Lake Barcroft History Book

fees, $60 per year for up to ten years.
Door-to-door solicitations, meetings,
letters and newsletter articles ensued.
By June 15, 1970, LABARCA had
managed to get approximately 70
percent of the residents to agree to
participate in the purchase. The $300
contribution could not be legally
enforced, but the $60 annual
maintenance fee was mandatory and
gave the homeowner the right to use
the lake regardless of ownership.
A July 5 deadline was set for remitting
payment to the Lake Purchase Trustee,
Millard Rice. At a special meeting on
July 8, the subscribers voted to go
forward with the sale, despite a
considerable funding shortfall; hence,
loans would be required to supplement Myron Birnbaum
the proceeds from the sale of stock.
The following approximate figures made up the final purchase
price of BBI:
Income
Homeowners purchase of stock (723x$300) $217,000
Bank loan 50,000
Two personal loans by residents 45,000
Prepaid beach fees ________ 32,000
Total $344,000
Disbursements
R. Dockser $100,000
W. Dockser 100,000
Barger Estate 100,000
Repayment to LABARCA for options 6,000
BBI operating funds 27,000
Legal, auditing, & settlement fees ________ 11,000
Total $344,000
Once the decision was made and the money collected, more
residents contributed to the purchase. With just over one
thousand lots, 100 percent participation would have financed
the purchase, but only 81 additional subscribers had joined by
1986 when Bill Lowenthal took over the Membership
Committee chair. Over the years, his efforts resulted in 163
additional contributors, but holdouts continued to resist
participation. To mention one example, an army officer who
lived in the community for more than twenty years never
contributed, claiming to be a nonpermanent resident. After he
passed away, his widow immediately paid the $300. Today,
with only seven holdouts, 1,024 members of the community
association have paid the $300.
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BARLAMA
On September 21, 1970—less than a
year after Colonel Barger’s death—
ownership of the lake, the dam, beaches
and property previously held by BBI
passed into the residents’ hands. A new
nonprofit corporation, the Barcroft
Lake Management Association, Inc.
(BARLAMA), purchased the stock of
BBI, taking over its assets, which
included each homeowner’s $60 annual
beach maintenance fee. The first
president of BARLAMA, Al Trakowski,
was assisted by corporation officers Bill
Arnold, Eve Haughey and Millard Rice
as well as directors Dave Alne, George
Peckham, Myron Birnbaum, Phil
Johnson and Cal Laning. These
individuals, along with Stuart Finley,
made up the Lake Purchase Committee
for the most part, but they were only a small number of more
than one hundred volunteers who contributed their efforts to
the purchase. The BARLAMA board appointed Cal Laning
president, Bill Arnold vice president and Al Trakowski
secretary-treasurer of BBI, the operating entity.
The purchase of the lake united the community, and a
celebration took place in December: the 1970 Gala was billed
as a “LABARCA/BARLAMA milestone . . . a nostalgic look
into our past . . . to smile at our trials and tribulations.” John
Wilkins scripted, produced and directed a whimsical and
sometimes hilariously funny musical called A Saga of Silt.
Myron Birnbaum’s song lyrics made the evening. At the finale,
the entire audience—some three hundred strong—stood and
joined the cast in singing the chorus of “This Lake Is Your
Lake” to the tune of Woody Guthrie’s popular “This Land Is
Your Land.”
This lake is your lake,
This lake is my lake,
From the Tripps Run Causeway
To the Beach Three Island
From the Holmes Run Inlet
To the old dam spillway
This lake was made for you and me.
Lake Barcroft’s homeowners were finally able to control their
own destiny with regard to the lake’s operations. Ownership of
the lake meant assuming the responsibilities heretofore borne
by Colonel Barger, but it also increased social opportunities for
the new owners. One positive result of the purchase included a
very successful beach cleanup and maintenance campaign in
the spring of 1971. Dozens of residents, young and old,
repaired lifeguard stands, fences and docks, thereby
demonstrating a new sense of personal responsibility toward