Mink Lake Property Owners Association
P.O. Box 70,
Lake St Peter, Ontario, K0L2K0
Email: minklakepoa@gmail.com
Web: https://minklakepoa.ca/
Mink Lake Property Owners Association Membership
Big Mink Lake
Re: History and Current Situation of the Big Mink Lake Dam
Dear Membership
It has been over five (5) years since the Mink Lake Property Owners Association (MLPOA) began talks with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) regarding the deterioration of the Big Mink Lake dam.
MNRF completed an inspection in 2016 and was to be reinspected in 2031. The MNRF determined everything was acceptable, but they only checked for catastrophic failure.
MLPOA pointed out that if the dam is not fixed, the water levels in the lake could be drastically reduced causing property owners to have a depreciation in their property value.
We had the Hastings Highlands Township involved in the ongoing conversations and they were on MLPOA's side and willing to help in any way they could.
MLPOA, especially Mike Kopansky had many discussions and emails with MNRF.
In 2020, COVID hit and things slowed to a crawl. The good news was, we put our dam on MNRF radar.
MNRF informed MLPOA that a complete rebuild of the dam would entail a new concrete structure, at a cost of over 1.5 million that will be at the local taxpayer's expense.
It was Mike Kopansky’s suggestion to put the large rocks on the dam to deter ATVs and to use a much cheaper way of using rocks instead of concrete. This was going to be approximately a 1.2-million-dollar savings.
When I contacted the MNRF just before the 2023 MLPOA Annual General Meeting, I found out that MNRF was going to fix the dam, not back to the way it was, with a wooden deck, but at least to stabilize it for many years to come.
I mentioned again to the MNRF about the ATVs driving on the dam, into the lake and then onto the dam. I further reminded MNRF of Mike Kapansky’s idea about having large rocks on the top of the dam area to make it impassable and MNRF agreed to do it since the equipment was already there.
There were some conversations with MNRF about installing wireless trail cameras to monitor the dam if ATVs continue to be a problem with using this area of the dam as an access point from Dam Road to the private road or vice versa.
The executive members of the MLPOA will continue to monitor the ATV problem and report back to the MNRF at a future date.
Sincerely,
Bruce Mills
Vice President
Mink Lake Property Owners Association (MLPOA)
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