All addresses on the following streets are part of Lake Winona: Como Terrace, Clover Terrace, Croft Road, Milben Way, Moccasin Trail, Sachem Road, Tomahawk Trail, & Winona Trail. Addresses #29 and higher on Lorettacong Drive are also part of Lake Winona.

The fee covers costs of owning and maintaining the waters of Lake Winona and its necessary dam and structures and surrounding lots and structures owned by the LWCA in a safe, healthful and compliant condition.

Yes. Under the Safe Dam Act, any party that owns or operates the dam or the lake are considered owners. Each party gets notice from the NJDEP when repairs are necessary. In this case, the NJDEP considers LWCA, and five private property owners to be responsible for the dam repair. NJDEP does not have a mechanism to apportion responsibility between the parties; the law considers each party to be jointly and severally responsible. To obtain an apportionment between owners, one of the parties would have to initiate litigation, which can be costly and take years to resolve. LWCA is directing its resources to complying with the NJDEP order for dam repairs, but the issue of ownership responsibility can be considered in the assessment phase of the project, when the Township considers who benefits from the project.

As the owner of the lake and dam, LWCA is primarily responsible for maintenance. But because LWCA does not have enough in reserves to cover the costs of dam rehabilitation, it applied for a 2%, 20-year loan with the NJDEP. This fund was created as a resource for private lake associations that did not have the resources to complete costly dam projects, as New Jersey considers dam safety a public policy issue. The condition of the loan is that Jefferson agrees to assess the Lake Winona properties for the loan repayment. The LWCA is actively working with the Township of Jefferson to meet with the assessor and gain clarity on the assessment process and the impact to Lake Winona property owners. This also includes addressing questions that the community brought forth in the 10/3/25 Special Board Meeting regarding the payment process, payment options, and how the assessment would be handled should an owner wish to sell their Lake Winona property.

While the amount awarded to LWCA was $4.7 million, the cost of the project has not been determined. Many factors contribute to the cost, including the design used to meet the DEP’s requirements. It has always been the LWCA’s goal to pursue the most cost effective rehabilitation option to bring the dam to safety compliance. The project will include formal bid process for construction. The total amount borrowed will be assessed on the 203 Lake Winona properties, in accordance with the benefit received, as provided for under the law.

LWCA has an engineer, John Ritchey, P.E., of French and Parello, who prepared the application for the loan and now that the funds are available, is prepared to move forward with the next phase, which is design of the dam rehabilitation. The loan application focused on the most expensive alternative, so that adequate funds were awarded, but the hope is that a less expensive option will work. However, we won’t know this until the engineering is completed and the NJDEP Dam Safety reviews the proposal.  Now that the loan has been appropriated, we can proceed with design phase with the engineer.

Membership in LWCA is mandatory for all property owners. Lake Winona was originally developed by Lakeland Investment. The subdivision of the property into lots occurred by a series of filed maps, which were approved by Jefferson Township Council and recorded in the Morris County Clerk’s Office in the 1950’s. Some lots were retained for the common properties (such as the lake, beach and community house property) and other lots were sold to the purchasers for individual homes. As Lakeland sold each property, it included in all deeds to the original purchasers that the purchasers and their successors in title would be subject to the restrictive covenants in a 1949 deed from Lakeland Investment to William H. Crowe III and Jeanne Marie Crowe, his wife (called the “Master Deed”). These restrictions explicitly provided that all Lake Winona residents would be members and required to make payments to LWCA. These restrictions were renewed and revised in a deed recorded on April 1, 1992 which transferred the common properties from Lake Winona Club to Lake Winona Civic Association. This recorded information is notice to all purchasers that membership in LWCA is mandatory. 

LWCA is a homeowners association under NJ law. It is a registered non-profit corporation, as are most homeowner associations. Some of these associations are called HOAs, POAs, Clubs, Community Associations, or in this case, Civic Associations. The name is not relevant. LWCA’s registration with the State of New Jersey is valid and current. 

LWCA is not a condominium association and was not a registered Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act (PREDFDA) association; it was formed before these laws were passed (although it is subject to recent amendments to PREDFDA regarding By-Laws). It is governed by the non-profit corporation act, and certain amendments to PREDFDA, as well as its  own Certificate of Incorporation and By-Laws.  

It is relevant to the question of whether all owners must be members of LWCA, but it is not the basis for the loan assessment. The loan assessment is done according to the Safe Dam Act law.

No. While all property owners on the filed maps for Lake Winona are required to become members of LWCA by virtue of restrictions in their individual chains of title, membership is not the standard for determining the assessment for the NJDEP Dam Loan Program. The statute (and Loan Agreement) explicitly provide that loans to lake associations require the local government to act as co-applicant. The cost of payment of the principal and interest on the loan must be assessed by the Township against the “real estate benefitted thereby in proportion to and not in excess of” the benefits conferred. Accordingly, once the project is completed, Jefferson Township will proceed to implement the assessment pursuant to the terms of the statute.

Although the statute doesn’t say exactly how to do the assessment, there are some cases that have addressed this. The Township will have an appraiser prepare a report on how much each property is benefitted and will consider this report in the final assessment. 

The Township will collect from the Lake Winona residents and pay the NJDEP. Each owner will receive notice of the final assessment amount, and the manner in which it must be paid. It will be implemented by the Township similar to a local improvement, such as a sewer system.

The Board of Trustees. Pursuant to LWCA’s  governing documents (Certificate of Incorporation and By-Laws) the authority over the maintenance of the common property at Lake Winona is vested with the Board of Trustees of LWCA.

The Board is required to follow the governing documents. While certain rights in LWCA, such as the election of Trustees and the amendments to the By-Laws, are reserved to the Membership, it is the Board of Trustees that has the fiduciary obligation and authority over the fiscal and financial affairs of LWCA, and the maintenance of the real property owned by LWCA.

LWCA did appoint a Dam Committee consisting of volunteer members of the community to assist with this project, and that committee has been in place for several years. They have advised on all steps along the way, including the hiring and overseeing of engineering firms, communications with the Dam Safety Bureau, evaluation of funding options, application for loan funds, and various meetings with our lawyer, Jefferson Township officials and others to facilitate the project. We are very grateful for the hours they have put into this project over the years.

LWCA has made every effort to continually kept its Membership advised as to the status of the dam repairs and the application for the loan from NJDEP. A meeting was held in early October that many members attended. 

Recently, a member has demanded a special meeting under the By-Laws and while the petition she submitted was defective, the Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting for all members to attend on November 17, 2025 at the Clubhouse to address some of the misinformation being provided to the community. We hope that members will be in attendance to have their questions regarding the dam repair project answered at that time.