Board of Directors

Each neighborhood elects a board member and an alternate who can participate and assist with board responsibilities.

Neighborhood 1

James Alseth

My wife (a pediatric nurse) and I (an engineer) currently live in Kirkwood MO. We expect to move to Dakota Shores permanently in a year to the lake home in which I have significant “sweat equity”. We plan to garden and become more involved in the general community of Park Rapids. I enjoy cycling, aviation, puttering in the garage( and hanger), 3D printing and CAD modeling.

My parents built on Long Lake in 1975 after moving from another area lake that suffered a freeze out. That experience has a lot to do with my wish to represent our District in the LLAA. The previously mentioned lake became a quagmire of Sargasso Sea weed-like islands. In comparison Long Lake is deep, pristine, and well regulated. We face challenges that certainly include Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS), and may include commercial development. Our lake is not fully “natural”, but it is a wonderful product of design, effort, and thoughtful stewardship by its residents and local government for over a hundred years now.

Cheri Schoenfish (Alternate)

We have enjoyed Long Lake for many years with family on the lake and in 2021 we became an official “neighbor” on the lake. We love the opportunity to share the lake and community with family and friends.

Neighborhood 2

Dan Fraizer

Dan along with his wife Deanna, enjoy their cabin on the east-side of Long Lake along Circle Pines Drive. Dan’s parents, Patricia and Orville, were both teachers in 1952. Dan spent his first summer on Long Lake as a newborn in1958. Since then, he has summered every year of his life on Long Lake. A career education professional, Dan’s jobs have taken him to several different communities in Iowa and Minnesota. Although his family has known different residences over the years, Long Lake has always been home to them. Dan retired from public school service in 2023. He now serves as an assistant professor of education at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.
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Roger Hall (Alternate)

My connection to Long Lake is relatively short.  My wife and I purchased what remained of Oak Ridge Cottages (3 cabins) in 2019.  I spent my summers growing up on Lake Belle Taine.  When I was closing in on retirement I started looking for my own place so I could spend more time up north. We were very fortunate and blessed to find a place on Long Lake that had everything we were looking for – plenty of room ( we have 20 grandkids), nice beach and beautiful sunsets!  I got involved in the lake association because I consider myself a conservationist and love loons. I approached Sharon and the next thing I know I’m in the boat trying to identify weeds.  I think counting loons is easier and more fun than playing with weeds.

Neighborhood 3

Mae Tinguely

Our family started vacationing on Long Lake about 40 years ago and we have been property owners for more than 20 years. As a member of the Long Lake Association Board, my top priority is to work together to prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species which is a very real threat to our lake. My second priority is to help prevent erosion of Long Lake’s shoreline. I want to do my part to keep Long Lake clean and healthy for plants, animals, and ourselves now and for future generations.

Jaimie Beretta (Alternate)

We came to Long Lake in 2009.  I grew up in the area and was grateful to be able to come back to enjoy the beauty of the lake with family.  Our children spent their summers on Long lake fishing, kayaking, biking and making s’mores and memories with their grandparents.  I was recruited shortly after coming to the lake to be part of the Long Lake  Area Association Board.  Over the past 15 years I have been an active member of the board and have held several offices.  I am also responsible for the County 20 Roadside clean up for the Association.  My time on the lake and with the Association has made me much more aware of the importance of good lake stewardship.  Long Lake has encountered many ecological challenges over the years but I believe that with education and dedication we can keep the lake beautiful and healthy.

Neighborhood 4

Todd Hoffman

My family came to Long Lake in 1928 when my great aunts purchased a cabin on Stover Bay, In 1938 my grandparents, Frederic and Kitten Hoffman, purchased and remodeled the one next to my great aunts. In 1968 my parents GF and Betty Hoffman purchased and remodeled the Art Swanson property next door to my grandparent’s cabin. I have enjoyed swimming, boating and fishing on Long Lake for 62 years. Janet and I and our three children, their spouses and grandchild enjoy our many summer and occasional winter trips to visit our beloved Long Lake. I hope to help preserve the beauty and essence of Long lake for generations to come.

Darrell Johnston (Alternate)

I have visited Long Lake all my life and am grateful for the family legacy in Stover Bay dating back to 1926. Most of my career I toured as an actor/musician working in theatre and film and in 2020 I transitioned to becoming an attorney in Minnesota. My childhood on Long Lake fostered a mind for stewardship and land protection. I have been working seasonally in Denali National Park, AK since 2012 and continue to run the Denali Film Festival, which promotes films about adventure, national parks, and environmentalism. It’s an honor to work with the LLAA and to help protect Long Lake for future generations.

Neighborhood 5

Fritz Viner

I am Fritz Viner is a retired ENT MD from Iowa City who has had a multi generational family connection to Long Lake on Stover Bay and Chippewa Loop.  I want to preserve Long Lake’s Northwoods character for future generations.  I believe this is best done through a group effort such as the Long Lake Area Association and hope that expanding membership and volunteer opportunities will help achieve this goal.

Carolynne C White (CC) (Alternate)

My grandparents came to Long Lake to live in 1929 and I have lived here on the lake every summer of my life except for maybe 5. When I retired from teaching in 2009, I moved home full time. My family has a tree farm that is now part of the Minnesota Land Trust located between Chippewa Loop and County Rd. 6. This means the land will be managed as a tree farm and not be developed even in the future. My family has past on to me the legacy of a deep connection and responsibility to the Long Lake watershed. Since 2009 I have volunteered in many areas especially in helping develop this website and its upgrades.

Neighborhood 6

Caren Martin

Since 1986, our family has spent time in Park Rapids. For 13 years, we rented cabins from Ralph and Sherri Notch at New Frontier Resort. We fell in love with the lake’s characteristics, sunsets, loons calling, exciting fishing, and the sound of wind through the pines. Jeff always was shocked that I would take four little kids in a 16’ aluminum boat to fish and come back with them all and no one was hooked! After more than 20 years owning several lake properties, we finally bought a home on Long Lake—our FAVORITE! This will be our fourth summer engaged in the Shoreline Monitoring Program for Neighborhood 6 and host one of the UMN pilot zebra mussel settlement samplers. Then in 2023 I became a certified AIS Detector. The health of Long Lake is very important to our whole family. It has been an honor serving on the LLAA Board of Directors these past two years.

At Large Board Members

Jim Seifert

My grandparents bought their property on the Northeast end of Long Lake in 1934. As a child my mom would drive us up to “the Lake” after school was out in the spring and drive us home the day before school started in the Fall. I spent every summer of my life on Long Lake until I was 25. I fell in love with my wife Jona who lived just down the shore from our cabin. My summer “job” was owner of the Cuzzins Candy Store in Park Rapids, that my wife and I and my cousin owned for 14 years, and that put all three of us through college.

Long Lake has been a touchstone for our family for 3 generations. Jona and I feel that we are merely caretakers for our cabin, preserving the cabin, the memories and the lake for the generations that came before us and that will follow after us. Jona and I feel that our mission for our family, and for our lake community, is to protect the waters and the land so that generations from now, our children’s children will look across the lake and see the same shoreline that my grandparents did in 1934.

Pam Petersen

Hello! My personal Long Lake history dates back to Summer 1962 when I was 9 months old. My family, the Oldham’s, began coming to the lake from Des Moines in the 1940’s. My husband and I bought Milt and Mary Kaiser’s home in 2010, 3 doors down from the original Oldham cabin. We have lived in Davis, California for over 30 years, are both retired and thoroughly enjoying introducing Long Lake to our next generation, our grandchildren!