Mayor Appoints Eleven New Members To Lake Development Corp

(Beaver Dam) Mayor Becky Glewen has renewed the terms of only two of the 13 members of the Beaver Dam Lake Development Corporation. The two returning members approved this week by the common council are Bill Foley and John Moser. Corporation Chairman Scott Rasmussen is among the eleven who will not be returning. Glewen says Rasmussen was a great leader for a long time who will still give input to the committee. The decision comes on the heels of a disagreement between the Lake Development Corporation and local duck hunters who have been at odds in recent years over the use of Skunk Island. Glewen called a meeting with the lake group in November to talk about a 2011 decision to prohibit public access to the island on Beaver Dam Lake. Local duck hunters argued that closing the island is in direct conflict with the lake groups Articles of Incorporation and should remain open to the public as it had been for 50 years. Rasmussen maintained that the unanimous vote by the corporation to prohibit hunting was because of liability issues with public hunting access and for the protection of improvements on the island. The mayor says the “problem was that [she] wanted to bring both groups together…but the two groups just could not work together” and so the new group is expected to have a more broad way of looking at things. Glewen says the time was right to bring in new thoughts, ideas and leadership to get more people involved in the community and thinking about growth and making the lake an asset for the community. She says the original bylaws indicate that Skunk Island was intended for a public purpose and in the last five years that changed. As a result, Glewen says she is now looking at how a new group of individuals can look forward in thinking about how that island can be an asset for the community. The eleven new appointments to the Beaver Dam Lake Development Corporation are: Christel Boeck, Akshay Kalra, Barb Link, Alexis Luedtke, Wendy Meier, Rob Monette, Lori Platt, Joe Tschumperlin, Andrea Utrie, Kristine Westphal and Conrad Winkelman.