Spring 2025
Spring 2024 - Ice storm coats the trees and downs power lines.
Issue 43
From your Association President
by Drew Zelle | dmzelle48@gmail.com | 920-209-0564
Greetings and happy spring (almost). The lakes are starting to open up, we have survived an ice storm and the power is on! This spring and summer will be an important one for our organization with similar activities from last year. I hope to see all of you at the Annual PCLA Members Meeting which will be held on May 24 th at 9 AM at the Oughton Park pavilion. You will receive a specific agenda for the meeting in a separate email in May. The meeting will provide updates on our activities, receive direction from you folks, and vote on by law changes and new board members.
This year the focus of the PCLA will be on several activities:
Clean Boats Clean Waters: This is an ongoing summer boat inspection program to keep aquatic invasive species (AIS) out of the lake. Please support our efforts by volunteering to inspect and ensuring that your boats – and your guests boats – are clean and weed free when taken in and out of the lake. Currently we are AIS free with the exception of Purple Loosestrife and Rusty Crayfish. However, Reservoir Pond, Townsend Flowage, Archibald Lake, and others in our area are not. This year Reservoir Pond and Townsend Flowage are conducting a whole lake treatment for Eurasian milfoil, costing them over $250,000. That treatment is just to maintain it, not fully eradicate it. CBCW helps us keep our lakes AIS free.
Annual Picnic July 19: This is our only fund-raising event this year so please come out and support our efforts at this event. What do we raise funds for? Primarily for two things: Running and maintaining the aeration systems and a rainy-day fund for when we do get some type of aquatic invasive species. We rely on volunteers to carry this off, so let myself or one of the board members know what you’d like to help with. Prize baskets are always a big hit and any donations are welcome. Please contact Michelle Zelle michellezelle67@gmail.com if you have any donations.
Cash Raffle: We have made some exciting changes, see the article below.
Water Quality Monitoring: We will continue to monitor the health of lakes through monthly water quality monitoring and reporting to the WDNR. Thanks to all who have helped the association this past year. We cannot do this without volunteers and your help is needed and appreciated.
See you at the annual meeting!
2025 Upcoming Events
26 April, 9 AM OCLAWA Spring Meeting
24 May, 9 AM, PCLA Annual Members Mtg
21 June, First Annual PCLA Boat Parade
19 July 3-7PM, Annual PCLA Picnic
PCLA Kicks off its First Annual Boat Parade
Join us on 21 June for our first annual Boat Parade! We will be releasing more information about the event in May through email and on our website, pickerelchainlakeassociation.org. This is a purely social event, where lake residents decorate their boats and parade around the lake. We’ll have a judges stand and will be awarding prizes, too. Winners will be featured on our website. For more information or to volunteer as a judge or organizer, please contact us at BoardPCLA@gmail.com.
PCLA 2025 Raffle
By Brigette Janos, PCLA Board Member
After years of mailing out raffle tickets to each PCLA member, this year we are making a significant change in the manner of distribution. That change will require the involvement and help of all our PCLA members to make this raffle sale a success. We know we can count on you!
There will be 5 tickets in a PCLA-addressed envelope for each member. The raffle tickets will be available in two ways:
Envelope hand-delivered to your lake home.
Pick-up at the Zelle’s residence, or another agreed upon place. Call or text Michelle Zelle at (920) 210-3196 or Pari Schilz (651)-283-4523 for tickets.
Your help distributing tickets is one major way you can promote our fundraising. We will also be asking a few Townsend businesses to make the raffle tickets available for sale at their location.
But the more exciting part is that the first place raffle prize will be a private one hour airplane ride for two people in a Cessna 210 Centurion - a high performance aircraft!!!! This one-of-a-kind raffle prize is sure to thrill many.
A special, customized sightseeing tour for the winner and a person of their choice, to soar above the trees and get a birds-eye view of any local lake, the homes of friends and family, or to see the fall colors in a spectacular way. The flight path and destination ideas will be decided between the raffle winner and the captain. Mike and Pari Schilz are generously donating this one-hour flight for two as the headliner raffle prize. Thanks to them for this great fundraiser offering. What an opportunity!
The 2nd place raffle prize is $500 cash, and 3rd place is $250. With great odds of only 1000 tickets being available, this is sure to garner excitement.
Please help us get these raffle tickets sold! We will have them available at Townsend board meetings, the annual PCLA meeting, and everywhere we can think of. If you have any ideas or questions or suggestions to make this raffle distribution a success, please email Brigitte Janos at Brigittejb@hotmail.com.
Lakes and Rivers Convention
by Mike Schilz, PCLA Board Member
Hello neighbors. I was chosen by the Board to once again attend the WisconsinLakes and Rivers Convention in Stevens Point. The event ran from WednesdayMarch 26 th to March 28 th . It was held at the Holiday Inn Conference Center. The Main theme was “The Power of Words Working for our Waters.” I attended the first workshop which was called “Let's get together.”
The workshop discussed the need to make association and district meetings more effective, engaging, and fun. The idea is to make the meetings more enjoyable and informative so that more people want to attend them. Improving the meetings will also bring more members to volunteer for other things that need tobe done. It was very interesting to hear the trials of other groups around the state. Everybody in the workshop had to deal with the same challenges.
Next, I went on a field trip to the Food Farm Exploration Center in Plover, WI. The Facility was built two years ago and is designed to instruct people on the details that go into getting vegetables grown on the farm, to our table. There is an emphasis on the relationship between farmers and lake owners, and how much effort must go into making sure each group gets the most from the farm as well as the water. There were two panels made up of farmers and UWSP faculty, and they discussed the very close relationship needed to maintain the balance between farms and waterways. I highly recommend a stop at this place if you're ever are in Plover. It was well worth the time.
That night, there was a reception and networking opportunities. I spoke with many people from different lakes, and we all seemed to be dealing with the same issues. We are very fortunate to not be dealing with bad things in our lake. Seemslike life gets a lot more complicated and expensive when invasive species get into the lake. The folks I talked to mentioned that a good Clean Boats Clean Water Program is essential to keeping our lake free from the things we don’t want in our lakes.
The next two days were taken up with many different presentations. There was a great deal of emphasis on the importance of having a buffer zone of plants between your yard and the water. The idea is for the bordering plants root systems to pick up the nutrients from lawn fertilizer that you apply to your lawn,and stop them from entering your lake. The DNR has people that will help you plan your shoreline to help keep it clean.
One thing I did notice was there are many companies and individuals that are quite an industry helping organizations keep their waterways clean. If we ever get invasive species in our lakes, there will be a whole army of people to help us fight. They will also be more than willing to spend our money to fuel that fight.,If you want to get an idea of what we will be dealing with, ask your friends on neighboring lakes. Our association is a lot better than having a lake district. The dues and our one fund raiser are easier to deal with than having part of your taxes go to cleaning up the water. After talking to folks in Lake Districts, it seems to me that we have more of a say as an association. There are far less rules and regulations to deal with as an association. Of course, this requires our organization to stay vigilant about the quality of our lakes. One of the ways to maintain our lake quality is to have a robust Clean Boats Clean Waters program.
Many volunteers are needed to keep the CBCW program up and running. The program runs from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend. The shifts are 3 hours long, and it pays $15.00 an hour. If you want to become part of that team, contact Laurel Haak or Pari Schilz at BoardPCLA@gmail.com
Finally, I want to thank our association for the chance to attend the last two Lakes and Rivers Conventions. It was an honor representing all of you. I am hoping that one of the other board members would like to attend. It isn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, I just think that it would be a great experience for all of us. I truly think that our association should continue to have representation at the conference. It is a great way to learn about how truly blessed we are to be living on the lakes.
Et Cetera!
We’d love to share your pictures of the lakes on the PCLA website! And kudos! Please send your pictures, ideas for content, and your nominations for people to recognize for their lake stewardship activities to BoardPCLA@gmail.com.
Ideas and Comments?
Questions or comments about the newsletter? Ideas for articles to include?
Contact Laure Haak, PCLA Secretary, at BoardPCLA@gmail.com
