Property owners association takes title to Lake Wanda

Vernon - “We did it - we now own the lake,” said a jubilant Jay Angrick, president of the Lake Wanda property owners’ association board, as he stood with fellow volunteers on the dam he and 15 others had cleared of trees, brambles and poison ivy vines over the weekend. Angrick and his fellow board officers closed the sale on Lake Wanda at noon on Friday, Oct. 27. When the association handed the $27,000 check to former owner Dennis Schwarz, they wrote the final stanza in a five-year-long saga of alternating hope and despair, as property owners struggled to find common ground with Schwarz, whose family had owned the lake for the past 20 years. Schwarz said that he was a happy, happy man, adding that he wished the new owners all the luck in the world from the “bottom of his heart.” Angrick and association Vice President Dawn Morris said that they wanted to thank everyone who had contributed to the happy outcome of what they described as a long battle. As their first act as lake owners, the group of volunteers got to work last weekend clearing the dam and 15 feet of the swamp behind the dam of a 20-year growth of willows, brambles, and poison ivy vines. The effort took over 17 hours of steady labor. “We were bruised, itching with poison ivy and exhausted,” said Morris, whose husband Craig, a landscaping professional, wielded a chainsaw during the clearing effort. “But we are happy.” Morris praised Ken Marsh and Eva Ferlato for helping keep up the strength and spirits of the workers with lavish helpings of good food. Marsh donated the Lake Wanda Store’s specialty pizza to the hungry crew, and Ferlato “kept cooking everything.” Morris also emphasized that the tree-removal work the volunteers did had saved the association the cost of hiring a professional, which could have cost as much as $15,000-$20,000. “I don’t want people thinking we did this without official blessing,” Morris said, adding that all work done by volunteers was under the direction of the engineers supervising the project, Christopher S. Adams, president of Civil Dynamics of Stockholm, and his associate, Jessica Bergmann. “They’ve met deadlines, gotten dam inspections, and agreed to lower the lake to reduce the spillway capacity and the risk the lake could overtop the dam after a heavy rain,” Adams said. Volunteers now plan to start scraping away silt and other debris to find out whether the concrete dam core extends along the entire length of the 496-foot dam. Morris and Angrick agreed that the purchase of the lake appeared to have energized the community. Although only 57 of the 295 property owners in the community have joined the association, both members and non-members turned out to clear the dam. Shirley Jobes, the association’s spokeswoman, said that the board is working to establish a just system of membership fees and dues, with sentiment leaning towards an initial fee of about $150 to join the association and annual dues of $250-$300. In April 2006, Lake Wanda teetered on the brink of destruction when the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection enforced a longstanding court order for Schwarz to repair the failing dam or drain the lake and breach the dam. But in mid-May the department had the court order lifted when residents pulled together and hashed out a viable contract with Schwarz. Throughout the summer, Angrick and fellow association members campaigned to collect enough money from property owners to purchase the lake and retire the tax liens on the lake and associated property. The total cost will be somewhere around $50,000, with the cost of the lake being $27,000 of the total. In January 2005, Vernon Township agreed to cosign a $393,000 low-interest loan the Department of Environmental Protection officials has promised the lake association. Angrick says the board will close on the loan about a year from now, when it expects to begin construction on the dam. “As soon as we use the loan, interest payments start, so we want to do as much as we can ourselves,” Angrick said. Although lake owners and homeowners associations are legally responsible for maintaining dams on private lakes, in New Jersey municipalities often act as co-signers on state loans. “This is a whole new world for us,” Morris said. “We’re starting from scratch. And it’s exciting.” To raise funds, the association is sponsoring an adult comedy show and dance on Saturday, Nov. 18 at the Barry Lakes Club House. Tickets cost $20 and are available at the Lake Wanda Store on Canistear Road. The show will start at 7 p.m. and no one under 21 will be admitted.