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History of GLADLA
Where did we come from? Our records indicate that that the first meeting of this organization was held July 18th, 1974, at the Komrska’s home. The original official title was “The Environmental and Land Use Committee of the Green Lake and Betsie River Association” (fortunately the name has been shortened since.) The original members were; Don and Fippy Komrska, Arch Carey, Anne and Bob McPhilimy, Matt Hazel and Donald Walrath. So how did the committee get started? In the late 1950’s Clarence Moen, who had a summer place at the south end of Green Lake decided that the lake needed some water safety rules. He tried to organize the boater to this end and distributed these rules on posters. The name of Moen’s group was “The Green Lake Water Safety Association”. This group faded away until revived by Arch Cary with the help of Ralph and Alvina Ellis who added the “Betsie River” part to the name of the association. In 2015 our by-laws were changed and Duck Lake (our sister lake) was added to the organization with full voting rights, and the name was changed to “Green Lake and Duck Lake Association. While Duck Lake residents always worked with the original Association they did not have voting rights until 2015. Now we have a very active board made up of a team of folks from both Green and Duck Lakes and in June of 2021 we were granted 501c3 non-profit status by the IRS. That 1974 “committee” meeting was the real beginning of our organization that now addresses not just water safety but all aspects of life on Green and Duck Lakes. Thanks to Dave Pennington who provided much of the background information.
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