Category: GLA News

GLA News

2024 Boat Parade

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7/27/2024

Howdy Garfield Lake Association Members!!

Well, it looks like we’re getting into summer finally …. The temps are heating up and as I write this, I am hearing some big booms in the sky.  But I think the colors of the lake and area around is just wonderful thanks to early rain.  I hope you are enjoying it all as well.

I have attached a few photos of Garfield Lake’s 20th Annual Boat Parade showing a couple of boats all decked out for the fun afternoon.  As noted, it’s the 20th time we have done this and judging by the boats that showed up, everyone enjoys it.   We think we had 30 boats this year, taking a spin around the lake with a whole lot of friends and family sitting on their docks or shoreline waving to us.  I got these from some friends, but I am sure our members have many more that you might want to share.  If so, please send them to garfieldlakeassociation@gmail.com  and we will post them. If we get enough, we might send out another short message with them. They also might provide some warmth this winter as we think about our summer.

If you have some fun photos of both the July 4th Boat Parade, the GLA Cake Picnic after the parade and/or other cool looking items around the lake please send them to us.  As I noted, all of the GLA Team Leads emails are on the web site.

Also, the Social Committee is planning our 2nd Annual Potluck for Sunday, Aug. 25.  Mark your calendars! More details to follow.

Have fun!!  Be Safe and Thanks for being a member of the Garfield Lake Association.  Remember our Mission:      KEEP GARFIELD HEALTHY!!

Thanks,  Ron

Whitten Aerials – Garfield Lake Photos

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We have been contacted by Vern Whitten, owner of Whitten Aerials.  Vern has taken several photos of many lakes around the area which included Lake Garfield and has shared them with us.  He also sells these photos in various forms and media so if you like what you see, please contact him at this address:  Vern Whitten whittenaerials@gmail.com  We are going to put some of these on the GLA website.  By separate email, I will attach some really cool aerial photographs of Lake Garfield taken by his airplane.  I will also attach a price sheet for his products, and he has offered a 20% discount on those prices through August.  All those arrangements are between you and Vern.  We share them with you as we think some of our members might enjoy them and his products.

GLA Update – Annual Meeting is coming May 27, 2023 @ 10:00 AM

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Hello Garfield Lake Association Members!!

This is just a quick message to remind you of our 6th Garfield Lake Association meeting coming up.  It’s May 27th, 2023, at 10:00 am in the Trinity Lutheran Church in Laporte.  Our meeting will last no more than 1 hour so we can all get out and enjoy our Lake.

A couple of the items we will share with you are the status of our AIS Inspection at the Garfield Boat Landing.  Thanks to several of our members and the Garfield Lake Ice Racers, we’ve come back to the inspection hours we had last year.  We will give you more details on that at the meeting.

We also would like to share with the fishermen of our membership the status of how we hope to “deal with” the huge number of small northerns in our lake.  We have some good historical data that we hope to convince the “right people” that something needs to be done.  We would like our members’ input and experiences on this at the meeting.

We are going to take a vote to change our By Laws to allow those individuals who would like to be on the Garfield Board of Directors to “choose” the length of their term.  We think more members would join us in the length of their “term” was from 1 to 3 years, at their choice, when they are elected.  We are always looking for membership input and support and the easiest and most consistent way to do that is by becoming a Board member.  So, our hope is our membership will “pass” the By Laws change to allow a 1-, 2- or 3-year term.  We hope you think about it and join us.

We will also be distributing the fun Garfield Lake clothing and articles that our members purchased from the company of one of our members, Bee Seen Gear.  We can tell you at the meeting more about that as we distribute those items.

We use this meeting to collect the annual membership fee of $30 for the 2023 season.  Your checks can be made out to the Garfield Lake Association.  These are the funds we use to “match” Lakeport township, Hart Lake Township, and the City of Laporte to help pay for increased AIS Boat Landing inspection. 

We ask that you please join us at this 6h Annual Meeting!!  It will held on May 27, at 10:00 am, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Laporte.   I promise you, the meeting will last no longer than one hour.   We use it to get the comments and ideas our members have on ways to KEEP GARFIELD HEALTHY !!

Hope to see you there,  Ron Ray

DNR Sunfish Limit Program

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Most of you are aware that the size of the sunfish in Garfield lake has been trending smaller over the last few years. In an effort to reverse this trend the DNR is proposing reducing the daily limit of sunfish on Garfield lake to 5 sunfish per person per day.


You can voice your opinion on the subject and hopefully show your support two ways.
The link below is a DNR survey on the subject – the survey is done by lake, Garfield Lake is #24 in the survey.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish/sunfish/index.html

The DNR will also be having a meeting on the subject on September 30th, at the Lake Porte Town Hall on hwy 39 from 5-7pm.


Please take the time to take the survey and if you can attend the meeting.
It’s a great day on Garfield today!!


Dan Fitch

President

Garfield Lake Association

Invasive Species Survey

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Garfield Lake Residents,

  We had a bit of good news over the last week or so, regarding Garfield Lake.  We had RMB Labs do a vegetation survey in an area of about 100+ yards around the boat landing looking specifically for any signs of zebra mussel or any AIS vegetation concerns.  They ( 2 employees of RMB) spent about 1 ½ hours in a boat “raking weeds from the bottom” and looked in detail at what they found.  Their findings showed nothing of concern!  Great news !!

They will be putting this data together in some organized form showing what they found ;  where (the specific spot) and how much.  We will share this with you guys when we get it but we wanted to pass on this good news now.  Greg, Mark and I were able to see how they did this.  We have some photos we took which we will pass on.ww.facebook.com/garfieldlakeassociation/

Dan Fitch

President

Garfield Lake Association

Lake Stewardship

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Hello Again GLA members,

Thanks again for taking the time to look into ways to Keep Garfield Healthy.  As the subject title shows this message will show you a page on values for and ways to reduce phosphorus going into Garfield.  It is a great “overall lake stewardship booklet” showing many other interesting ways of good lake stewardship practices.  Here is the web link to the full booklet: 

https://www.hubbardswcd.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Shoreland-Guide.pdf

Again,  thanks for taking the time to Keep Garfield Healthy!

Dan Fitch

President GLA

Septic Systems

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My intention for this message is to be short and to the point.  It really is just a reminder to make sure you pump your septic tanks on a routine basis.  I have attached the University of Minnesota “check sheet” that homeowners can use to help figure out how often your tank should be pumped.  If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to go thru the check sheet and figure out your needs. It is really simple and quick but helpful in knowing how often.

http://septic.umn.edu/sites/septic.umn.edu/files/septic_tank_pumping_frequency_guidelines.pdf

Our Board also thought it would be helpful to guide our members as to what the best time is to get the tank pumped.  So, we talked to a couple of local septic tank contractors :  Carol from Dales Septic and Frank Vogeltanz from DREC Construction.  Carol said this:  “While every year is different, and all homes and cabins are different the latest time to pump your septic tank is early October.   Earlier than that is fine, but it also is important that your septic system is in good working order to prevent it from freezing.  If you have large groups in the home of cabin that has a factor in when you clean out your system.”

Frank said this: “ Latest time mid-August – mid September. Need time to have enough material in the tank for the heat. The fewer the people using the tank the earlier pumped the better.”

So, we encourage you to take a minute and think about your home or cabin and take any needed action. 

Enjoy the last weekend of summer!

Dan Fitch

President Garfield Lake Association