President’s Newsletter

Dam Project Update:

As you may recall, NC DENR has approved a plan for repairing Indian Lake Dam. Bids to make the repair were in the $140,000 range. Before starting repair, your Dam Committee decided to hire a second engineer to review the project. This was a very wise move. While the second engineer agreed that the original approach should solve the problem, he suggested an alternative approach. As a result of his suggestions, a hydrologist was retained to assist
in evaluating the dam. The repair approach agreed upon by the second engineer and the hydrologist will be presented to DENR soon. If DENR concurs with this approach, the total cost of repairs SHOULD be much less than the initial estimate of $140k.

After the hydrologist completed his examination of Indian Lake Dam, he commented that it is one of the best constructed private dams he has seen. There were no signs of earth movement or water seepage through the earthen dam. Hopefully after this project is completed, it will be a long time before any more extensive repairs will be required on Indian Lake Dam.

After this project is completed, the Dam Committee will focus its attention on installing a slip liner in the drain for Rainbow Lake. Because of the size of that lake, DENR will not be involved and this repair should be somewhat easier and cheaper that the work on Indian Lake Dam.

Community Update:

Our mountains are coming to life. Permanent residents are out enjoying the spring weather. Part-time residents are arriving to open up their homes for the summer. A change from the past few years is that construction is starting on a new residence in our community.

Recently, the Beautification Committee conducted a cleanup of the lakeside park. Thanks to the many folks that worked very hard on this project. I’m sure the Committee will be planning additional work parties to weed and plant in the various community gardens. In the last few days a large number of limbs have been reported floating in Indian Lake.

It is assumed that these limbs were thrown into the lake as part of someone cleaning up their property. Please do not discard debris in the lake. It will either wash up on someone else’s property or end up in the spillway. In either case it means extra work for neighbors, and in the case of the spillway it may require the community to hire someone to remove the debris.

Roadside maintenance will begin the week of May 12. The protocol for trimming with be the same used at the end of last season. As long as practical, an attempt will be made not to trim anything that is blooming even if it is in the trim zone.

Bear activity:

The bears are out and about as expected this time of year. The reports of bears in Indian Lake Estates are not as numerous this year as they were last year. I did have one to try to take my gas grill off the porch but the grill was tethered to the house by the gas line!

Follow these tips to discourage bears in our community:

  1. Keep your home bear-attractant free. Don’t attract bears to your property with garbage, bird feeders, fruit trees and berry bushes, gardens, compost, dirty barbecues (grease cans or drip trays) or pet food.
  2. Don’t stockpile garbage and recycling in large quantities and store it indoors or outdoors in bear-proof containers . If your community has curb-side pick-up, don’t place it outside until just before pick-up.

Road Repairs:

As a result of the pressing need for funds to pay for the State mandated repairs to Indian Lake Dam, no road resurfacing was budgeted in 2014. However, there are several places where resurfacing is desperately needed.

Rainbow’s End is the first priority. We are looking at options ranging from gravel repairs & patching to paving. Final decision will depend on which of the dam repair plans is approved by DENR. As soon as DENR approval is received, the Board will determine the funds that can be released to the Road Committee

Two words that cost Medicare patients thousands of dollars – “UNDER OBSERVATION”:

NBC recently reported an issue impacting Medicare patients. If you or someone you know is on Medicare, please watch the following short videos. The critical information in these videos could save you thousands of dollars! Sorry for the commercials but that is the price we pay to watch these informative videos.

Everett Bedenbaugh
President, Indian Lake Club, Inc.
[email protected]
(m) 864-980-3349
(h) 864-543-3757(ILE) 828-862-6432