at any given regular meeting of the Board. A motion was made by
Dan Atwood that we vote to release Mollie Gaggin of her commitment as a Board
Representative of the Crockery Lake Association. Bill Marks supported that motion. CLA
members in attendance were asked to voice their ayes or nays. The vote was unanimous to
release Mollie Gaggin from her commitment. Betsy Ludwick will contact her to let her know of
this decision. Betsy also asked for recommendations to replace her.
D. Greg Slater – nothing
E. Bob Blauwkamp – nothing
F. Paula Humphrey – Lesha Gustin has offered to make T-Shirts as a fund raiser for the Lake
Clean-Up Fund. Paula had an example of the design Lesha was willing to make up. Some
discussion followed as to other items that might be available as well. Paula agreed to get back
to the board after contacting Lesha with those requests.
G. Bill Marks – nothing
8. Adjournment: Greg Slater motioned that the meeting be adjourned. Supported by Dan Atwood. All
in favor!
Next Meeting: August 21, 2024
7:00 pm, Chester Township Hall
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