PERRY WALTHER BUILDING

Dave Morley presiding

Board Members: Milt Jones, Leslie Peterson, Liz Protell, Dave Morley, Suzanne Blumenthal, Bill Webb, Brian Neth, Terry Woodrow, Gary Willard, Jim Blake, Jeff Sibley, Eric Jung

Guests: Nancy Goddard, Kathy Bort, Morley Singer, Henry and Joann Marks, Debra Willard, Ed and Nan Hoffman, Stu and Jeanne Farwell, Lura Francis, Bruce Orvis

Dave Morley introduced the Board members.

Treasurer’s Report: Brian Neth said BVRI has $44,000 in the bank, and the Board established funds for a new lake raft and a lake maintenance project.

Report on Board Meeting: Dave Morley said that, while the Board holds fewer meetings, the Board is able to conduct business more efficiently via e-mail. He said that, at the Board meeting held just before the general meeting, the Board budgeted $5,000 for a new raft at the lake. It will be assembled and installed professionally, with a lockable trap door, new anchors, and new ladders. The Board is investigating bringing power and water to the beach. Sue Garratt will lead an effort to clean up around the lake by removing dead trees and cleaning feeder streams. The annual picnic will be held at noon on Sunday of the July 4 weekend next year. BVRI made $555 at the picnic raffle, and the money will be donated to BV EMS. Board members will walk around the subdivision to survey for 30 foot fire safe clearance around houses. The President will send out letters to property owners in violation of CC&R’s regarding storage of snowmobiles; the letters will suggest hiding the snowmobiles by moving them or covering with a brown tarp.

The Board will spend up to $3,000 more on soil testing and a topo map for possible tennis courts at the BVRI-owned Children’s Beach parcel. Morley Singer said he favored the par course site. Lura Francis said she was in favor of tennis courts.

Garbage: Terry Woodrow said SEI was seeking a 15% increase, the first increase since 1994. A second garbage bin will be added. Lura Francis said she can’t open the doors to the bin. Woodrow said someone keeps stealing the stepladder. Henry Marks suggested something like a "handicap accessible" door on the bins. The second container should be in place by this winter.

Architectural Review Committee: Terry Woodrow reported that 6 previously approved homes are still under construction; 5 new ones were approved and 4 are now under construction; 1 hasn’t been started yet. One set of plans for a new house is being reviewed. 4 remodels were approved and are under construction; 2 remodels are under review.

Public Safety Officer System: Terry Woodrow said she is on the volunteer fire department, and training and coordination are excellent. The newly hired third Public Safety Officer is getting training in firefighting. Bruce Orvis said coordination with the Lake Alpine Water Company is better with the new system.

Orvis Report on Water: Dave Morley introduced Bruce Orvis, the founder of modern Bear Valley. Orvis said there is plenty of water in the Bear Valley watershed. But not all of it is useable currently for the village. When Orvis built the dam, he applied for water rights for some of the water in the reservoir it created (Bear Lake). He found it necessary to draw the lake down every fall for two reasons. First, springs which feed the lake are rich in iron sulfide. A layer rich in iron sulfide forms at the bottom of the lake. When temperatures drop in the fall, the lake has a tendency to go "belly up", with the top and bottom layers of the lake trading places. This brings up the accumulated iron sulfide into the layers where the drinking water is drawn from, resulting in a "rotten egg" smell in the water. Drawing the lake down in the fall allows the Lake Alpine Water Company, of which Orvis is the owner, to draw off the "bad" water. The other reason for the drawdown is to make room for winter snowfall and the ice which forms. If the lake isn’t drawn down, the ice will clog the spillway, which could allow the lake to rise to unsafe levels on the dam. The lake is 72 feet deep, making it one of the deepest in the High Sierra. The ski area needed water for snowmaking, so the Water Company pumped the drawdown water up to the ski area in the fall.

Orvis thought he had rights to all the water in the lake, and signed off on the original water application that it was all the water the community needed. It was "my mistake", he said. After pumping up to the ski area for 4 years, he was told by the state that he was taking more water than he had rights to. The state didn’t fine him, but told him he had to apply for more water rights.

His first tactic was simply to apply for more rights to the water in Bear Lake. But downstream users opposed the application, because water in the Stanislaus River is "fully adjudicated", and downstream users oppose any attempt by upstream users to take any more water. Lake Alpine Water Company spent over $30,000 in legal fees with little result.

Finally, discussions with Alpine County District Attorney Alan Turner and officials of the Calaveras County Water District turned up the fact that CCWD has more water than it needs in its series of reservoirs on the Stanislaus River, starting with Lake Alpine. Orvis began negotiations with CCWD for more water rights, which could be transferred to Bear Lake. At first he negotiated alongside representatives of Bear Valley Mountain Resort, who also want more water for snowmaking. But the resort decided they wanted to expand their snowmaking to cover the whole mountain, which will require 2,000 acre feet of water. Bear Valley only needs 500 acre feet for total buildout. Orvis is now negotiating separately for Bear Valley’s needs. The proposal is to pay full price for water the community uses, while paying a standby fee for rights to the remainder, which would be brought online as needed. If the water available out of the Bear Valley watershed is outstripped by needs of the community, the rest would be piped down from Lake Alpine to Bear Lake. The resort could install its own pipeline from Lake Alpine to the resort, but the mountain doesn’t have enough storage capacity at present.

He said he has a backup plan if he can’t secure more water rights from CCWD. There’s lots of water under the meadow which could be tapped with wells if necessary.

Respectfully submitted
Eric Jung

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