News from the Board of the
Lake Shamineau Lake Improvement District
As a subscriber, you are receiving an edition of the Electronic Newsletter for the Lake Shamineau Lake Improvement District (LSLID). The LSLID Board of Directors issues the monthly newsletter to provide updates on LSLID activities. Check out our website for detailed information, announcements and documents.
Update on High-Water
Outlet Project
Final Site and Route Established
WSN has made substantial progress with their work to complete design modifications for the infiltration area and pumping site, and to determine a route from the pumping area to the infiltration site.

It has taken time to finalize agreements with property owners, but we are pleased to announce that we have Letters of Intent from all property owners along the route including the pumping site, the force main (pipe) route, and with the property owner of the infiltration site. Note that the location of the infiltration site has changed.

This new infiltration site has several advantages:
  • The new infiltration area is a larger acreage site with larger infiltration areas, which allows for lower infiltration rates and less groundwater mounding. 
  • There is already an observation well just north of the area for observing water levels during infiltration. 
  • The regional water table beneath the new infiltration areas are at a lower elevation, providing a thicker unsaturated zone for groundwater mounding and flowage away from the infiltration area. 
  • The new infiltration area is farther east and closer to Stanchfield Lake, which will allow the infiltrated water to move more east and northeast and seep into Stanchfield Lake, which has an adequate outlet to the north.

A map of the pumping site, route and infiltration site and a detailed task and timeline is available on the website.
In addition to determining the design and route for pumping, the following tasks have been completed:
  • An Archeological Study has been completed.
  • Additional borings, surveys and design work for the infiltration site and pumping areas have been completed.
  • Drafting of the documentation required for permitting has begun.
  • Work on an initial draft of an Operations and Maintenance Plan has begun.
  • There have been good meetings and positive communications with the DNR and other agencies.
  • The LID and WSN has met and corresponded with neighboring property owners to the project to continue to address questions and concerns.

We have modified the timeline for completion of the High Water Outlet Project:
  • Completion of Plans and permitting - March 2020
  • Completion of final design, plans and specifications, bidding and bid review - April/May 2020
  • Public Assessment Hearing for Temporary Financing - May 2020
  • Construction - June to October 2020
  • Begin Pumping - Late Fall 2020
  • Hold Public Hearing and adopt final project assessment roll and issue bonding - Late Fall 2020
  • Finalize assessment certify budget for 2021 with project assessments - Nov 2020
LID Board Meetings

The LID Board of Directors holds Board meetings to review, discuss and as needed, vote on various LID items. These meetings have been held as needed and notices are posted on the LID website. The meetings have been held at the Scandia Valley Town Hall or through an online conference tool. Recently, the Board approved a schedule of four preset meetings per year to be held in Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. 

The schedule for these four meetings for 2020 are as follows:
  • January 14, 2020 - Recently held online meeting
  • May 16, 2020; 9:30 AM; Scandia Valley Town Hall
  • August 29, 2020; Annual Meeting at the Lincoln Evangelical Church
  • September 19, 2020; 9:30 AM; Scandia Valley Town Hall

This schedule has been posted on the website. Other special meetings will be held as needed and will be announced on the website. Minutes of all Board meetings are posted on the website.

Note that a special Board Meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, February 11 at 4:00 PM. This meeting will be held online and the agenda for the meeting will be posted on the website prior to the meeting. To attend, send an email to Fred Comb to receive an email invitation to the meeting at fred@homeinspectionsofmn.com. Prior to the meeting, Fred will send you an email invitation for the meeting. Information regarding online meetings is on the LID website. 
Emergency Task Force

While the LID continues to work hard on a long-term project to begin pumping next fall, an E mergency Task Force has been formed to explore additional steps that can be taken to alleviate the flooding problems. These steps include mitigating inflows and improving outflows, as well as looking at the possibility of emergency pumping in the spring.

An update on recent activities of the Emergency Task Force includes:
  • Permits to clean the ditch on private property has been received from all 10 property owners on the So. side of CR 203. An excavator has been secured and Scandia Valley has agreed to manage the operation.
  • The Lake Association conducted a fundraiser to help pay for ditch cleaning and has raised $7,500 with a Lake Association match of $5,000 bringing the total available funds of $12,500.
  • Further discussion of emergency pumping has started again with the possibility for early later this winter or early spring.
Task Force members have been meeting with various agencies including Todd and Morrison County Soil and Water departments, as well as the Scandia Valley Township. They have been working very close with them for approvals and also to obtain financial assistance from the Township due to the impact on roads.

The Task Force includes members from the LID Board, the Lake Association Board, and other property owners. We want you to know that while LID Board members are participating on the Emergency Task Force, the LID Board's focus continues to be our long-term plan.

The work this committee is doing is commendable!

Action Needed!!
Contact your Legislators

We have sent a separate special-edition newsletter to notify you of the Action items needed to contact your legislators. We thought it important enough to repeat it below.

Action Item #1:
Our local legislators, Rep. Ron Kresha and Senator Paul Gazelka have agreed to author a bonding bill during the 2020 legislative session for the Lake Shamineau Lake Improvement District High-Water Outlet Project. The press release announcing this bonding bill has been included at the end of this article.

To assist with this effort, we urge you to call or send letters to your home area legislators in support of the DNR bonding bill for the Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant including funding for the Lake Shamineau High-Water Outlet project. You can find the contact information for your MN Representative or MN Senator at https://www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts . Please let us know at BLOLL@icloud.com if you are willing to contact your legislators via email, US Post, or in-person at the capitol and we will assist you.

Action Item #2:
The Lake Shamineau Lake Improvement District is proposing a Lobby Day at the State Capitol. The plan is to have Shamineau property owners meet near the capitol for an information session and then go to the offices of our legislators to tell our stories and to encourage support for the bonding bill. Please let us know at BLOLL@icloud.com if you would like to participate. We will let you know the date, time and place when it's set.

A special thanks to our LID Legislative coordinators - Cheryl Koll, Nancy Hanson and Ardis Sandstrom.
Following is the press release regarding the bonding bill for Lake Shamineau:

KRESHA TO INTRODUCE BONDING BILL TO FUND LAKE SHAMINEAU FLOOD PREVENTION IMPROVEMENTS
 
LITTLE FALLS, MN – Representative Ron Kresha, R-Little Falls, announced that he will introduce a bill requesting bonding funds for the Lake Shamineau Lake Improvement District to make the necessary improvements to prevent or alleviate flooding, as outlined in the Lake Shamineau High Water Mitigation Project. The bill, which will be pre-filed on January 31, 2020, will request up to $2,275,000 to be included in this year’s Capital Investment bill.
 
“This is an incredibly important issue to our community, especially in light of the extreme flooding we saw this fall,” said Kresha. “The area around Lake Shamineau saw homeowners displaced, property damaged and businesses impacted because of the historically high water levels. This bill will allow the Lake Shamineau Lake Improvement District to make the changes necessary to ensure that our area will be protected from the extremely high water we saw this fall.”
 
Kresha called for a disaster declaration in October in response to the historically high water levels at Lake Shamineau, where the Department of Natural Resources measured water levels 3 feet higher than the ordinary high water mark.
Updates from the Board of Directors
Letter to Property Owners

The LID Board of Directors recently mailed (through the US Mail) a letter to all property owners on Lake Shamineau to provide an update on the High-Water project and other items of interest. This letter will also be posted to the website.
Website Information

Be sure to visit the LID website for the following information:
  • Treasurer's Reports will be posted at least quarterly, but more frequently as available.
  • Status reports from WSN are posted monthly.
  • LID Board Meeting Schedule
  • High-Water Project Task and Timeline
  • Announcements and notes for meetings such as the LID Board meetings and public hearings.
  • There are many other documents and information available that you might find of interest.
Project Bonding

We have had discussions with our Bond Counsel to determine the process for bonding of the high-water outlet control structure. Since grant funds may not be known until after the legislative session, it is anticipated that temporary financing will be utilized to enable the start of construction in spring/summer 2020. This temporary financing will require a public hearing and includes interest-only financing with payment beginning in 2021.

It is anticipated that the final bond issuance will occur in late fall when the final construction costs and grants will be known. The bonding will allow for repayment of the temporary financing and for payment over time. A pre-payment option will be available to property owners and assessments will begin in 2021.
A Message from the LID Board
The LID Board of Directors are continuing to work on the very important High-Water Outlet tasks with the goal to begin construction in late spring or early summer. We again urge you to call or send letters to your legislators in support of Flood Hazard Mitigation Grant Funds for Lake Shamineau. These funds depend on approval of bonding funds by the legislature and will be used to offset the cost to property owners.

We will keep you up to date with postings to the website and newsletters. Continue to let us know your comments and questions. We welcome your input.

If you know of someone that would like to be added to our newsletter subscriber list, have them send a text to 22828 with the message LAKESHAMINEAU or send an email to LSLIDBD@gmail.com . You may want t o add this email address to your white list to ensure that you will receive future newsletters.

Thank you for your support,

Cindy Kevern, Bob Koll, Rick Rosar, Fred Comb and Ardis Sandstrom
Lake Shamineau Improvement District Board of Directors