The concept of “lake management” is an all encompassing framework or set of services that can be offered to any number of groups such as lake districts, lake associations, or improvement associations, municipalities or other agencies if needed. While many of these constituent groups have the responsibility of day to day operation of a particular water body, having the expertise to manage it mindfully and fiscally can be challenge without in-house expertise.
The concept is simple; augment your staff with expertise of a knowledgeable lake specialist/professional. The professional is only called upon when needed. A carefully crafted agreement keeps their involvement and financial impact at a minimum. To often Lake subcommittees and ad hoc groups are constructed to deal with a specific issue or a specialty project. The monetary savings realized are arbitrary. Lakes professionals generally know the contractor pool, can develop a better set of specifications, and navigate the permitting system more efficiently.
They can assist in education, acquiring of grants, project facilitation, streamlining of communication with numerous agencies, and help provide a long term game plan for managing your water resources (Lake and watershed). The discussion point provided here is consideration for low leverage cost savings vs committee members working a second job.
Obviously an advocate for the private industry, too many projects go sideways by ad hoc committees selecting under qualified contractors to deliver specialty projects because the project was underbid or under-designed. The same can be said for consultants as well. Did you just hire the local road engineer to work on your limnology project? Do they have references germane to the type of work you wish to complete? Finding a good lakes specialist can save time and headaches of repetitive activity. There is no need to make every project into a request for proposals unless it’s protocol.
Wisconsin Lakes.net 