Hackert Lake Association

General Membership Meeting

June 17, 2000

The meeting took place at the Amber Township Hall, beginning and ending with social time, including homemade cookies and other goodies provided by Sarah James and Jane Jesuale. This provided time for members to make new friends and renew old friendships. Eighteen members attended.

Vice-President Bob Haupt called the meeting to order at 7:20 p.m. He introduced our first speaker, Rod Danielson, along with his partner and wife Kay, who operate their business, Rod’s Reef on Johnson Road in Ludington. They sell quality diving equipment and offer scuba diving lessons, often using our lake for training new scuba divers. Kay demonstrated the diver’s equipment by wearing it, adding pieces of equipment as Rod described its use.

Little red flags floating in the lake show that there is a diver present. To protect the divers, boats are required to stay 200 feet away from the flags. The divers are required to stay within 100 feet of their flags.

Rod displayed a sketch of the lake, showing us where to find the fish. Some of the best fishing should be 15-20 feet down, at the edge of the drop-off. They told us that Hackert is a healthy lake, with a good distribution of aquatic plant life and fish. When diving, the fish follow them. Types of fish they have seen include large mouth bass, crappies, walleye and perch. They’ve seen fish as big as four feet long. Most of the fish seem healthy, but they’ve seen perch with sores on them by the campground.

There is also a lot of junk in the lake, rolls of fencing wire, several barrels, bottles and cans and one lakeside dweller even throws old Christmas trees in the lake.

The second speaker was Tim Legault, representing the Mason County Sheriff Department. Tim focused primarily on rules for jet ski’s. Jet skiers between the ages of 21 and 30 are most likely to violate personal watercraft rules. People between the ages of 14 and 21 must have a boater safety certificate in order to operate a motorboat of any size. Jet skis may pull a water skier only if there is enough room for three people. Just as with any water skiing, there must be room for the driver, a person to watch the skier and a seat for the skier to use, should he/she become disabled or tired. Although the speed limit on lakes is generally 55 miles per hour, it has to be slower on Hackert Lake because of the size. Jet skiers are required to stay 100 feet away from shore and must observe slow, no wake rules near swimmers.

Tim also addressed the use of personal flotation devices (PFD’s). No matter what size boat is being used, there must be one life preserver on board for each person on board although they are not required to wear them. Life jackets are required to be worn by jet skiers and children, ages six and under are required to wear life jackets whenever they are in a boat, no matter what size.

What can we do if we see violators on the lake? Call the Sheriff’s department. Tim provided his car phone number. It is 357-0161. He also said that department members would welcome the opportunity to observe water activity from resident’s docks, if invited.

Sandy reported that there is currently $1,327.64 in the treasury. We will pay Dr. Helal when he is done with the sampling, probably in November.

Shirley Salas

Secretary