Friday, May 20, 2011

Spring is here!

With spring comes the wonderful rain of life. That perfect rain, charged with nitrogen by the lightning from the thunderstorm itself. Greenery seems to spring out of the ground overnight, and grass grows inches a day. With all of this recent rain, the lake is at some of it's highest levels since 1947, when the "normal" lake level was officially established by the Michigan governmental department that is now the DNR. That level was 845 feet above sea level. As of the end of April of this year, Park Lake's level stood at 844.5 feet, and stood very nicely.

Part of our on-going efforts to sustain Park Lake's health and longevity has been to to focus on maintaining lake levels. In past years, lake levels have fallen unhealthily low, allowing unusually high weed growth caused by the increased sunlight penetration into the shallower waters.  We need help both personally and governmental to repair our water-control structure on the southwest corner of the lake. Initially built and installed in 1947 by the Park Lake Improvement League, it has now fallen into a sad state of disrepair, and our precious lake water freely flows around it and into the Looking Glass watershed at an alarming rate.

Funds are desperately needed to pay for engineering studies to determine the best and most cost-effective ways to implement the needed repairs to our water-control structure and related levees.

If we can manage the much needed repairs, and maintain water levels, Park Lake's present and future residents, as well as our natural residents will flourish.  Please help us with your membership. We also need dedicated volunteers for trustee positions, which will be determined at our June 8th election meeting.