Brush Lake, ND

McLean County Sheriff’s Department would like to warn the Brush Lake community that there has been confirmed theft in the area. The items of interest have been catalytic converters from vehicles, snowmobiles, and tools. There is a potential that some of these items may have been retrieved through forced entry into buildings. Please check on your property and belongings as you are able and keep an eye out for your neighbors as well. If you have evidence regarding potential or confirmed theft on your property or any property in this area to please contact Lieutenant Krohmer or Detective Matties at 701-462-8103.

As a reminder, items such as Appliances, Electronics, Oil, Box Springs/Mattresses, Propane Tanks, Building Materials, Concrete, Hazardous Waste and Tires will not be accepted.

Please help to enforce this if you see someone dumping unacceptable items in the garbage bins as this is a contracted service that we want to continue. Thank you!

Below are the compiled responses provided to at the spring MBLCA meeting on June 6th. For more information on the survey please contact Stacey Lang at staceylang@bis.midco.net

Total Responses: 47

Of those surveyed:

93% are MBLCA members

98% are Brush Lake Cabin Owners, 2% are community members

Overall Weaknesses, primary recommendations for each (in order of responses):

• Lack of Liquid funds-  Increase dues, Increase Fundraisers, Sell Association land
• Lack of Volunteers- Utilize talents from existing members before hiring help, Stress the need for volunteers more on Facebook and explain the roles better
• Lack of Board Member Communication- Facebook needs to be utilized more to communicate, post Board Minutes on Facebook page

Overall Threats/Risk, primary recommendations for each (in order of responses):

• Lack of Water Quality-  Need for all cabins to have a proper working septic system and/or holding tank
• Lake Overcrowding- Multi Cabin Dwellings, placing boat size restrictions

Lake Safety primary recommendations (in order of responses):

• Ask Game and Fish to monitor our lake more closely
• Make sure we are all doing our part to inform users of our lake to abide by the safety laws
• Provide safety classes for children and young adults

Long-term opportunities (in order of responses):

• Increased fundraising efforts-  More events/raffles, more fundraising apparel 
• Additional income possibilities- Increase Dues, Sell Pavilion Land, Rent out camping spots

2019 Projects (in order of importance):

• Signage at Public Dock
• Replaced Water Damage Ceiling Tiles
• Replace Playset

Biggest Improvements/Concerns needed (in order of importance):

• Land property Improvements- Improve road conditions, Improve Pavilion (bathroom and outdoor seating, septic System) 
• Safety- young kids driving buggy’s and golf carts irresponsibility, more speed limit signs, stopping inexperienced waverunners

Board Actions & Follow-up to Survey 

Lack of Liquid funds/fundraising/volunteers

• MBLCA is utilizing volunteers to coordinate Friday night Bingo- 50% of the proceeds from Bingo nights throughout the summer will come to MBCLA, other 50% to Butte Church who is covering Saturday nights
• Utilizing Sign-up app to coordinate volunteers needed for MBLCA events. 
• Apparel and Towel Sales- The board will be fundraising in many ways throughout the 2020 summer including:
  • Towel, bags and mug Sales- Bags and Mugs are here today, towels will be here on Wednesday
  • Fundraising online Apparel site- a variety of apparel will be online for purchase with a variety of designs to choose from. (Also support Kathy Skaley as she provide proceeds to the MBLCA for her sales!)
• The board will look at the possibility of increasing dues if needed

Lack of Board Communication

• The board has been attempting to increase posts on Facebook by creating events on the Brush Lake Cabin Owners page
• Some recommendations request email and/or mail options as a means for communication.  Email would require a email deploy software (which would cost money) and mail can be cost-prohibitive.  As a reminder, the Brush Lake Site is brushlakend.com. All events and primary information is posted on this site. 

Lake Safety

• MBLCA have partnered with ND Game and Fish to provide a Life Jacket Loaner station at the public dock
• ND Game and Fish will be hosting an OHV (off road ATV’s/side by sides) certification course. (Originally scheduled for June 12, now rescheduled for July.) This course is full and cannot increase in size due CV19 restrictions.  If we have interest from a minimum of an additional 6 students we can/will schedule another certification. 
• Safety Resources- Safety resources have been added to the brush lake site, link is http://brushlakend.com/homepage/safety/

Land/Property Improvements

• Pavilion bathrooms have been renovated and outdoor bar area has been added.  

Concerns Outside Board Purview 

• Lake Quality- If you have concerns about septic systems around the lake, please reach out to First District Health at (701) 852-1376 for guidance.
• Road Conditions- Please reach out to Rec District with concerns

The MBLCA and Rec Board will be held in conjunction with one another per the association’s request.  Because of this change the MBLCA will be moving their spring meeting to Saturday, June 6th at 10am with the Rec board meeting following afterwards.

Hello Everyone! In order to more easily coordinate our Bingo volunteers, we’ve set up the schedule on Sign-up, a simple volunteer website.

Simply click the link below to see available times and sign up. (You will need to use the email sign-up versus sign up through FB.) We will establish a training time as well as a training video for reference to ensure volunteers feel comfortable with the responsibilities. We are looking to cover 15 Friday’s this summer from 7:15-8:45. We’re hoping with almost 200 cabins this will be a simple task. (Once these are filled we will try to add Saturday’s if there is interest and available volunteers.)

This not only brings patrons to the Pavilion to support the Shore, it will also serve as a significant revenue source for MBLCA. Please consider giving a few hours of your time to help us keep this going!!

Please go to https://signup.com/go/muKAAko to sign up or call Stacey Lang at 701-400-2343.

In our past 2 surveys, our members have requested we pursue any/all additional measures that can be taken to increase safety around our lake.

In response to your request, the MBLCA has secured an OHV/ATV safety course instructed by the ND Parks and Recreation. Date/time for this class will be July 11th from 9am-1:30pm at Brush Lake and will include both in class and hands on demonstrations.

This class will be free to participants as it is covered by the Jake’s Star Foundation. Registered participants is geared to youth ages 12-15 but anyone outside of these ages are encouraged to watch and learn!

Registration for this class is located at https://www.parkrec.nd.gov/business/recreation-programs/highway-vehicles-ohv/ohv-tracked-dirt-bike-safety. A minimum of 6 registered and can have a maximum 15-16. This course is not restricted to members so please share this link with anyone within the lake community who may benefit from the course.

Here is the breakdown of the MBLCA schedule for this Saturday, June 29th:

• 8:30am- Memorial Walk/Run Registration
• 9:00am- Memorial Walk/Run
• 10:00am- Kids’ Games

All events meet or are held at the Pavilion. Please check out additional Shore event schedule on the shore page and postings!

Held at the Brush Lake Pavilion. Agenda is garbage special assessment, garbage/spring clean-up, roads and board member election. Refreshments provided.

The Mercer Brush Lake Community Association board had a strategic planning meeting where we identified needs, weaknesses, and strengths of our lake. We wanted to present our findings to the Brush Lake community and get your thoughts so we developed a survey. It should take less than 5 minutes to complete and will help us identify where you would like resources focused- for the short and long term.

Please take some time to give us your thoughts, we would greatly appreciate it! Survey will be available until May 11 and findings from the survey will be shared at the spring meeting. Thank you!

Click here to take the survey!

1. Friday February 1st
   Bismarck Eagles
   Happy hour 5:30-7:00
   Taco bar at 7:00 followed by prize giveaways and then Music from Crown Entertainment DJ

Save the date and look for a formal invite in the mail! (If you are a new Brush Lake Cabin Owner, please reach out to Sonya Wanner at (701) 221-2143 for tickets!)