As a reminder, our annual potluck picnic and member meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 16, 2022. We will meet at the Midland County Sanford Lake Park, Irish Pavilion. Be sure to have your dish in the lineup by 6 p.m. when the potluck meal begins.

This year our speaker will be Dave Kepler of the Four Lakes Task Force. The primary topic is the $200 million state grant.

We look forward to seeing you at the picnic!

The annual SLA Membership drive is underway starting Aug 1. thru Sept. 30, 2023.

Please renew or become a member of the Sanford Lake Association.

Visit our membership page to join.

Drone survey scheduled for Monday, June 27 – beginning on Sanford Lake, Jerome Township portion

GIS Specialist/Surveyor/Drone Pilot will be conducting the initial drone reconnaissance flights beginning in the Jerome Township portion of Sanford Lake on Monday, June 27. Additional drone reconnaissance will begin on Wixom Lake later that week. The pilot will be primarily using common public areas and easements but may need to ask permission from specific property owners to use their property for launching/retrieval and/or surveillance.

21st Annual Sanford Lake Association Fireworks

The SLA kindly requests your donation to ensure another fabulous professional fireworks display on:

Monday July 4, 2022, at 10 P.M.

(The rain date is Tuesday, July 5th.)

For more details please go here.

WNEM has a news video on the second anniversary of the dam failures and takes an in-depth look at the aftermath and recovery.

View video here!

From the FLTF:

On May 4, the Independent Forensic Team (IFT) investigating the May 19, 2020, failures of the Edenville and Sanford Dams released its final forensic report. In addition to findings on the physical mechanisms of the dam failures presented in the interim report, the final report addresses the characteristics of the flood and other factors that contributed to the failures. These factors include those related to the various organizations involved with the dams over their 95-year existence.

DOWNLOAD FINAL REPORT

From the FLTL:

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, after receiving approval last week from the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate, today signed the supplemental bill that included $200 million of support for the rebuilding of the Four Lakes dams and restoring our community’s future.

This funding will significantly lower the burden on property owners for bringing back our lakes, and will ensure we will stay on track for construction.

“These appropriations have now passed through the Michigan House and Senate, and been signed by Governor Whitmer,” said Dave Kepler, president of FLTF. “We are grateful, as property owners and our community, to have a significantly lower financial burden and are pleased to know our future with beautiful lakes and safe, well-functioning dams is one step closer.”

See our previous News Flash for more details about the appropriation.

Please tune in to our April 6 webinar for information about the impact of this appropriation on our path forward.

Governor Announced Support for Bill

News Flash from the Four Lake Task Force

Today, the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives passed an appropriation that included $200 million to support the rebuilding of the Four Lakes dams which will restore our community’s future. We expect the measure to be signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who announced her support of the bill yesterday. We appreciate her empathy for the community’s recovery since the dam failures.

Historically, this will be one of the largest project appropriations for a community of our size. This funding will significantly lower the burden on property owners and make it possible to stay on track for construction.

In addition to the $200 million state grant for the Four Lakes restoration, $15 million was appropriated to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) for department resources and expenses related to permitting, inspection, review and consultation for projects associated with flooding and dam management related to the dam failure in May 2020. The $15 million appropriation includes $3 million to match an estimated $9 million of funds from the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Services Emergency Watershed Protection (NRCS EWP) program that will be used for the remaining debris removal and to address shoreline erosion that is occurring from the dam failures.

“It is an incredible accomplishment to get this type of funding for our community,” said FLTF President Dave Kepler. “The State grants and remaining federal matches will allow us to complete the Recovery Phase and fill a significant gap in the $250 million lake restoration planning estimate outlined in our May 2020 Four Lakes Restoration Plan.”

To read the News Flash in full, find out how the funding will impact your assessment or if interim financing will still be needed, please see the FLTF News Flash located here. 

Next Tuesday, March 15 at 9:00 a.m., there will be a meeting of the Midland County Board of Commissioners. At that meeting, the Four Lakes Task Force plans to propose a resolution to the Board dealing with $10 million in bridge financing in anticipation of the long term funding currently working its way through the state legislature. This resolution will ask the County Board to approve the plan of financing and to request the County to act as secondary security for any anticipated notes or bonds.

This step in the Four Lake Task Force’s financial plan is very important so that ongoing work is not delayed and Federal funding is not lost as a result. If you believe in the efforts being made to restore the lakes, please try to attend this meeting and express your support of the resolution. We ask that anyone from the SLA  who wants to attend, please email John Kinkema at johnkinkema@gmail.com. John will be coordinating the SLA presence at the meeting. 

The SLA board of directors voted to donated $10,000 to the FLTF for vegetation control on Sanford Lake. We believe this will help in the efforts to control the tree growth problem prevalent on the lake bottoms.