Board of Directors Meeting Minutes December 15, 2025

TURTLE FLAMBEAU FLOWAGE – TRUDE LAKE
PROPERTY OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION
December 15, 2025 – 7:00 p.m via MEET HOUR Courtesy of Roger Nelson

7:02 PM- Meeting Called to Order:  Randy Schubert, President

Present:  Randy Schubert, President; Randy Payne, Vice President; Todd Jirous, Secretary; Directors:  Jeff Wilson, Terry Daulton, Karl Gustavson, Millard Johnson and Troy Tipton.

Guests:  Mike Hittle

Secretary’s Report– The meeting minutes for September 15th and October 20th were submitted to the group via email. A motion was made to approve both meeting minutes, the motion was seconded and carried unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report– Roger provided the financials via email on 12/14, along with comments in the email. A motion was made by Troy T. to accept the treasurer’s report as presented, the motion was seconded and carried unanimously.

Water Level Committee- Millard reported that the Summer started at Full Pool and dropped slowly over the course of the summer/fall. Rain fall this last summer was the lowest since 2009. On November 3 the lake level was at 1570.5, discharge at 330 cfs and water temp at 42 degrees

We’ve been working more with the DNR, which seems to work better when we’re looking for some kind of action from Excel.

We need to better understand the drawdown and the impact/spread of Invasives.

The MOU has been maintained. A Great start to winter with 31 inches of snow

Water Quality- No update

Invasive Species- Randy has been uploading Water Level Data to the Google Drive. He has also been uploading Google Maps data for tracking AIS. Randy is in the process of contacting Eric Olson about the possibility of netting the Turtle River just above the Falls near the FF bridge.

Membership Committee– Roger sent an email noting our membership at 208 now!

Communications Committee-

  • Troy was at the Library in the last month, and they have all our past issues on the Google Drive
  • The Winter edition of Driftwood was proofed last week and being printed now.
  • Troy to get a general idea how much The Driftwood costs to run additional copies (without distribution) Currently about 240 copies are printed and distributed. Includes the Mercer and Park Falls DNR, Excel, Mercer Library and Town Boards
  • If the printing hasn’t already been completed, Troy will try to get an additional 50 copies if the cost is reasonable.

Comments: Would it be interesting to have a “History” column? Such as Bill Tutt’s story of Big George?

Should we have a booth at Loon Day? With Mike’s book and our Driftwood Newsletter? (Explore this in a future meeting)

Old Business:

Wake Surfing-

  • Millard and Team are still working to get the ordinance past on to the DNR
  • Jeff and Todd went to the 12/11 Mercer Town Board meeting, and Fritz provided an update in the legal section of the meeting
  • They are going to move forward and Fritz will include all lakes under 50 Acres in size
  • Jeff stopped to see Debbie, and that we don’t need to include lakes under 50 Acres in size, as they are already Slow-No Wake, Statewide.
  • Jeff is going to reach back to the Town of Sherman (Mr. Smiley), to update them on our progress in the Town of Mercer
  • Terry is going to draft a one page summary on lakes under 50 acres, have Randy review it, and then send it to Debbie and Fritz. Looking to turn this around in a day or so, to send out by noon on Wednesday.

Google Drive- Troy T. update. Troy has provided a training document. Even with all that has been uploaded, we’re at 1.5% of the total available memory.

Draft “Master Plan”- Terry D.

  • The original plan was 25 years ago, and put a lot of detail into it
  • Have since gone to a Regional Plan
  • Hittle added that the Master Plan is really just a forestry management plan…you would not know that the Flowage is part of the Master Plan
  • Mike had a meeting with Casey (TFFTL property manager). Organizationally, the DNR has lumped the TFF in with the State Parks
  • It is not a State Park that is able to fund itself
  • What are the consequences? The DNR has significantly down graded the TFFTL
    • 1st– The Ranger Station in Mercer is NOT Public Facing
    • 2nd -One Full time person at the ranger station is devoted to the TFFTL
  • Casey wants to do the best that he can, but is just out of College, and feeling his way around…he feels like a glorified custodian at this point
  • There is a new position as “Host” on the Org Chart, to perhaps live on the Flowage and act as a Host. Perhaps a Volunteer? Instead of getting the “Patrolling” that it needs, we may be getting a host.
  • The monies are really really tight for building, staff and budget
  • Can we support a Friends Group? Can we negotiate a FG for what we want to do?
  • It could give us a formal seat at the table with the DNR
  • Casey would like established organizations behind him to support him on the Flowage
  • Mike is recommending that we have a conversation, such as what ICORE and MECCA has done. Would this be a stand alone group?
  • Jeff added that Beth Feind approached us 3-5 years ago about being Friends, and went on to explain why we didn’t at that time.
  • Randy S. is going to reach out to Casey to setup a meeting and conversation about what/how we might be able to Support him, and learn more about Friends Groups. We’ll try to invite Casey to the February or March meeting

100th Anniversary- Nothing special planned with the Chamber of Commerce

New Business:

Insurance for D&O- Randy reached out to the Lake Extension Group and added attachments in an email (10/19/2025). Just putting on the table for discussion at this time. Randy is going to look closer at the Titles.

Suggestion to get it on the “Lake Leaders” agenda for April to see what other Lake Associations are doing.

Boat Houses- Jeff received a call from Rick B. from the Mercer Town Board about our weighing in on a possible change in a County ordinance that would allow for Flat Roofs on Boat Houses. There will be a hearing at the court house in Hurley at 3pm on January 20th. The consensus of the group is that we’re not in favor of flat roofs, but shouldn’t take an official position without doing a survey. Jeff shared where this change request is coming from, and stated that the neighbors are not at all in favor of the change, and will likely be at the hearing on January 20th.

Summer Party/Picnic– Millard floated the idea of having a Summer Party at one of the campsites this summer…the group was very receptive…Let’s talk more about this!

Meeting adjourned at 9:06 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Todd Jirous
Secretary