KWS fishing from the docks

In this file photo, two boys spend some of their first day of spring break from school fishing at the Bear Lake channel from the docks at the Bear Lake Inn.

(KEN STEVENS)

Fed by Bear Creek, Bear Lake feeds into Muskegon Lake.

LAKETON TOWNSHIP, MI - A local group of citizens hope a new tax assessment could fund cleanup efforts at Bear Lake, linked to Muskegon Lake.

Laketon Township and the city of North Muskegon in recent weeks passed resolutions supporting the creation of a Bear Lake Improvement Board The new entity could hold a public hearing for a tax assessment on all 265 of property owners on the lake, according to Darrell Van Fossan, Chairman of the Bear Lake Property Owners Association.

"Our focus is on invasive plants and water quality," said Van Fossan. Cleaning up the lake could also help native species to come back and improve the fishing in the lake.

"As the food chain is improved, so are the species that once lived there," Van Fossan said.

About 150, or 60 percent of the property owners currently pay into in a voluntary program to clear Eurasian water-milfoil and blue-green algae in front of their properties, Van Fossan said. There are roughly 20 acres of untreated water in the center of the lake.

Bear Lake also has phragmites, and a fourth invasive plant species - starry stonewort - has been found in Muskegon Lake, even the channel connecting it to Bear Lake.

The Bear Lake Improvement Board would include five members by law: Muskegon County Drain Commissioner Brenda Moore, a member of the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners, representatives from North Muskegon and Laketon Township and a property owner on Bear Lake.

North Muskegon city manager Sam Janson and Laketon Township Supervisor Kim Arter would represent their respective areas - Muskegon County would still have to appoint a representative. The four members would then elect the fifth member to represent the property owners.

The group could then hold meetings to determine a list of projects and hold a public hearing for a tax assessment.

"This would all be happening between now and late fall," Van Fossan said. "By Spring of 2017, we'd be rolling ahead with a project plan and treatment plan."

He said the future efforts would occur in sync with the West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission which a year ago obtained a $7.9 million grant to remove phosphorous-laden sediments, restore natural water flow and create wetlands in Bear Creek, which feeds Bear Lake.

Van Fossan said a group of eight Bear Lake property owners has been meeting for about two years to get the project to its current stage.

"It took a couple years, but I think it's something the local community as well as the people on Bear Lake should be proud of," Van Fossan said.