This is a place to ask questions and share with your Duck Lake neighbors. Please keep the discussion cordial.
Duck Lake
Property Owners Association | Highland, MI
This is a place to ask questions and share with your Duck Lake neighbors. Please keep the discussion cordial.
Duck Lake 
February 17, 2017 at 4:24 pm
Amen to that. Only the same handful of people showed up when Bob Jones ran it but many complained as soon as something was done they didn’t like. Bob’s problem was no body would help him and he took it on himself. Show up and get involved for the better for the lake.
February 17, 2017 at 3:59 pm
To Mr. M. Roberts.
My wife and I want to thank you and the others for the efforts done weekly for Duck lake. The efforts now and possible future changes are commendable.
Remember, when you are working with the public, rarely does anyone say “thanks for the good outcome/results” but they can always find the time to complain. Which is OK if done in the correct forum; ie. at the meetings so a give and take discussion can occur.
p/s Welcome to Bob Jones’ world. I will bet that few ever said thanks to him for the good things he did. But I will also bet that he had numerous disturbing calls on the Hot Line for what he did not do adequately.
February 17, 2017 at 7:14 pm
You may remember that I worked with Bob for a couple years before the elections of new members. We used to talk about the frustrations a lot and I knew what I was getting into. I would just like more people to come to the meetings instead of doing things on their own or starting unsubstantiated rumors.
We appreciate your support! Thanks a lot.
February 17, 2017 at 3:00 pm
I certainly like all the discussions on this site, however, I have to say, most of them are complaints on topics that we’ve discussed and voted on at the meetings. It’s discouraging to me to see everyone complaining about the keys, the body’s, the traffic, the sandbar, etc., yet out of the 1150 properties and probably thousands of people that live here, the same 7-10 people show up at the meetings.
We as a board have been accused of money grabbing, false or personal agendas, weed control only in places we care about, and other accusations. We VOLUNTEER OUR TIME ALMOST EVERY WEEK to help take care of this lake. We don’t get paid. We don’t do this for recognition. We care only for the health and safety of the lake and our neighbors.
If you feel like there is something to discuss, come to the meetings and discuss it. Posting a complaint from “anonymous” on this site is a waste of time for both of us. We can’t change anything on this site. We can have a mature discussions and votes at the meetings.
It’s a lot easier to sit back and type something on a message board than to actually get involved and help out.
February 15, 2017 at 1:56 pm
Today, Feb. 15 it appears that the lake level pump is being worked on. Whats the story?
February 15, 2017 at 3:14 pm
Asplundh doing some tree trimming around power lines.
January 29, 2017 at 10:01 pm
Where are the meeting minutes stored now? I can find only the minutes from 2016.
January 31, 2017 at 9:47 pm
Hello Melanie,
If you click on the “about POA” drop down located above, you will see a prompt for meetings. If you click on that and scroll under the calendar you should see all of the meeting minutes for the last year plus. We only have the minutes from October 2015 on, as the previous admin did not have any for previous years. I hope this helps!
Regards,
Ryan
December 9, 2016 at 3:19 pm
When will we be receiving the pictures from the Santa visit at the elementary school on 12/3?
December 12, 2016 at 9:40 am
Disregard. Received them over the weekend. They look great!!! Thanks.
December 5, 2016 at 4:52 pm
I was hoping to rake leaves out of the edge of the lake (below my seawall) as I have been able to do previously when the lake made it to 6″ below legal before the last leaf pickup. Today it is at legal level, so I will have to leave them until spring. Has it really been that wet in November? I have been out of town. I would think they could do better in removing stop logs to attain the winter level sooner. Disappointed.
October 10, 2016 at 3:42 pm
What would be the best process to put a vote in front of the DLPOA to have the Red Lights removed from the Buoys next season?
One of my families favorite times on the lake is in the evening.. It is great to go sit on our dock and enjoy conversation, gaze at the stars, and soak up the peace and tranquility that the lake has to offer once it is quieted down for the evening. Now, when we sit on the dock, or in our yard, or even in our house and look out at the lake at night the only thing we seem to notice is the bright blinking red lights on the 2 buoys sitting directly out front of our house. On this small of a lake they serve no actual purpose. We find them an annoyance that is detrimental to the view from our house in the evenings. The entire lake is Slow No Wake after dusk so there should be no need to remind people entering the canals that that is a Slow No Wake Zone (I am assuming this is the purpose of the lights).
Is there a formal process for putting a request like this front of the Association for consideration? I would even volunteer to maintain these two buoys going forward including storing them during the off season, re-deploying them in the spring, and having them re-wrapped as necessary if it means we can get the lights removed from them.
October 13, 2016 at 8:46 pm
Hi Brian – Thanks for raising your concern. An officer will be in contact with you, but this is also a topic which you can address with your district rep who can represent you in voting matters. New district reps will be elected next week, in fact! You are always welcome to come to a meeting to raise any concerns in an open forum as well.
November 8, 2016 at 7:22 pm
Brian,
There are many complaints of residents about these lights.
You are absolutely right about the annoying lights. They are not needed! The whole lake, as are all the lakes in the state, a no-wake lake after dark. Also, the lake is hardly of any size where one might have navigation issues at anytime, day or night.
The lights remind me of a 7-11 parking lot.
lt is bad enough we are forced to view the blinking lights from the cell tower over Big Duck, facing east.
These lights were a waste of money. l guess when a new sheriff is in town, big ideas follow, albeit not all good ideas.
That money would have been better spent to help reduce the number of the invasive fish species that are taking of the lake and destroying the lake quality, and ultimately, leading to a dead lake.
November 8, 2016 at 9:26 pm
It is not true that there have been many complaints about the new lights. To the contrary, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We’re aware of just 2 complaints, yours would make 3.
Still, concerns were raised and we are looking at ways to reduce the output of the lights. We have a reduced-output light ready to pilot in one of the areas of concern.
By the way, the light and buoy at the canal at the Northwest end of the lake was damaged by someone that took it upon themselves to disable the light. That is not okay, and certainly not in the spirit of community.
It is also not true that adding lights to the buoys was a big idea from a new sheriff. We’ve had an experiment underway on the Ramada canal for a couple of years. Response to that trial has also been overwhelmingly positive.
Finally, it’s also not true that all lakes in Michigan are no-wake after dark. Most are not. Some lakes do have “special local watercraft controls” but Duck Lake is not one of them. Here is a link to those that do, http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10366_37141_37701-38804–,00.html.
Popular or not, it is okay to make a wake after dark on Duck Lake.
November 29, 2016 at 11:30 am
Hello Jeff and Brian,
I thank you very much for taking the time to voice your opinion on the web. I completely understand your view on the lights and wish you had been at the meeting to express these when the issue was presented and debated and then voted on. As mentioned above, there is a new board (or as named above “sheriff”) in place. The board consists of almost 20 members that all ran for and were voted into their posts. As an elected trustee, it is up to each trustee to hopefully voice the collective voice of their district. I am not sure if you have had a chance to discuss these issues with him or her. This would allow us to have a true feel, or pulse, of the lake and their feelings towards decisions such as the lights.
I promise you that no one brought the red lights into the discussion to purposely hurt or hinder anyone’s lake experience. The buoy that leads to the Ramada canal has had a red light on top of it for the last four seasons. Many people thought this was a great idea and asked if we could look into lighting all of the water entrance ways in the same matter. We also were tasked with replacing or refreshing all of the worn out or damaged buoys. This was addressed as I am sure your view would benefit greatly from not having to look at a worn out half sunk buoy in front of your house either. To move forward with this, we did ask for people to gather opinions on the lake as well as taking into consideration the cost. As a new board we are very open about our finical situation and we present an update on our lake and volunteer funds each meeting (with ins and outs and budgets). We also post the minutes from each meeting with all of the topics covered for your viewing as well. If you were to look, you would see when and how the lights were reviewed, discussed and ultimately approved. The light that was on the Ramada canal cost twice as much as did the ones we put on the other lake buoys. We did this in an effort to be fiscally responsible, so we can save money for other projects. However, as we have come to find out, the lights are brighter than expected. We do believe however, that we have a solution. The bulbs inside the lights are all in sequence and we should be able to disconnect half the lights, dramatically reducing the brightness of the lights. Our hope is that this may be a good compromise that will allow both continued safety, as well a non diminishing effect on your view of Duck Lake. Why you two both feel strongly about not having the lights, and justifiably so, we have others that feel just as adamantly for them. So my hope is we can find a workable solution together. I promise if you attend the meetings with both an issue, as well as a solution, you voice will be heard.
To clear up two other quick points from your notes above. In regards to the “no-wake” after dark, I am afraid you are misinformed. I too, thought the same thing when taking over this role. However, during this years free coast guard inspection on Duck Lake (which I recommend EVERYONE partake in) I asked this question and got a surprising answer. There is NO state law that mandates no wake after dark. There are many private lakes that have their own established “Lake Rules”, but nothing in the Michigan State law that states this ( side note, this does not pertain to pulling any skiers, tubers, or surfers. There are laws for that). If we wish to pass this, or other rules on Duck Lake, there would need to be a well established path on how the rules are made, and how they would be enforced. The second part of your note in regards to “money being spent on reducing invasive fish” I agree with. I am not sure if you know that our budget allows for $2,000 a year to be spent on the stocking of Duck Lake. In the past we are not sure who or how the decision was made to choose what species to stock. As a result there has been a “Fishing” Committee” established to address this and other issues. They are also tasked with finding fun/new ways to look at how we could attack the invasive species. Maybe a fishing tournament targeting only those kind of invasive fish? It has also been mentioned about having a blue gill tournament to help reduce the amount of small or stunted blue gill, to help them grow into bigger pan fish. Last, we have used the allocated money from the budget to conduct a “lake health” study. We hired an outside firm to conduct and produce a report on how best to manage our lake. Our hopes is this will lead us to find a solution that can stop “destroying the lake quality, and ultimately, leading to a dead lake”.
The results are due back to us shortly and we are very excited to see what this will reveal about our lakes condition. We hope to be able to provide the results at our next meeting. We reviewed a lot of the above at our October meeting as well. Once again, I encourage you and everyone else to please attend these meetings. Once we have the results from this lake study I am sure there will be some discussions on how to best move forward in taking action to fix, or maintain the current condition. I know from speaking to MANY residents that everyone has Duck Lakes best interest at heart. We all live in this area so we can enjoy the fruits of our beautiful lake. I choose to run for this position because I wanted to help insure Duck Lake stays “living” for generations to come. While myself and the board may have some new ideas, we only move forward with them after they are presented and discussed. If we don’t hear any feedback until after the action has been passed we will continue to run into situations like this. I do know one thing though, breaking the lights, or stealing the lights is really a demoralizing and money wasting idea. I am not accusing anyone of this, but these actions have already taken place twice. I would much rather find a working solution that we can all agree upon, rather than arguing and vandalizing.
I apologize for the lengthy response, but I wanted to make sure your concerns are addressed. I hope that you will be able to make future meetings as it is nice to have people like you in attendance that obviously have a strong interest in keeping Duck Lake beautiful.
Regards,
Ryan Charlton
September 14, 2016 at 9:06 pm
Was there a “muck meeting” tonight?
September 5, 2016 at 8:24 am
Yes, myself and a group installed the sink-able ski course about 16 years ago and it still works. there are a number of DNR regulations regarding the hours the course can be used.