Tuesday March 11, 7:00 PM, LHA held its 2025 Annual Meeting, bringing togetheralmost 150 members, supporters and guests to celebrate another year of preservation and community. They gathered at Anderson Civic Center in Anderson, SC where the meeting was streamed to members at Hartwell Arts Center in Hartwell, GA.
LHA President, Terry Jackson Jr, spoke to members about the year in review of LHA activities. Mr. Jackson spoke to the audience on various topics including lake levels, increased membership awareness, a very successful Splash the Trash held in September, board member changes, upcoming media changes at LHA just to name a few.
The first presentation was from Sergeant Danny McCown, Marine Unit in charge of Dive team and Search & Rescue operations. Mr. McCown noted the importance of the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department having several patrol boats and a trained staff of deputies to man them. Their Capabilities include lake patrol, law enforcement on the water, firefighting on the water, and EMS calls on the water. Sargeant McCown’s suggestion for LHA members to protect themselves would be to invest in security cameras for the dock, install lock on dock boxes, and don’t leave keys in a boat.
First to speak from USACE Savannah District was Deputy Commander, Colonel Ronald Sturgeon. The Commander spoke to members about the impact of Hurricane Helene and provided insight on civil projects in the south Atlantic division
Next to speak to members were Stan Simpson, Senior Water Manager and Craig Clarke, Water Manager. They were linked in remotely from USACE Savannah, GA. Mr. Clarke addressed balancing the basin and the current water situation with a visual presentation including detailed explanations of how water levels are managed for the entire basin and the multi-purposes of lake projects in the Savannah District, including recreation, flood prevention and power generation.
Also, from USACE Savannah District’s Fisheries Biologist, Jamie Sykes spoke to members about Hydrilla in Lake Hartwell and other invasive plants.
Terry Jackson concluded the meeting with some final LHA business. Mr. Jacksonreviewed the process the Board of Directors had put forth for the proposed overhaul of LHA’s by-laws. He explained that updates were required because of changes to Georgia Code, bring the document from 1990 to current and general operations efficiency. Mr. Jackson also thanked those members for taking the time to review and submit feedback. A motion was made from the floor to accept the amendments to bylaws as presented to membership. The motion was seconded followed by a very brief discussion. Members were then asked to vote by using the ballots provided.
The results of the vote were as follows, with 86 Members in Attendance:
68 Votes in Favor, 1 Vote Opposed, 17 Abstained
The motion passed.
Unfortunately, the feed between Anderson and Hartwell was lost during the meeting. Board members Bill Fogerty, Kira Novack and Kyle Els completed the meeting in Hartwell with the Bylaws vote to submit with the rest of the members in Anderson.
All of the speakers were available to answer questions at the conclusion of the meeting. It was a great opportunity to network and share LHA’s mission with members of the community. LHA is grateful to all the speakers and their teams from Anderson County Sheriff Department and US Army Corps of Engineers – Savannah District for sharing their valuable insights and expertise with us. The presentations were informative, engaging, and greatly contributed to the success of our annual membership meeting. LHA is also thankful to all those who attended our Annual Member Meeting. It was a wonderful evening of information about protecting and preserving our Lake Hartwell watershed.
