Paul Kelley addresses the small group of assembled lake shore owners.

There is an article in today’s Lincoln County News about the meeting held yesterday by Paul Kelley to hear offers on the dam from Clary Lake shore owners. It’s a good article, and well written. Here’s a link to the on line version:

No White Flags, But Clary Lake Groups Aim For Peaceful Talks

18 people showed up not including Paul Kelley or the fellow he brought to video record the meeting. The meeting started out rather stilted and formal. Kelley made it clear at the beginning that the meeting was being held to comply with the requirements of the statute and the video would be used as the basis of his report to the DEP. Based on his counsel’s interpretation of the statute, he said the meeting was only for lake shore owners with property abutting Clary Lake. Therefore, since the Clary Lake Association didn’t actually own any land, he was not going to allow them to make an offer. Furthermore, he as much as said that was under no compunction to entertain an Association offer on the dam at all and that this meeting pretty much concluded his responsibilities to find a new owner for the dam under the statute. Next step: Breach order. Needless to say, this did not go over well. The Association did get their offer “on the table” (literally) when Ellis Percy, President of the Association, walked to the front of the room, threw it on the head table and walked out. It sat there untouched for the entire meeting. Unsurprisingly, there were no lake shore owners prepared to make an offer so the official meeting was ended after about 45 minutes. But nobody got up to leave.

The ensuing after-meeting discussion was lively and at times heated, and went for over an hour, ending around 4 PM. Kelley did finally acknowledge the Association offer, agreeing to take it home and look it over. I am hopeful that in time a dialogue will develop. Time will tell. I am grateful to all the people that showed up but I am particularly grateful for Sue McKeen and Trudi Hodgkins for their calm and thoughtful comments and for Senator Chris Johnson for his reasoned interaction with Mr. Kelley which was instrumental in helping the meeting end on a high note.

I’ll post an archived copy of the article shortly.