By Mary-Justine Lanyon
At the Dec. 14 meeting of the Arrowhead Lake Association board of directors, the board approved the 2025 capital and operating expenses budgets.
Prior to that presentation and vote, member Scott Rindenow congratulated the board, the staff and the membership. “You listened to what members had to say about what appeared to be a very bloated budget when initially proposed. I am pleased you were able to come up with a budget that is reasonable. The membership should be excited and proud of the work you put in to get us a great budget for 2025.”
Director Marilyn Dishell noted she had attended several Finance committee meetings and the budget workshop. “I saw how dedicated the Finance committee members are,” she said. “They work to make sure the fees are reasonable. I thank everyone on that committee and the board for making that happen.”
In his presentation, Secretary-Treasurer Jim Hannon noted that, in capital expenses, they focused on needs rather than wants. As for fee increases, he called them “modest” in most categories with no increases in some.
The budget presentation is available to ALA members on the website (www.ala-ca.org) under the Dec. 14, 2024, agenda.
President Bud Macer dedicated the meeting to the late Tony Manos, who passed away on Oct. 29 at his parents’ home in Irvine. Manos had served on the Fish committee.
There had been discussion about melding the Fish and Forest and Vegetation committees into the Lake Operations and Maintenance committee. The impetus, Macer said, was it was felt having the additional separate standing committees was a poor use of time by the staff and the general manager. Consolidating them into one committee could save ALA some money and they could be more productive in other activities.
However, Macer said, the board has chosen to have the Forest and Vegetation committee remain as a separate standing committee. “This is important,” Hannon noted, “because of the forestry experts we have. We don’t want to dilute that in Lake Ops.”
The board approved merging the Fish committee into Lake Ops and leaving Forest and Vegetation as a separate committee.
President Macer then announced the chair of the standing committees: Finance – Jim Hannon; Lake Operations and Maintenance – Alan Kaitz; Lake Safety – Denise Loxton; Shoreline Improvements – Marilyn Dishell; and Forest and Vegetation – Eran Heissler.
The Lake Valve committee, an advisory committee chaired by David Dahl, had its first meeting and discussed the demands of the Department of Safety of Dams.
“We have learned,” said General Manager Mike Pate, “that the DSOD can require us to lower the lake by 70 feet if they don’t think we are complying with their demands.” He added that 40 lakes in California have already done so.
Showing a slide of what Lake Arrowhead would look like 70 feet down, Pate said that “we never want our lake to look like that.”
As the meeting came to a close, President Macer looked out at the small number of people in attendance at the Burnt Mill Beach Club. “The lack of an audience must mean we’re doing a good job,” he said.
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