Lake Ogemaw Summer Resort Association

04/14/2026

03/27/2026

With this year marking the 250th birthday of the United States, and the 4th of July falling on a Saturday, the fireworks company has an especially full schedule. In order to meet their obligations to longer-standing customers during this high-demand holiday weekend, they are unable to host our display on Saturday.

We, however, have secured Saturday, July 3, 2027.

We appreciate your understanding and are excited to kick off the holiday festivities together a little earlier this year. We hope you’ll join us on Thursday evening for a great show.

10/19/2025

Carol Orvis Hanus

I have updated the web site to include these two reports. The NTH DAM Seepage Evaluation & the Lake Ogemaw Improvement Study & Management Plan from Restorative Lake Sciences.
Here is the link to the site: https://www.lakeogemaw.net Find them on the "Lake News" page.
Lake Ogemaw Summer Resort Association

Association Office & Clubhouse located at 2916 Rifle River Trail West Branch, MI 48661 Phone : 989-873-3058 Please remit all correspondence to the address above. ​ email:...

10/19/2024

Good afternoon Members,
The Referendum ballots have been counted at the Special Meeting held today, October 19th.
The Referendum stated to Vote YES if you wanted the Board to Cease and Desist any and all current efforts to draft, propose or enact a bylaw prohibiting short-term rentals.
Vote NO if you wanted the Board to Continue its current pursuit of drafting a bylaw amendment to prohibit short-term rentals.

436 YES votes
323 NO votes

09/17/2024

This is the response the board received from our attorney regarding Sommer Dorf. The question was asked if we would be in violation of Section 16.1.5 of our bylaws if Sommer Dorf was to be exempt from the short-term rental ban. Section 16.1.5 states "Orders shall apply equally to all members and properties located within the corporate jurisdiction whether or not they are owned by the Association of private property owned by its members."

In my opinion we can draft a provision that would allow short-term renting at Sommer Dorf that would be enforceable. First, the amendment would need to apply equally to all properties and all members subject to the jurisdiction of LOSRA to satisfy 16.1.5, as mentioned in the attached letter.

Second, the amendment would need to state that if a particular lot has certain objective unique characteristics, then those characteristics would allow short term renting in such a way that applies to all, but which would be used only by those lots on Sommer Dorf. For example, if a lot is permitted by ordinance to have 3 dwellings on a single tax parcel, then maybe the 3 dwellings on that single tax parcel would be authorized to engage in short term renting because there are multiple lots. This “exemption” would apply equally to all lots and to all members, but the only lots and only members who would utilize it would be those lots that fit into the categories identified in the amendment (i.e., those lots who have multiple owners and multiple properties in my example). In this way, the members could permit short term renting when considered warranted and prevent it otherwise.

09/10/2024

Dear Members:

In a recent meeting with our attorney, we spoke with him about Sommer Dorf, and whether its existence should or could be grandfathered in the Lake Ogemaw Summer Resort Association. The attorney stated that zoning ordinances can only be enforced by the Townships or the County, and that LOSRA has no legal power to write or enforce zoning laws. The letter from the Zoning Department does not exempt Sommer Dorf from any future bylaw changes.

The attorney did state, however, that if LOSRA were to amend the bylaws to prohibit short term rentals, the board could write in the bylaw prohibiting short term rentals that Sommer Dorf is exempted.

Rick Sinclair
LOSRA Board President