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MORSE WATERWAYS ASSOCIATION
www.morseh2o.org
General Meeting Summary
May 19, 2008
WOW! What a great meeting. Lots of information and many guest
speakers and guest attendees.
Our general session meeting was attended by approximately 60 people.
The Osprey Pointe Pavilion in Morse Park and Beach was a great
central location for those who attended. Thanks to Ford Hebner for
arranging its use free of charge to our group.
Entering our 4th year, membership has now grown to over 400
households. However, I still have people on the lake tell me they
never heard of our organization. There are 1400 households living on
the water. Please tell your neighbors to go to our web site
www.morseh2o.org and signup for our newsletters. We will keep you
informed of Morse events and more importantly the opening and
closing of the dam valves.
US Masters Swimming Event will be held on July 19th. This is the
first time the 25K swim event has been held on Morse. The race
starts at 7:00am at the South Harbour Beach. Some of the best
swimmers in the world will swim laps in the no wake zone to Little
Chicago Road and back until they reach the 25K which is longer than
the Mini Marathon. Sponsors and Volunteers still needed. Contact
Race Director Dick Sidner dsidner@gmail.com
Safety Awareness Days will be held on May 31st and June 1st. We have
a good response on volunteers to signup helping to hand out the
Indiana Boating Guide at Morse Marina over this weekend. We could
use a few more people. Email Andy Sheets asheets@c21scheetz.com if
you can help out.
Water Level Update on Indianapolis Water Company (IWC) and Veolia
Water initiatives. Roger Goings represents the city of Noblesville
on the advisory council board of IWC. Roger has been active in our
group since the beginning and keeps us abreast of IWC/Veolia
activities and programs.
Paul Whitmore is the new Communications Manager for Veolia Water and
attended our meeting. Veolia has been doing a great job of keeping
us informed this last year of all activities, particularly when they
are getting ready to open the dam valves. Let’s hope for lots of
rain this year, so we don’t hear from Paul.
North and South Harbour no longer are supplied water only from
wells. They have a new source of water which includes water coming
from the White River North plant. This plant is down stream from
Morse. Now that some of you are drinking the water from Morse, we
should have an even greater appreciation of the water quality.
One cause of less water last year during the draught may be
attributed to the increase in corn production. More farmers are
planting corn instead of beans due to the demand and higher prices
for corn for ethanol gas production. Corn uses significantly more
water to grow than beans, thereby decreasing the amount of water in
the watershed which feeds Morse.
Water Quality is a big topic for our group this year. Mike Murphy
has been working as on this subject for nearly 2 years and I have
now joined Mike in his efforts to ensure that we do everything
possible to have healthy, safe water for recreational use and for
drinking. As I previously informed you, we have applied for a LARE
grant of $53,000 to conduct a water diagnostic study of Morse and
its major tributaries. We jointly applied for the grant funding with
the Upper White River Watershed Alliance of which we are now a
member. Jill Hoffmann representing the UWRWA attended the meeting
and answered questions regarding the grant and the current testing
by IUPUI.
In addition, IUPUI in conjunction with DNR and IDEM is conducting
monthly testing on Morse, Geist and Eagle Creek Reservoirs. This new
testing initiative is a result of the blue algae problem which
surfaced at Geist last year. It is common for the blue algae to grow
the year following a draught. You will see more from our group this
summer to help educate all of us on how we can do our part to
eliminate this issue and other water quality issues on Morse.
Mike Murphy and Karen Blake representing Cicero, spoke about the
impact of storm water runoff in Cicero and passed out folders
containing information regarding the new GIS system used by Cicero
for storm water, 10 things you can do to prevent storm water
pollution, and Phase II Storm water Program initiated by the EPA
under the Clean Water Act.
Tim Stottlemyer is the Storm Water Utilities Director for
Noblesville. Tim gave a presentation on the impact of the storm
water runoff which is now the number 1 pollutant. Big business and
factories were the former largest polluters of our water stream. We
are now the big polluters and need to re-think how we impact our
water supply. The fertilizer we put on our grass, the detergents we
use to clean our cars and boats all end up in Morse and the White
River.
Sheana Smith with the Hamilton County Soil and Water Dept. spoke
about a new program offered through our tax dollars. Sheana in
trained in urban conservation and will assist home owners and
neighborhoods in planning “backyard conservation”. Sheana
offered to have a workshop for us and we will be planning that in
the near future. Go to www.hamiltonswcd.org for more information.
Cindy Gibson from Greenway Supply www.greenwaysupply.net had a
sample of a rain barrel which holds 60 gallons of water. Simply
attach it to your gutter downspout, save your rain water and use it
to water your flowers and lawn.
Mike Murphy is looking for volunteers for the River Water Program to
assist with gathering samples from creeks and tributaries in the
watershed. Contact: Mike Murphy (984-4571 phone) email: mpmurphy@insightbb.com
Dock Address Signs. What can I say about this subject? First, for
those of you not familiar with these, here is the program. Dock
signs will be distributed free of charge to all homeowners on Morse
Reservoir courtesy of donations from the Town of Cicero, City of
Noblesville, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department and Marina
Limited Partnership who manages the Morse Marina. Planning for this
project started a couple of years ago and the funding was secured
nearly 2 years ago. This safety program is designed to identify
locations quick and easily on the reservoir for emergency responses
to 911 and other calls. The dock address signs will be a unique
number for each dock on the lake, but will be cross referenced in
the database to the home owner’s street address for response by
land and/or water.
The signs were to be distributed last year but the vendor ran into a
quality issue with the material from his supplier. The signs are
similar to your car license plate, but with a reflective material to
be more easily seen at night.
I spoke with the vendor on Monday and was assured that the signs
would be completed by the end to the week. Keep your fingers
crossed.
In conjunction with the sheriff’s department, Cicero and
Noblesville, Morse Waterways Association will assist in distribution
and affixing signs as needed. The existence of our association has
made it possible for this program to be implemented. Let’s make
sure we get the signs attached to all the docks.
Department of Natural Resources. Conservation Officer John Gano of
the DNR informed the group that the DNR was able to have more hours
on the lake in 2007 than in 2006. The result was fewer citations
written due to greater disability. The DNR will be focusing on under
age drinking this year and may be running some undercover sting
operations. Officer Gano (Carmel grad) and Officer Kyle Goff
(Hamilton Heights grad) patrol many hours on the lake in addition to
other officers. If you have questions or concerns, please stop them
on the water. No questions, then just tell them hi and thanks for
their support.
If you have questions for the DNR, their phone number is (765)
473-9722.
Donations are needed.
We have about $1,000 in our checking account, which will be spent by
the end of July. We don’t need a lot of money, but we need some
funds to operate our programs. If we are fortunate to get the LARE
grant money, we will need to have a 10% matching fund or $5,300. In
the mean time, we will take any donation of any denomination. If
members and friends could contribute $10-20 or more, this could go a
long way. This is a voluntary donation. Make checks payable to Morse
Waterways Association. You can send your check to Morse Waterways
Association c/o Jim Schneider 2460 Cape Henry Ct. Cicero, IN 46034.
Dredging We are still waiting on Martin Marietta to conduct core
sampling. If they find any matter worth mining, then cost and
planning would insignificant. If they are not successful, then the
cost and planning will be plenty, but the payoff in property values
and use of boats will be significant for those in the dredging
areas. While waiting for the MM to conduct the sampling, we are in
process of contacting dredging companies, local and state agencies
such as IDEM, DNR etc. This will be a long a process, but there is
hope. If you want to help with this project, please contact Matt
Clarke mclarke@wawinc.com or me Jim Schneider
james.schneider@comcast.net
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