Lake Carroll News, April 2014
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Lake Carroll News A publication of the Lake Carroll Association and its members The Lake Carroll News is online! www.golakecarroll.com News & Events>Newspaper April 2014
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Vol. 42 No. 4
LCA & NICOR GAS GETTING TO KNOW YOU By Frank Schoff
Zebra Mussels in Lake Carroll See page 2B
Creative scarf accessories demonstrated to the LCWC. See page 14A
LAKE LEVEL As of Wednesday, March 26 - 737’ 8.4” ADMIN OFFICE CLOSED:
Wed, April 16 – Annual Housecleaning Mon, May 26 – Memorial Day Fri, July 4 – Independence Day
2014 BOARD MEETING SCHEDULE:
Apr 25, May 30, Jun 27, Jul 25, Aug 22, Sep 26, Oct 24, Nov 21, Dec 7 (Annual Mtg), Dec 12 (if needed) NICOR
Pg 1A: “Getting to Know You” by Frank Schoff. Pg 13A: “Safe Digging Month” by Jamie Graves Pg 13A: “Get Connected” NICOR Sign-Up information. by Donna Beyer GREENWAY DOCK REAPPLICATIONS Greenway Dock Reapplications due NOW! 2014 MANDATORY LOT MOWING - 10B #1 - May 23-June 1; #2 - August 1-10 ATTENTION HUNTERS: STAND REMOVAL EXTENSION Due to the weather and trail conditions, the deadline to have tree stand removed has been extended to May 1st. FISHING REMINDER Crappie are catch and release March 1st thru May 15th.
HATCHERY OPEN HOUSES Sunday, April 6 & 13, 10am-2pm See more information on page 4B.
On February 22nd, LCA and NICOR co-hosted a meeting to update LCA Members on the NICOR project. The meeting was held in the lower lever meeting room of the Clubhouse and was well attended by over 100 LCA Members. There were three objectives of the meeting: * To introduce the membership to the NICOR Organization * To update attendees on the current status of the project * To respond to members questions concerning the project. The NICOR Organization Many of us who were raised in the Chicagoland or the surrounding suburbs have probably been familiar with two major utilities called Commonwealth Edison and Northern Illinois Gas. In fact, there are Lake Carroll residents who have worked for those organizations. Part of the history of a company now called NICOR is that at one time Northern Illinois Gas was a subsidiary of Commonwealth Edison. Today NICOR Gas is the largest natural gas distributor in Northern Illinois, serving more than 2.2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers from 33,000 miles of gas mains and pipelines. NICOR’s corporate offices are located in Naperville, Illinois. Current Project Status Those of you who reside full time in Lake Carroll, as well as those of you who have been in Lake Carroll anytime in the past two months, are well aware that natural gas pipelines have been, and continue to be installed in large sections of Lake Carroll. The weather has not been particularly helpful to the installation crews, but they have continued to work on most days, and only a few days have been missed as totally unfavorable. The initial targets for the installation of working gas pipelines have been the Clubhouse, Lodge, and Aquatic Complex. These three facilities are the LCA’s major consumers of heating fuel, and converting to natural gas will provide the quickest return on the costs of installing the new fuel services. What’s Next As the main gas lines are installed to reach these initial critical locations, they pass many “side streets” which run close to (or into) our personal residential sections. This proximity to a major pipeline raises questions on the part of many LCA Members concerning when they will have natural gas installed at their residence. The general answer is “in good time” because it is in NICOR’s best interest to bring as many customers on line as quickly as possible. Two factors will influence how quickly our individual residences will be converted to natural gas, as follows: * Installation of the three major facilities previously referenced comes first * Knowledge of those members in each section that have registered for NICOR services (More on registration later in this or future articles) Neither of these conditions is likely to cause major delays to future installations. Those of us who have been resident in Lake Carroll have witnessed the speed at which pipeline has been installed can view future installations with confidence. Conversion Decisions There are several major steps that homeowners should want to accomplish before conversion, as follows: * Calculate the costs associated with converting from propane to natural gas. There is a worksheet on the Lake Carroll website that provides information concerning the steps, costs, savings related to conversion to natural gas, and payback from converting to natural gas. * If your decision is to convert to natural gas, register with the LCA office and pay the $250.00 connection fee (more about that fee later). That registration process will assure that you will be included in the NICOR Residential Connection Schedule In addition to the NICOR hookup calculations there are several other pieces of information that LCA Members should consider including: * The distance from the service pipeline at the road side to your household connection (NICOR provides the first 60ft at no charge) * The costs to convert your appliances currently running on propane to
natural gas. * The disposition of you existing propane supply Information related to the above items and other conversion issues will be included in the next NICOR/Lake Carroll articles. In the interim, we should all be thinking about questions we may have related to the conversion from propane to natural gas. If you have a question, you may call Lee Harbison at 815-493-2552, ext #25 or send an email at lharbison@golakecarroll.com and we will work to include questions and answers in future Lake Carroll news articles. WRITER’S NOTES As I was considering what might be the next appropriate article to write concerning the NICOR project, it occurred to me that as NICOR moves ahead with pipeline installations, many of us who intend to convert to natural gas (ourselves included) are approaching “connection deadlines” only a few months away, and we still may have questions concerning conversion that we have not yet answered. So, what follows is a series of questions that I have heard from others (and asked myself) concerning the next steps in our conversion from propane to natural gas. First Things First: Have you read the recent two articles in the March issue of the Lake Carroll News related to the NICOR project? The articles are on page 5A (by Jeff Howe, LCA BOD Treasurer) and on page 13A (By Annette Martinez, Director of External Relations for NICOR gas). There is important information in both of these articles. Jeff covers the financial transactions between Lake Carroll and NICOR, and that may help us understand the $250.00 permit fee to the NICOR gas line. Annette covers rebates and other financial offers which we may use to offset connection costs. Thanks to Jeff and Annette for providing this information! What follows is a series of questions I have asked myself and heard from others. They address issues we have to consider when converting to natural gas. Unlike Jeff and Annette, I don’t have answers. However, I do have faith that over the next few months answers will be forthcoming from the LCA and others who are moving ahead with the NICOR program. Questions: #1: Have you registered with the LCA Office concerning your intention to convert to NICOR, and paid the $250.00 permit fee? NICOR needs to know who wants to be converted. #2: When, where, and by whom will the NICOR supply line be connected to our personal residence? #3: When will our current gas appliances be converted from propane to natural gas? #4: Who will convert our appliances from propane to natural gas? Is that our personal responsibility or will we have access to contractors who have the knowledge and equipment to make those connections? #5: Will there be a period of time in our residence when we may have neither propane nor natural gas as a fuel supply? And if so, how long might that period last, One day? Or More? #6: When we disconnect our propane supply, what happens to the propane in our tank? Can it, and will it be removed by our current propane supplier, and if so at what cost or payback for the recovered propane? #7: What do we do with our existing propane tank, weather above ground or buried? (I believe I have heard a partial answer to this question as follows) If you have an above ground tank, it may be rented from your supplier, and they may take it away. If you have a buried tank, you may own it, and once emptied it should be filled with sand or gravel to keep it from collapsing at some future date. These are questions that have occurred to me as we anticipate converting to NICOR. There may already be answers to these and other questions – these are not show-stoppers. What is new to us has no doubt been experienced by many others who have upgraded to natural gas. Between information from NICOR, the LCA, and our fellow members, this project will move along well.
Off-Highway Vehicle Usage Stamp Update The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), in cooperation with the Illinois Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, will postpone implementation of the Illinois Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Usage Stamp until further notice. The postponement will allow OHV users, and others interested in motorized outdoor recreation, to provide input on planning for development by the IDNR of public OHV riding facilities in Illinois.
How does snow melt effect our lake level? Read “Why isn’t the lake filling up…with ALL the snow that melted?!?” Lake Manger Joe Rush answers this question on page 9A.