I'm back from the 2011 Wisconsin Lakes (formerly WAL) Convention in Green Bay. There I was able to talk to vendors for our APM study next year, and also talk to people who had actually used these vendors themselves. At the end of the day, I selected two vendors to submit a Request For Proposal (RFP). Today, I sent the formal request to these two vendors.
The first vendor is Bonestroo (pronounced bon NEST roo I think). They are the company that bought (merged?) Northern Environmental who did our study in 2007. Bonestroo is actually more of a large civil engineering firm with various offices in the upper-Midwest. The lake people I talked to were from the Park Falls, WI office. Mark Kordus is our contact.
The other vendor is Onterra, a much smaller company headed by Tim Hoyman out of De Pere, WI. I've seen Tim at numerous WL functions. He has done work for the Eagle River Chain of Lakes and St. Germain, right in our own neighborhood. His customers highly recommended his work.
Both of these firms said that they could have a RFP ready by our May Board meeting on the 28th. Also, they were both recommended by at least two customers.
Incidentally, the new Secretary of the WDNR, Cathy Stepp, spoke to us the first day of the Convention. Her background is in real estate sales, and she served one term in the WI legislature. She has no environmental or large group management experience. The first thing she is going after is the phosphorus ban. As always, it is important that your legislators hear from us, because as one politician actually told us, was that if he hears nothing from his constituents, he assumes that everything is OK. This is not OK. Phosphorus is the number one state-wide pollutant of our lakes. Cathy doesn't even seem to realize that, and she doesn't seem to realize that she now serves all Wisconsinites, not just her home district. Which is exactly what Scott Walker (and the Koch Brothers) wanted, I presume. We'll see how much of the environmental gain of the last ten years will be rolled back by these people.
I forgot the most important part. Both vendors said they would help us apply for grant money for our study. Tim Hoyman said he thought we could get 50-60% of the total project cost. If it comes in about the expected price, we would be looking at $6-8,000 as our part.