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Our Mission
The Turkey Creek Dam and Dike Conservancy was established to help monitor and maintain structures that are integral to lake water level management. The lakes and our residents are what make Syracuse a great place to live, and the creation of a conservancy district ensures that structures get the attention they require to remain functional.
The conservancy district will oversee crucial and intermediate maintenance projects, while keeping the community informed of progress. Doing so will protect area property values and increase the quality of life for residents. In turn, improving water level management structures will go a long way in sustaining environmental areas, wildlife habitats and recreational opportunities throughout our area.
The History of Our Lakes
Our lakes include more than 3,500 acres of water which residents, visitors, and vacationers enjoy for year-round recreational activities. Considering that Lake Wawasee is the largest natural lake in Indiana, it’s no surprise that our area has a long, rich history.
The area was originally occupied by homesteaders who found the location to be ideal for hunting, fishing, and trapping. Settlers came to the area in the early 1830s and originally named Lake Wawasee “Turkey Lake.” Area lakes were later renamed after the Native American chiefs Wawasee and Papakeecha.
Syracuse was founded in 1837 and began to grow, largely due to the resources and wildlife provided by the lakes. The area has been regarded as a “resort town” since 1920, and our lakes continue to serve as the basis for our flourishing community to this day.
WHAT IS A CONSERVANCY DISTRICT?
A conservancy district provides a mechanism by which landowners, through a circuit court process can organize a special taxing district to solve specific local issues related to water resource management.
Board Members
Todd Mikel
District #1 Board Member
Current lake house address: 13117 N Eastshore Dr
Total number of years with home on lake: 7 Years
Todd Mikel
Treasurer, Board of Directors
Raised in Milford, Todd went on to purchase a home on Syracuse Lake in 2015.
For fifteen years, Todd served as the Owner and Operator of Griffen Plumbing & Heating, specializing in large-scale commercial and industrial mechanical installations, plumbing systems, and heating infrastructure. Among the firm’s notable key projects was the bidding, design implementation, and construction of the new Wawasee Performing Arts Center building. After successfully divesting and selling the company in June of 2025, Todd continues to bring a full career’s worth of hands-on trade expertise, technical knowledge, and operational industry experience to his work in the community.
Todd has actively served on the Syracuse Lake Association Board of Directors for more than seven years, dedicated to enhancing community engagement and promoting local lake conservation efforts. Throughout this period, he has also held the leadership position of Board Director for the annual Fireworks Committee for the past six years, where he oversaw event logistics, vendor coordination, fundraising initiatives, safety planning, and community outreach for the organization’s flagship summer celebration.
Todd brings extensive operational and technical expertise to overseeing regional flood-control infrastructure and financial management. Driven by a commitment to safeguard vital local infrastructure, Todd joined the Board to help protect nearby neighborhoods and maintain regional property values. He is dedicated to ensuring the continuous, reliable operation and proactive upkeep of the dam and dike systems.
Todd chose to serve on the Board to support and safeguard critical flood-control infrastructure within the region. Recognizing the vital role that the dam and dike structures play in protecting surrounding neighborhoods and preserving local property values, he remains dedicated to ensuring the long-term structural integrity, proactive maintenance, and dependable operation of these community assets.
Todd currently has three years left on his term.
In his capacity as Treasurer, Todd actively manages the district’s financial operations, disbursements, and accounting processes. Beyond his financial oversight, he plays a key role in advocating for proactive infrastructure stewardship. Recognizing the necessity of evaluating underwater structural components, Todd championed the initiative to establish regular underwater inspections for the Turkey Creek Dam. Following a comprehensive dive inspection in October 2024 that identified critical repair needs on the gate, the board successfully instituted formal procedures and vendor partnerships to ensure the dam and flood control structures undergo routine professional underwater inspections and ongoing annual maintenance.
Judy Roberts
District #4 Board Member
Current lake house address: 11362 N Biscayne Lane, Cromwell, IN 46732
Judy Roberts
Vice President, Board of Directors
Judy has been a member of the community for approximately 12 years.
Judy served as the President of the Enchanted Hills Housing Association (a community linked by channels to Lake Wawasee) for over six years and remains active as a committee member. Her leadership experience also includes serving as President for both the Indiana Professional Photographers and the Michiana Professional Photographers of Northern Indiana.
Judy has contributed to local conservation efforts as a member of the Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation ecology committee for four years.
Judy is dedicated to supporting initiatives that improve and enhance the beauty of the lake and the surrounding community.
Residing on the east side of Lake Wawasee, Judy chose to serve on the Board to ensure dedicated representation for her section of the community. She is passionate about voicing the specific interests, priorities, and perspectives of local residents, ensuring that regional considerations are thoroughly reflected in the Board’s decision-making process.
Judy provides continuous administrative and operational oversight rooted in practical business common sense to ensure sound financial management, stewardship, and governance for the district. Drawing on her extensive executive background, she actively reviews operational strategies, evaluates district initiatives, and maintains rigorous accountability standards across all projects.
William Pipp
District #3 Board Member
Current lake house address: 10695 North Lung Lane, Syracuse, IN 46567
Total number of years with home on lake: 53 Years
William Pipp
Chairman, Board of Directors
Bill has been part of the community for 75 years, and graduated from Wawasee High School in 1969.
Bill’s community involvement includes serving as a former Commodore, as well as board member, and current Strategic Planning Committee member for the Wawasee Yacht Club, a 15-year tenure on the Wawasee Property Owner Association Board, and membership on the Wawasee High School Alumni Advisory Council. Professionally, Bill has held executive positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Frito-Lay North America, and Brunswick Corporation (Leisure Division), and serves as the executive and owner at New Sunshine Holdings.
Bill’s external board experience includes serving as a co-founder and president of the Indoor Tanning Association, where he led federal and state lobbying efforts and served as an FDA liaison for the industry while serving as executive and owner of New Sunshine Holdings. He was also a member of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores while representing Bristol-Myers Squibb, and served on the boards of both the Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association and the Irrigation Association while working as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Seymour Midwest.
Bill’s area of focus is on Conservancy District Governance, Government Relations, Legal Matters, Budget Planning, Project Management.
Bill chose to serve to ensure the Lake Wawasee, Syracuse Lake & Mudd Lake watershed is preserved for our community to enjoy and that lake property values do not decline due to improper management of our watershed lake levels.
Bill is a co-founder of the Turkey Creek Dam & Dike Conservancy District, he initiated the renovation of the Syracuse Dam & building of the new Syracuse Dike, and helped with the development of a system to track water flow from the watershed thru the dam to better manage lake level.
James Silcox
District #2 Board Member
Current lake house address: 323 East North Kitson Lane, Syracuse, IN 46567
Total number of years with home on lake: 26 Years
James Silcox
Director & Secretary, Board of Directors
Jim has been a full-time resident of Syracuse, on Lake Wawasee, since 2015. He and his wife, Shannon, first purchased a cottage on the lake in 1994 before making Syracuse their permanent home in 2015.
Jim served three terms (nine years total) on the board of the WPOA (Property Owners Association). He also volunteers leading the Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation’s summer canoe trips.
In his role, Jim documents board meetings, manages the vendors who build and maintain the organization’s website, works with Technical Services, Brownrice, and Brightspeed, all of which are vendors who coordinate for the operation of the live webcams. He has also worked with local vendors to update the control device building, including access doors, interiors, and power requirements.
Jim chose to serve on the committee that formed the district, out of frustration with the Town of Syracuse, which was not interested in being accountable for or managing the flood control assets.
Jim and the board have worked together to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the flood control system and to put vendors in place to rebuild and maintain the structure.
The board also completed construction of a new dike at the Hawaiian Village location, approximately 600 feet long, at a cost of just over $600,000. The project mitigates the risk of the previous man-made berm breaching, as it had done several times in the past. Jim personally worked on completing repairs and improvements to the flood control structure building with help from a local vendor. After that, Jim oversaw the specification and installation of live streaming cameras, which are now featured on the Turkey Creek website.
Jim grew up in Indianapolis and attended North Central High School. He spent several years in retail, running a high-end home furnishings store, before joining a Chicago-based nonprofit developing marketing services and strategies for the home furnishings industry. While in Chicago, Jim attended Northwestern University.
He went on to spend more than thirty years in the commercial food equipment business, selling to clients such as Pizza Hut, Costco, Little Caesars, Domino’s, and Papa John’s, and building distribution to support the conveyor ovens business throughout the United States and internationally. Jim has traveled extensively across the USA and has visited more than sixty countries, several times.
Jim and Shannon raised their family of two boys in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and have since gained two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren.
Jim is currently retired and does a limited amount of consulting in the industries he knows well.
Brad Quinn
District #5 Board Member
Current lake house address: 6093 East Island Ave
Quinn family total number of years on lake: 89 Years
Brad Quinn
Board Member, Board of Directors
Brad brings nearly nine decades of family ties and deep local history to the Turkey Creek area, with his family having been on Lake Wawasee for 89 years.
Brad is the Founder and former President of Pulmodyne Inc., where he led the company for 45 years, growing it from a startup to an internationally recognized medical device manufacturer. Under his leadership, Pulmodyne established manufacturing operations in Indianapolis; Galway, Ireland; Penang, Malaysia; and Baltimore, Maryland, serving healthcare markets around the world.
Throughout his career, Brad built organizations focused on innovation, quality, strategic growth, and responsible leadership while navigating the complex regulatory and operational demands of the medical device industry. He was also a named inventor on a portfolio of US and international medical device patents.
Brad graduated from Indiana University.
His key areas of focus encompass Corporate Governance, Risk Management and Mitigation, Financial Oversight, Regulatory Affairs, Mergers and Acquisitions, Sales and Marketing, and Strategic Planning.
Brad chose to serve out of a conviction that effective organizational governance requires evaluating risk, safeguarding core institutional values, and implementing strategic choices that protect essential public infrastructure and regional natural assets for coming generations.
Conservancy District Areas
The district generally covers the parcels of land within Turkey Creek Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana. Syracuse Lake and Lake Wawasee compose the majority of the district area, with surface areas of 414 acres and 3,410 acres, respectively. The drainage area contributing to the lakes covers nearly 25,000 acres.
The district was established by order of the Kosciusko Circuit Court on December 15, 2020 and established under the Indiana Code (IC) 14-33-1-1 of the Indiana Conservancy Act.
Read the TCDDCD District Plan here.