04 08 2025 Meeting Minutes

Starke County Park Board

April 8, 2025

Meeting Minutes

Present: R. Ballard, T. Busch, D. Sinn, & T. Trout

R. Ballard called meeting to order.

T. Busch made the motion to accept the minutes of the March 11, 2025 meeting, with the corrected spelling of a last name of a speaker from the last meeting. Passed 4-0.

Pier installation and removal bids: Three bids were opened:

Johnson and Sons Piers-$4,900 for installation, $4,900 for removal, totaling $9,800 + fixing damaged boards, not to exceed $250.

Steve Berndt-$8,500 for installation, $8,500 for removal, totaling $17,000

Les Jensen-$7,840 for installation, $7,840 for removal, totaling $15,680

T. Busch made a motion to accept the bid of Joel Johnson and Sons for installation and removal of the three pier sections at Bass Lake Beach for a total of $9,800, seconded by D. Sinn. Passed 4-0.

Superintendent Flora shared that the English Lake kayak launch Ribbon Cutting will take place on Saturday, April 26 at noon. All park board and other county officials will be emailed a reminder before the date. The HW 23 launch site plans were distributed, the new plans were intended to be distributed, but looked like they were the older plans. Construction on the launch is set to begin mid-June 2025.

Reservation website was discussed, as well as, discussing the website builder called Wix. A. Flora explained that it would be much more practical and efficient to have a reservation website for the campground. Our intern is looking into building something on the platform Wix, which has a $30 subscription fee. The county tech department wrote a letter of support for this endeavor. D. Sinn made motion to go forward with reservation website, seconded by T. Trout. Passed 4-0.

B. Wakeland gave a short report on the Starke County Forest. There was a lot of storm damage early in April, mostly on the north side of the forest. At least 30 trees were uprooted, all trees with forks, which weakens the tree. Bruce spoke about how he cleans and maintains after storms, but leaving downed trees makes a good seed bed for the forest. This is why you will see many downed trees at the Forest, and tops of dead trees will be loped to keep from being fire hazards. Bruce would like to see this practice put into the Trust Agreement for the future of the Forest.

Superintendent’s Report:

Starke Co Forest: Bruce: storm damage; Art at the Forest—June 5th World Environment Day. There will be plein air painters, demonstrations, art station for kids, lunch is provided and more. This event is free to the public.

Fundraiser: apparel is in, we raised $116. I’d like to put in another order to have some apparel for sale in the concession stand at the beach this summer. Thank you to Jeremy Marsh from Sports Unlimited.

Surveyor’s office: partnering with department to sponsor a self-guided nature scavenger hunt at the Starke Co. Forest in May. In June, we will share a booth with surveyor that includes games and prizes for kids and a raffle for adults. And sometime around late summer or early fall, we are hoping to co-sponsor another event at the Forest called “Wow, the Wonders of the Wetlands” put on by Project Wet.

Renovation is on track. Crew is waiting for temperatures to be no less than 40 degrees two days consecutively, so they can glue the walls in the camp bathhouse. Once that is done, we can turn back on the water and UN-winterize the campground. Everyone is ready! The rest of the renovation is still on track.

Financial Report*

D. Ballard spoke about the Quiet Title suit brought against the county for Kramer’s Beach. This will be coming up June 2, 2025 at 9:30 am. Our attorney is confident we will be successful in this suit.

Financial Report*

Other business-none

D. Ballard adjourned meeting.

___________________________________                ____________________________________

Richard Ballard-president                                                 Tom Busch-vice president

______ABSENT_______________________               ____________________________________

Sam Byer-member                                                             David Sinn-member

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Teresa Trout-member