Lakeport Cluster

TGIF - JULY 12, 2024

STAY COOL

SAY HI

BRING A DISH AND/OR BOTTLE OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINK

IT’S A LAKEPORT CLUSTER TGIF !!!

WHEN: JULY 12 FROM 7:00PM TO 9:00PM

GIVEN BY: ELIZABETH PAN AND SANDY LAESER

LOCATION: SANDY LAESER’S PLACE

1977 LAKEPORT WAY

Spring 2024 Issue of Ripples

Lakeport News

From the Editor/President – Stephen Sapp

Landscape Committee – Mary Sapp

Maintenance Committee – Jonathan Hammer

Solving Problems with Canada Geese

I Love Lakeport Dock Party – Robin Kolko and Marcy Foster

Book Club – Barbara Khan

Thanks to Our Volunteers

Lakeport Governance/Management

Helpful Information

Reminders

Preventive Maintenance Checklist for Spring/Summer

Although the weather has been all over the place since the calendar told us spring has arrived, we have had enough “classic” spring days to make us grateful to live in Lakeport, and several people have commented to me that the spring flowers have been especially impressive this year. Just as the amazing rainbow in the picture accompanying this issue’s Table of Contents symbolizes a new beginning and hope for better times to come, so the coming of spring signals the end of the dark and cold of winter. Let’s take advantage of this new season and enjoy the beauty of Lakeport Cluster and our surrounding area and make a special effort to get to know and interact with our neighbors; it is the friendliness of our residents and the sense of community it engenders that make our cluster such a wonderful place to live.

If you have comments about this Spring issue of Ripples and/or would like to submit an item for our Summer issue, you are welcome to email me at ssapp@miami.edu.

Moving now to matters of Lakeport governance, I am very happy report that Robin Kolko and Marcy Foster are the new co-chairs of the Social Committee! They were responsible for our very successful Lakeport Dock Party last month and have several more activities in the works, including the popular quarterly TGIFs (beginning with one on July 12). Keep your eyes open for announcements of these upcoming events (and if you would like host a TGIF, let Robin or Marcy know)!

Also, with deep gratitude to Paul Renard for years of faithful and effective service as chair of our Landscape Committee, we welcome Jonathan Hammer to that important position. Jonathan has already been doing yeoman’s work keeping our dock clean. Jonathan would love to hear from you if you want to lend a hand maintaining our Lakeport community!

As most of you are aware, we continue to have a goose problem, especially around our dock (and I have noticed that they seem to be roaming farther afield recently). We have explored many possible solutions, but we are limited in what we can do because Canada geese are federally protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and because RA does not allow fences along the lake. At the end of May we made a first application of FlightControl, a goose control system recommended by Complete Landscaping. We are not sure yet of how effective it will be, though early reports are promising. If it works, we will continue to use it to gauge its long-term usefulness (see the article “Solving Problems with Canada Geese” elsewhere in this issue for more information on discouraging geese).

As you can read in the Landscape Committee report, we are also considering installing a pollinator garden in the open grass area to the south of the rose bushes along the RA path by our dock. In addition to serving the primary purpose indicated by its name, we are hoping it will provide a physical barrier to deter the geese further from grazing on the grassy hill above the path.

In the meantime, I want to thank Jonathan Hammer for keeping the dock clean and urge others of you to avail yourselves of the broom and poop-scooper behind Jonathan’s home (1939 Lakeport Way) to lend a hand whenever you see an accumulation of goose waste on the dock. Your help will be much appreciated.

Finally, a couple of requests:

Please remember that common parking spaces are meant to be shared rather than treated as regular personal parking spaces. You should routinely use your own garage/carport and driveway for your vehicles and leave common spaces for guests and service vehicles.
I want to encourage you once again to set up Direct Deposit for your quarterly assessment payments, the next of which is due July 1 (see Reminders elsewhere in this issue for how to do this). The main advantage is that you never have to worry about being late and incurring extra fees, but you also save the hassle and expense of mailing a check (or being charged a fee for using a credit card online). I have heard from several people that they don’t like to use automated payments because they want to know how much their bills are, but unlike electricity or water, for example, you already do know exactly how much your quarterly assessment will be and when it will be deducted from your account! So please consider this time- and cost-saving way to pay your assessments.

Landscape Committee

By Mary Sapp, Chair

Riverbend Landscapes & Tree Service will be here to soon remove a live black locust tree, one dead oak tree, and the dead half of a chestnut oak tree, and to trim six other trees. They are also doing some work for a few owners who contacted them directly.
A productive Spring Workday was held May 11. Rich Shelton and assistants (Jerry Beiter, Andy Nagley, and Tim, Greg, and Robert Taylor) cut down 10 dead trees. Other volunteers (Kristen Bobik, Steven Browning, Kevin Dandy, David Fleming, Karen Knight, Robin Kolko, Rich Rosenberg, Stephen Sapp, and Rosemary Welch) pulled weeds in the rain garden and next to the RA path to the pool. Stephen Sapp and Steven Browning planted 2 seedling trees adjacent to the parking at the end of Lakespray Way. See more photos below.

Steven Browning painted the white ventilation pipes in the rain garden green so they would be less obtrusive.
Marilyn Bursch trimmed carexes and ferns, and she and William Jones put down mulch in areas adjacent to the rain garden.
Peter Stone (11106 Lakespray Way) has removed poison ivy in several locations in Lakeport as well as vines growing around trees.
Meadows Farms has agreed to replace five dead plants in Triangle Park, two next to the rain garden, and two next to the RA path to the pool.
Complete Landscaping applied FlightControl on May 31, which we hope will dissuade the geese from eating our grass. They also treated Lakeport’s crepe myrtle trees for crepe myrtle bark scale.
The landscape designer at Complete Landscaping will be submitting a proposal for a pollinator garden next to the Lakeport dock between the right-most bed of roses and the large bed across from the corner of the dock (this area is currently just tiny stubs of grass due to the geese). In addition to providing colorful blooming flowers in a key area of Lakeport and attracting bees, butterflies, and birds, we hope that it will also serve as a physical and visual barrier to further discourage geese from eating the adjacent grass.
Chevy Chase Land Management Company said that they would remove the large dead chestnut oak near the wood rail fence by the Safeway access road. That will be very helpful to our budget.

Maintenance Committee Report

A goose standing on grass

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By Jonathan Hammer, Chair

First, many thanks to Paul Renard for his years of service as the Maintenance Committee chair.

You probably have noticed reduced goose activity in the dock area recently. This is due to the efforts of the Board and Landscape Committee to apply a non-toxic goose repellant on the grass which the geese feed on.

Although we are hopeful that the repellant will provide a solution, we are concerned that the repellant alone will not solve the problem in the long-term. One of my first tasks as the new chair of Lakeport’s Maintenance Committee is, working with the Landscape Committee, to develop a comprehensive plan to address this ongoing problem. I suggest you read the article “Solving Problems with Canada Geese” elsewhere in this issue to learn about some of the steps we are considering to manage this issue. You will also find this link to contain a great deal of useful information: https://geesepeace.com/.

Please feel free to use the broom and poop-scooper behind my home (1939 Lakeport Way) whenever you see that the geese have fouled the dock. The more people who participate in this effort, the less work it will be for any one person (it’s good exercise, meditative, purposeful, and soul-inspiring!).

Also, if you want to help with the Maintenance Committee’s regular activities, please let me know (hammerj598@gmail.com).

I Love Lakeport Dock Party

By Robin Kolko and Marcy Foster

Despite the need to postpone Lakeport’s dock party from its original date, Mother Nature cooperated two weeks later and we had a great turnout for the spring I Love Lakeport Dock Party on May 25.

Book Club

By Barbara Khan, Coordinator A group of books and a cup of coffee

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Want to join some of your neighbors and talk about a good book? Lakeport has an informal book club that is always open to new members. We meet monthly on the third Monday from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., rotating among members’ homes.

So what has the Lakeport Book Club been reading recently?

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

If those books look interesting and you want to join the book club or have questions, contact Barbara Khan at bskhan@att.net.

Thanks to Our Volunteers

A thank you sign with rainbow colors

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Please be sure to thank your neighbors for their efforts to make Lakeport a better place for all of us to live while also saving the HOA considerable money. If you want to volunteer, let the Board or a committee chair know—it’s a great way to meet your neighbors and contribute to your community.

I Love Lakeport Day Workday

Rich Shelton and helpers (Jerry Beiter, Andy Nagley, and Tim, Greg, and Robert Taylor) – cutting down 10 dead trees.
Kristen Bobik, Steven Browning, Kevin Dandy, David Fleming, Karen Knight, Robin Kolko, Rich Rosenberg, Stephen Sapp, and Rosemary Welch – pulling weeds in rain garden, next to the RA path to the pool, and along the fence on the west side of the Lakeport entrance
Steven Browning – painting the ventilation pipes in the rain garden green so they would be less obtrusive
Marilyn Bursch and William Jones – putting down mulch in areas adjacent to the rain garden and trimming carexes and ferns

I Love Lakeport Day Dock Party

Robin Kolko and Marcy Foster – coordinating dock party
Jerry Beiter – cooking hamburgers and hot dogs
Jeanette Malin-Berdel and Jorg Dronia – providing tables and benches
Everyone who contributed to the pot luck

Landscape

Mary Sapp (chair), Steven Browning, Marjorie Myers, Don Nagley, Elizabeth Pan, Rosemary Welch – serving on the Landscape Committee
Peter Stone – removing vines that were killing trees in Lakespray woods
Steven Browning and Marjorie Myers–watering new plants on Lakespray Way

Social

Robin Kolko and Marcy Foster – chairing the Social Committee
Carol Leos – welcoming new residents

Maintenance

Paul Renard – chairing the Maintenance Committee for the last six years
Joanathan Hammer – agreeing to serve as new chair of the Maintenance Committee
Jonathan Hammer – cleaning goose poop off the dock
Linda Rosenberg and Terrill Evon – cleaning mailboxes

Standards

Rich Rosenberg – chairing the Standards Committee

Other

James Pan – chairing Neighborhood Watch
Barbara Khan – coordinating the Lakeport Book Club
Tom Barnett – maintaining Lakeport’s online directory and listserv for announcements and posting Ripples
Stephen Sapp – editing Ripples