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March 24, 2009 Meeting Summary by Jim Schneider What great support from other organizations for our meeting. In attendance was DNR Conservation Officer John Gano, David Hill from Veolia Water and Skip Nunweiler from the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. Our MWA organization was founded 4 years ago to better serve the Morse reservoir community. We now have over 600 people in our database. This database allows us to communicate via email informing Morse residents of ongoing activities on and around our reservoir. Of the 1400 people living on the reservoir, there are still many who never heard of our organization. Please ask your neighbors to go to our web site www.morseh2o.org and signup for our newsletters. New officers were voted in for this year. Jim Schneider as President, Mike Murphy VP and Andy Sheets as Secretary. Safety Awareness Days will be held on May 30,31st. We could use a few more volunteers help hand out the Indiana Boating Guide at Morse Marina over this weekend. Contact Andy Sheets asheets@c21scheetz.com if you can help out. Boating Classes Choose from 3 classes:
Save the Island project is gaining progress. John South SWCD with Hamilton County, Andy Sheets and Mike Murphy took a tour of the island last week to help develop a plan of action for dealing with the fallen trees, the slope of the terrain and filling in with riprap. We are working with the Indianapolis Water Company which owns the property for applying for the necessary permits. Department of Natural Resources. Conservation Officer John Gano informed the group that the DNR was able to have more hours on the lake in 2008 versus prior years. There was only 1 reported accident on the reservoir last year and there were no fatalities. The safety record for Morse is improving due to more education, more visibility of law enforcement on the water and maybe our Safety Awareness Days. The DNR wrote 232 tickets last year, up from 112 the year earlier. Fishing license violations doubled. What you need to know: It is a violation for you or out of town guests to fish from your dock without a license. You can purchase fishing licenses online at http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/5330.htm If you have questions for the DNR, their phone number is (765) 473-9722. For emergencies on the water, day or night, dial 911 and ask for conservation officer. If you see people speeding late at night, call 911. .S. Coast Guard Auxiliary This volunteer organization performs vessel safety checks on Morse a few times each year. There is no charge for the safety check. It is a great idea to make sure your boat is legal and safe for the coming boating season. Click for more information. http://a0820107.uscgaux.info/vsc.htm As indicated above, the Auxiliary also provides boating safety classes. Flotilla Boat Parade MWA first annual Flotilla will be held on July 4th from 1:00 – 2:00PM. Decorate your boat and meet at red Bridge Park by 12:30. The parade will start at Red Bridge and end at the Morse Marina. There is no entry fee, but you must register to participate. Registration forms will be on our web site soon. Prizes for best decorated boats will be awarded. Indianapolis Water Company (IWC) and Veolia Water Roger Goings represents the city of Noblesville on the advisory council board of IWC. Roger gave us an update on the new systems installed by IWC the last 2 years which help monitor the flow of water along the White River to better adjust the new valves letting water flow out of Morse. This allows for minimum drain from Morse. Roger also discussed the new water Use Policy which will be in place this year. Veolia wants to continue its public service announcement to minimize water usage during peak season of summer. For example, your grass will actually grow better if it is watered every other day rather than every day. Winter usage of water by Indianapolis is 130 million gallons a day. Summer usage is 200 million gallons/day. Goose control. Roger and Dick Van Voorhis attended a DNR seminar on geese last week. The geese population has increased dramatically around Morse in the last few years. The amount of goose waste is not only unsightly, but can be a detriment to our health and increase of e coli in the reservoir. Since Roger and Dick attended the meeting, Morse Waterways can now apply for permit to destroy the eggs which will limit the increase of the goose population. This process is known as “oiling” and you must have a permit on you when performing this procedure and you must have permission from the property owner. Go to our web site for more information. Cicero Creek Watershed Management Project. Mike Murphy covered the 7 task as outlined in the scope of the watershed management plan being conducted by our contracted vendor V3. This water diagnostic study is a combination of consolidating past studies and historical data along with new field work to study macro invertebrates. This project is being funded by the LARE grant we received for $47,700. Contact: Mike Murphy if you have any questions or would like to assist with this project (984-4571 phone) email: mpmurphy40@comcast.net Dock Address Signs. In conjunction with the sheriff’s department, Cicero and Noblesville, Morse Waterways Association, the signs were delivered last fall. Please your sign and your neighbors attached now, before the heavy boating season. Be sure to place your dock number on all of your stuff. If your stuff floats away, it will be easier to find the correct home owner. Dredging A separate steering committee has been formed to work on this big project. Two areas have been targeted as first opportunity for dredging, south of Rt 19 bridge in Cicero and west of Little Chicago Rd. If you want to help with this project, please contact Matt Clarke mclarke@wawinc.com Web Site has been recently redesigned by Dick Van Voorhis. We have some additional information that will be added in near future. Please review the site and give us feedback. Are there any things which you would like to see added to the site. Do you have any information to help us complete the site. Donations are needed. We are a low budget organization but we do need money for basis operating funds including web site hosting, liability insurance, printing of flyers, membership fees to the UWRWA. In addition, we need 10% matching fund for our $48,000 water quality grant and funds toward the improvement of the island erosion project. We are looking for additional grant funding and private donations for some of these projects. If everyone on this email distribution list donated just $10, we would have sufficient funds to cover our expenses for 2009. You can make a donation on our web site using PayPal or make checks payable to Morse Waterways Association. Send your check to Morse Waterways Association c/o Jim Schneider 2460 Cape Henry Ct. Cicero, IN 46034.
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info@Morseh2o.org