(Spirit Lake)—Various protective associations in the Iowa Great Lakes are expressing unity on various issues by signing onto a memorandum of understanding. Bill Maas of the East Okoboji Lake Improvement Corporation co-authored the document. He says it’s intended to show state officials that the lakes area protective associations stand unified on various issues…(click here for comment.) “Well Steve one of the things that over the period of the years we know we’ve all come to the realization that we’re not always all on the same page and stuff and if you talk with legislators or officials with the DNR or whoever you talk to about environmental issues, sometimes it becomes a point to where they keep saying well who are you representing? Well all of us in protective associations are pretty much on the same page already and we thought it was probably just time to come together a little closer and pull our ranks together and be able to speak with one voice when critical issues come up.”
Maas says one such issue, the fish barrier, is what prompted them to draft the document…(click here for comment.) “Everybody saw how much the, well the Iowa DNR threw in $300,000 which is not chicken feed so to speak but the state of Minnesota threw in $261,000 of their money, you know, and that’s out of state realizing it was such a project and that it was really a disappointment to us that the Iowa Legislature chose to sit and not to participate in any financial form.”
He says he’s very pleased over the unified support he’s been getting from the various protective associations…(click here for comment.) “I’ve really been impressed with talking to them, especially the Okoboji Protective Association. I went to them and I just expected to kind of give a one or two minute presentation just telling them what the idea was, which I did, and all of a sudden their entire organization jumped on board and we had a 20-25 minute conversation at one of their regular board meetings there and that really got things on the move. Their President Jim Rosenthal and I sat down and came up with this Memorandum of Understanding document. It’s not a legally binding document but it pledges support from one organization to another.”
Maas says prior to this there has never been such an agreement between the various associations.
