Peter Schreuder, Hydrologist, Hired

July 27, 2011

Dear Alliance Members and Friends:

I am please to be able to tell you that the Keystone Heights City Council approved the hiring of Mr. Peter Schreuder, Hydrologist and Author of the well known Schreuder Report to represent the City at the upcoming Stakeholder meetings that will be held by the SJRWMD to implement strategies to help recover the lakes in our area. 

This was a very tough decision for the Council because of the meager City budget.  Though each of the Council Members love the lakes just as much as the rest of us they cannot commit to more money than is in the coffers.   

Members of the Save Our Lakes Organization, Lake Area Water Alliance, Santa Fe Lake Dwellers, Garden Club of the Lakes, KH Woman’s Club, Melrose Business & Community Association, Keystone Business Association and other members of the community were all there to support the hiring of Mr. Schroeder as this is the best and possibly last shot our community has to actually do something to rehabilitate our lakes and hopefully restore the aquifer.  Since the City does not have engineers and hydrologists on its staff as does the large cities like Jacksonville and other big water consumers, Mr. Schroeder’s expertise will be invaluable as the technical advisor to the lake area citizenry.  We are very fortunate he has already invested a lot of his time for free helping us get this far.

The Council took this bold step with the reassurances from those attending that the community would step up and help shoulder the expenses necessary to retain Mr. Schreuder.  There is only enough money in the City budget for the initial work that will need to be done to complete a project of this scope.  Mayor Hildreth has been working on getting some matching funds from the County to help out but this will still not be enough.  However, we as a community whether we live inside or outside the City borders, this is our community and we are going to have to help the City with this expense as we are also Stakeholders that need to be represented at the Stakeholder table by Mr. Schreuder.

In the near future, you will be called upon to help with a fundraiser to raise a war chest for this fight to save our lakes and I hope you will respond wholeheartedly.  It is only together in partnership with the City, County, our organizations and individual contributions that we will be able to do what needs to be done to succeed in restoring our lakes so that we can recharge the economy in our community and most of all protect our water resources for future generations.

I would like to  have an Alliance Meeting on Wednesday, August 24^th,  7:00PM at the KH Womans Club to discuss our progress at the Stakeholder meeting on the 11^th, future plans for fundraising, etc .  As always we are looking for new  members so don’t hesitate to invite a new organization to join us.  Please let me know if you can come or not so I can change the date if necessary.   

 Looking forward to your reply,  Jackie