GREENWOOD PARK BELLS LAKE COMMUNITY CLUB

SEPTEMBER 2006 NEWSLETTER

IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND DATES TO REMEMBER

THE CLUB WILL BE OPEN THE WEEKEND AFTER LABOR DAY ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9TH AND 10TH FROM 1pm to 7pm

The Lake will be closed for swimming, boating and fishing

GENERAL ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 26th 7:00pm AT THE MUNICIPAL BUILDING

THERE ARE 15 PEOPLE RUNNING FOR THE 5 OPEN SEATS ON THE BOARD!!

             FRED BERL

             BILL CREGAR*                                       ROBERT KARCHER*

    TOM DEANGELIS                                  CONCETTA KEEBLER*              

    FRANK GERVASI*                                   SAL LIBERTO 

     STEPHEN GIBISON                               JERRY MARKANO

     ROBERT HOELKE                                  ROB MELE

     STEVE IRWIN                                         BOB PERRY

     ROSEANN JANNETTI-MANKUS*       JOHN STRIANO

                                                    *INCUMBANT

               Please come vote and show your support!

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WHAT WE DID IN 2006:

Improvements:

This year we installed a new one piece – contoured double bowl vanity and faucets in the ladies room. We believe this made a significant improvement in the appearance of the ladies room and hope you do too.  We didn’t forget the guys!  Your vanity will be installed after Labor Day.  Due to complications with our order, installation of the men’s room vanity was delayed. We also purchased and installed new screen doors for the upstairs office and restrooms.  The old ones were well weathered and needed to be replaced.  We would like to thank Doug Matticks for a quality job in installing the doors and vanity.  Doug will be installing the men’s room vanity also.  Great job Doug!!

We also dug up some pool lines located near the flag pole and replaced them with a larger diameter line to increase the flow of water through the filter system back into the pool.  Several Board members and a few volunteers handled the excavation (glad you guys and gals like to stay in shape) and the pool company put in the lines.  The grunts (oops, I mean Board members) went back in and filled the hole and made any other mason repairs needed.

Entertainment:

As we look back over the season once again we had another banner year.  Entertainment was a huge success once again. Every year the entertainment committee tries to put a little twist on things so everyone can get involved.  We had rave reviews over the Fathers Day Brunch, Pool Side Bingo, and Themed Movie Nights. Hot dog night was a huge success, although the Root beer floats ran a close second.  Carnival Day and Christmas in July in the same day, what were we thinking!  It was a great day and Santa was very pleased to see all the children!  Survivor Day was a big hit once again and this year even some parents got involved in the tug of war finale.  We look forward to seeing everyone again next year and hope that we can make your summers fun and enjoyable for your entire family.

Swim Team:

The Greenwood Park “Frogs” swim team, one of 36 member teams belonging to the Tri-County Swimming Pool Association, has enjoyed growth and success over more than 3 decades of summer swimming excitement. An integral part of the Greenwood Park Bells Lake Community Club, the Frogs have a storied history that includes many milestones and accomplishments such as:

• In the early 70s, the fledgling Greenwood Park Swim team, after having practiced in Bells Lake itself, construct a 6-lane, 25 meter pool
• The pool was built with the help of John Quigley, Frank Brandolini, Charles Jannetti, Angelo DiDonato, Ken Davis the Wassmer, Lions and the Piatek families (all residents of Bells lake drive at the time) along with the Gares, Lyons, and Cunningham families.
• The Frogs got their name from the late Frankie Zippelli who swam on the team. He lived on Bells lake drive and was said to resemble a frog when he swam because he had such big eyes!
• The Greenwood Park swim team joins Tri County in 1973
• The team makes a steady march from the lowly ‘F’ division, all the way to ‘A’ division in short order. The club begins to develop a reputation of swimming excellence in South Jersey
• The Frogs have been crowned Gloucester County “Peach Bowl” Champions for the last six years running and show no signs of relenting any time soon!
• 2004 – The year we won it all! …Division A Champions, Gloucester County Champions and Tri-County Champions. The heralded Triple Crown! Greenwood Park became only the 2^nd team in 12 years to defeat the Flyers of Pheasant Run in a regular season dual meet!
• New records broken in 2006. This season was full of fast times and fun swims. Our Frogs kicked out 7 new team records.
• With many new families and swimmers joining the team this past season, the team saw a resurgence in our “Tadpole Team”. We’re excited to help develop those swimmers into the Frogs of the future.

 Greenwood Park Swimming – A proud tradition of excellence, teamwork and sportsmanship

Why not consider joining the fun? There is always room in the pool for more Frogs. It’s easy to get involved and the program is designed to accommodate all levels of talent – from the youngest swimmer just starting out, to the accomplished and skilled veteran. The season is chock full of fun events that include a team outing in late July, Friday night pep rallies, our annual Penny Auction fundraiser on July 4^th and the team picnic at the park. So if you’re thinking about summer swimming, look no further - Greenwood Park is the place to be. The Frogs welcome you to a family tradition of summertime fun.

For more information, please contact Jeff Malone, Erik Pedersen or Bill Cregar.

 Thanks - we look forward to seeing all our returning Frogs as well as some new faces in the spring.

LAKE & DAM NEWS

All hands on deck; for anyone who is interested we will begin lowering the water in the lake in September so we can begin Phase 1 of the DAM repair.  As the water is lowered we will be clearing and cleaning the swim area and the waters edge.  A volunteer sign up sheet is posted at the main office for anyone interested

If you haven’t already done so, please take a minute to check out the engineered plans for the upcoming rehab of the spill box, and the info sheet explaining the project that are posted on the message board.  The project should be starting on or about September 25, 2006 and should take about a month or so to complete.  For those of you who are unable to get down to the club, below is a shorter version of the info sheet.

Bell’s Lake Dam is an earthen dam. When you look out at the lake towards Greentree Road the embankment or berm that you see is the actual dam that holds the water in the lake. Located in the dam and forming part of the old Greentree Road bridge is a concrete structure (the spill box) that provides an outlet for the overflow of the lake. The lake is constantly flowing over the sides of the spill box. Without the spill box the lake would just continue to fill and would overflow its banks.

There are boards in the spill box that we remove to lower the lake for weed control in the winter. These boards can only be accessed from a boat in the lake. The main purpose of the spill box is to prevent an overtopping of the dam during a major storm or hurricane. Our spill box is not capable of handling a major occurrence as per the New Jersey DEP specifications. It’s like your bathtub at home overflowing. If more water goes in than can go out the overflow, you spill over the sides.  Since we have an earthen dam, if we overtopped, the earth forming the dam would quickly erode and the entire contents of the lake would be quickly released (ever see flash flooding on the news?).

The entire dam needs to be reinforced so that if we do experience a major event storm and we overtop, the dam will not wash out causing major damage downstream.  Our engineers will design what is needed to accomplish this and we are working on ways to finance such a monumental task.

In the meantime, our spill box needs to be repaired to continue its everyday job as an outlet for the normal lake overflow and the boards in the spill box need to be replaced with a mechanism to allow us to release water safely from the shore in an emergency situation.

We have a timeline set by the NJ DEP to follow and our first step is to complete this project. In order to accomplish this we will have to significantly lower the level of the lake.  Prior to the projected start date of September 25 the lake will be gradually lowered by approximately one foot per day until we are at a level sufficient to allow the construction crew to work in a dry environment.

We will be following strict NJ DEP guidelines to ensure that no wildlife is harmed and will relocate fish if necessary.  Our engineering firm (Princeton Hydro) is experienced in the relocating of fish and will be monitoring the entire process. Once the project is complete the lake level will be restored.

We are planning on cleaning out the exposed perimeter of the lake while the construction is going on. If you are interested in volunteering to help us out, please contact any Board member.

We would like everyone to know that as of our last inspection report filed with the NJ DEP the dam is deemed sound.  The NJ DEP wants us to make sure it stays that way.

For more info contact Patti Mazella at pamazella@hotmail.com

Although the season has come to the end we would like to remind everyone that the board of directors is always available throughout the year, as we plan the upcoming season.  You can contact us thru the website at www.bellslake.com. 

See you soon,

Roseann