MORSE LAKE IN THE MORNING

Fall is here - The leaves are falling - Our Lake is filling up fast enough by itself!

SO

 - Please do not rake or blow your leaves into our Beautiful lake! -

 DOCK ADDRESS SIGNS HAVE BEEN DELIVERED

 Please get signs attached to your docks ASAP. If you need help attaching, send email to info@morseh2o.org  or Kim Jowitt at kjj@co.hamilton.in.us .
 Click here to complete the social form. 

      FIRST DOCK SIGN SUCCESS:

  The first critical incident occurred this last weekend.  (9/20/08) A home in Forrest Bay caught fire when the gas line for the gas grill on the deck ruptured.  The deck caught fire, putting the house at risk.  Two different boaters saw it and called it in using the pier number.  Unfortunately, the homeowners were out of town and had not turned in a Morse Waterways Homeowners Association Involvement Return so we did not have a way to reach them.  The Cicero Fire Department does not think they know of the fire yet. 

This incident proved this system works!  However, it can’t work if your pier address plate is not posted.  There have been weekly reviews of the postings of the address plates.  Some neighborhoods have excelled, such as Forrest Bay and Cicero Shores.  Some neighborhoods have not done well at all.  In fact, a couple major neighborhoods only have around 20% posted. 

URGENT: DOCK ADDRESS SIGNS NEED TO BE MOUNTED 
On Monday, the Noblesville and Cicero Fire Departments toured the lake to check the placement of the dock address signs. Only 52% of the signs had been mounted. The fire departments will be making another check next week. We need to get the signs mounted before the next inspection. Remember this is for everyone’s safety for faster emergency response time. 
About 2 weeks ago, a gas line to a grill exploded and ignited a fire at a home in Forest Bay. The 911 caller used the dock address sign number to reference the home. The dock addresses are linked to the street address in the Hamilton County Sheriff’s data base, which allowed the emergency vehicles to respond by land to the home. This is proof that the system does work, if the signs on each dock are mounted.

Make sure you and your neighbors attach the dock signs this week. If you need assistance, please respond to this email and we will send someone to mount your sign. Thanks to all of you who helped Kim Jowitt deliver the signs to your neighbors. 98% of the signs have been delivered.  Special thanks to Dick Van Voorhis for getting all 16 of his signs mounted, the social forms completed and getting another 30 plus signs mounted in other neighborhoods. 

If you need a replacement or additional dock address signs for multiple docks, contact Autografix at 700 N. 9th St. in Noblesville 7749090. Replacement signs are $8. Remember that generous donations from Cicero, Noblesville, Sheriff’s Department and Marina Limited Partnership (the marina) paid for everyone’s initial sign. All the local agencies want to see these signs mounted for your safety.

WATER LEVEL DOWN 1.5 ft.
The dam valves closed on Sept 12 and have since re-opened. We are currently down 1.5 ft. from the top of the dam. We have had a much better year with water retention than during last year’s drought. The Water Company/Veolia has done a very good job this year managing the dam valves to minimize the water draw from Morse. 

WATER QUALITY TESTING – LARE GRANT 
We (Mike Murphy and Jim Schneider) are expecting proposals from DNR-LARE approved vendors by tomorrow Oct 1st. We have established a steering committee made up of representatives from Hamilton County Storm water, Tipton County Surveyor, IWC Advisory Board and Morse Waterways to review the proposals and select a vendor to conduct our water diagnostic study. 

DONATIONS NEEDED FOR MATCHING GRANT FUNDS
Currently we need 10% matching funds ($4,700) and need your donation. Please send checks made out to Morse Waterways Association to Jim Schneider, 2460 Cape Henry Ct. Cicero, IN 46034. Be sure to write the word “grant” on the memo line. If you want your donation to go to our general operating fund, then leave the memo line blank.

DREDGING
Matt Clarke and Jim Schneider have been doing some research and investigating regarding the potential of dredging the reservoir, particularly the north end. Our expected core sampling by Martin Marietta fell through, so Matt has contacted and met with IMI who is interested. IMI will do some preliminary investigation regarding well drilling data. In the meantime, we have contacted Indian Lake and Lemon Lake who have dredging operations, plus vendors who perform this function. We plan to organize a meeting in the very near future for those of you who are interested. We need some help now to assist with contacting various vendors and agencies (IDEM, DNR, Corp of Engineers). Please contact me if you can help. James.schneider@comcast.net 

WEB SITE
Dick Van Voorhis is looking for help with our web site. We have made some recent changes to content, but would like to totally re-design the site to make it easier to add/delete content. If you have expertise in web design, please contact Dick. dickvanv@gmail.com 

WE NEED YOUR INPUT
As you can see, your Morse Waterways Association has many projects that we are actively working. We have a steering committee of approximately 12-14 people that has been meeting regularly the past 2 months. Our goal is to find the issues and concerns that affect Morse residents and take action on those issues. Let us know if you have issues that we are not addressing. Which issues are you most interested in us pursuing? Our mission is to promote safety, create economic value, and enhance our property values. If you would like to join our steering committee or get involved with any of the projects listed above, then send a message to info@morseh2o.org 

LARE GRANT FUNDING APPROVED

Our Morse Waterways Association application for the Lake and River Enhancement grant has been selected for 2008-2009 funding in the amount of $47,700. The LARE grants are available through the Indiana department of Natural resources and funded by annual boat registration fee. The purpose of the grant is to conduct a water quality diagnostic study of the primary tributaries feeding into Morse including Big Cicero, Hinkle and Bear Slide creeks. Little Cicero Creek was previously studied in 2005 and the results will be used in conjuction with the new study. 

Thank to all of the organizations and people who have supported us in this process including the town of Cicero, city of Noblesville, Tipton and Hamilton County Surveyors Office, Veolia Water, Representative Eric Turner and Senator Luke Kenley. We are in the process of accepting proposals from engineering firms for the work process. Proposals are due October 1^st and will be reviewed by our LARE Grant steering committee.