Beulah Brainstorm

Beulah Brainstorm

NOTES: Waterfront Meeting 2/19/08 

Led by Brainstorm committee:  Patty Cantrell, Phil Downs, Vicki Carpenter, Pat Elliott

Patty welcomed folks, gave the overview of the evening’s work and a brief review of the parks meeting (2/5/08).  She reviewed the PowerPoint presentation and fielded questions on the waterfront and the trailer park.  She clarified that the Village owns the waterfront and the spaces for docks is available only to property owners in Beulah and a wait list exists.

Ideas/Comments on Waterfront:

• Is there a place for visitors to anchor boats so they can visit Beulah (there was a proposal years ago to put in a public dock but the Council didn’t choose to do so)
• Without a public marina, loss of revenue for the Village
• Parking for vehicles and trailers (while parking, you can temporarily moor to the outside of the boat ramp)
• Resident offered his empty lot behind his lot (any ordinance to permit or prohibit?)
• Currently parking behind the Village offices is available, on Lake Street (watch the signage)
• Parking by the pump house off of Spring Valley is reserved for the trailer park residents to put their trailers
• Earlier estimates for ramp repair costs may not require all the allotted/budgeted funds
• Need trees along the road side of the beach, provide more shade
• Earlier plan showed some beachfront improvements, such as a boardwalk
• Can the current space allocation for docks be reviewed to open up more beach space, it appears that the beach area is not public but private
• Consider a different configuration to accommodate more boats with less space
• Review the space fees ($275/each) and increase accordingly (compare with other places)
• Dock space is for property owners, impact on residents who already pay taxes if fees raised
• Should the Village buy docks and make the look more uniform and adjust the fees (Village would need to have space to store and provide put in and take out services)
• Earlier plan called for up to 3 larger T docks to accommodate rentals/hoists
• Group dock would open up the beach to more use
• The space with docks, even though it’s public, has the appearance of private and not very inviting (reluctant to use beach where folks have docks)
• Who is the customer?  (residents, businesses, what is the clear purpose?)
• With limited funds, selective use of funds to dress up the beach front to make it more appealing
• Where to put a boardwalk or trees? (entire beach area or just sections)
• Beachfront hasn’t changed in many years
• Member of the Crystal Lake Watershed Organization shared:
  • DEQ has rules about # boats, what amount makes you a marina and need licensing
  • What is the zoning impact
  • Dr Stacy Daniels has studied Cold Creek and he has applied for a grant (salt impact from drain-off is a one concern)
  • Permanent water level gauge is being explored somewhere on the lake
  • System of washing off boat hulls before going into lake to try to keep invasive species out of Crystal Lake (where could this be done w/o impacting water quality)
• Environmental considerations throughout any decision making on waterfront
• Beach sand needs to be replenished along the whole beachfront
• Cold Creek enters into the lake and how it moves also impacts the 3 docks that are in that area, especially with the low water level and impacts boat launch/ramp
• Keep beach area clean (litter, tree debris, trash pick-up, etc)
• More trash cans, especially along the beach area
• Village has ‘beach cleaner’ equipment but it is done as time is available to Village crew, rx to be done more often/on a scheduled basis
• Volunteers can be used but limits/barriers may exist, signed waiver
• Charge to use the boat ramp (how to staff, auto pay, honor system, etc/Leland)
• Historically there was a ‘box’ to pay, didn’t seem to work
• Eliminate the many signs, have a more inviting/positive system (less signs but get the info out)
• How to decide the priorities: accommodate residents with boat space/bring visitors to Beulah/get people here for businesses/how to get people here to use it all
• Empty buildings/businesses is unfortunate, impacts how people view the Village
• Have a specific area improved for the ‘public beach’ and the rest designated for residents
• Parking problems as folks stop and visit on Lake Street
• People may avoid the beach area because of lack of parking
• May want to invite Craig Seger, works for county, to look at street/parking needs
• When the new DNR boat launch opens, will there be an impact in Beulah (parking, wait list for dock space, etc.)?
• Added outside showers several years ago, add a drinking fountain, more trash cans and dumped more often, more benches
• Why were the trees on the beach removed years ago? (is there a reason we can’t have trees out there?)
• A sidewalk exists near the half wall now, review that as a bench area or start of boardwalk
• More flowers (need watering)
• Look at grants to help fund these ideas (folks have skills and are willing to help write)
• Volunteers to do specific/discrete things on a scheduled basis (flowers, trash, wash off boats, etc.)
• Testing for e-coli, who does that now and who should be doing it (take samples to health dept)
• Beulah shuts down during the summer about 5 pm, with the exception of Hungry Tummy and Cold Creek (some nights at East Shore), who would be the group to look to help bring businesses to town (compared to Frankfort’s downtown)
• Liquor license status, economic development needs exist
• Beach has a 10 pm posted curfew (recommended to keep and enforce)
• Life guard on beach/teach swimming lessons (GT Tribe helped with $$ years ago)
• Current T-dock use (update, fishing, safety, reuse as transient boat dock)
• Transient dock needs to be secure enough to tie boats off when the waves/winds pick up each day

 Categorize: discussion to take the different ideas and see where they fall into like-categories

• • Beach ( board walk, signage,. keep it clean, trees, add sand, drinking fountain, businesses close down)
  • Boats (transient docks/day-public use, rent space, trailer parking, DNR issues, T dock, boat fees, dock configuration, who benefits)
  • Environment (water levels, run off, invasive species, swimmers itch)
  • Beulah as a destination (residents, visitors, all the above apply, what benefits which part of the Village)

Short term: (these items were identified as short term and perhaps more do-able w/o high costs or within current budget): trees, landscaping, boardwalk, beach sand, signage, benches, trash cans, drinking fountain, volunteers

Comments from the audience on the evening’s work:

• good to hear the remarks (second meeting), thanks, it’s stimulating to hear
• swimmer’s itch hot line shared (this will be put into the next newsletter)
• resident offered a supply a bench
• sponsor a bench idea
• paint a bench idea
• good discussion, umbrella idea for shade on the beach is good but the wind in the afternoon isn’t realistic/trees will be better for shade
• would like to see something happen, not a dead end like before
• new business owner (5 Corners) wants to be involved, thanks for the meeting to get input from residents and businesses
• grants in Frankfort for ramps/docks for fishing, donation list in  Frankfort for items too
• let’s use our resources to improve the area, make people proud of their work, good ideas
• wants to see these ideas work this time, not ‘fail’ like before
• keep the curfew (kids are crazy down there at night) good meeting
• good meeting, again
• here to support the village and make the village better for everyone, thanks to Al Brown for his ongoing support of Beulah (donated sand for the beach and dirt for the library)
• good ideas, short term items should be do’able
• ‘diamond in the rough’, good resource, encouraged that we’ll make some progress
• proposal to Village and CLCBA association will be made to support the middle school art students to paint the blue trash cans later in May as a project (council member offered to deliver the cans to the school as he works there)
• encourage folks to attend the Village Council meetings
• go to the web site, give us feed back, thanks for coming