Yearly Archives: 2018

December 2018 Water Level Chart Archived

December 2018

I have archived the December 2018 Water Level Chart (at left) bringing us to the end of what has turned out to be the LAST YEAR of sub-par water levels for the foreseeable future. At this time last year the lake level was 42″ below the HWM and we were waiting for Justice Billings to rule on the appeal of the Clary Lake Water Level Order while at the same time beginning to entertain the possibility of actually buying the Clary Lake dam from Paul Kelley’s bankruptcy estate. The ruling on the appeal came a few months later in February; the purchase of the dam, well that took a little longer. Looking back, what a landmark year it has been. Continue reading →

26 December 2018: Update on Rubin v. Smith Lawsuit

The lawsuit that CLA members Robert Rubin and his wife Cheryl Ayer brought against Richard Smith, Aquafortis Associates LLC, Paul Kelley, and Pleasant Pond Mill LLC back in January 2016, finally, after numerous delays and stays, went to trial on December 20th and 21st in Lincoln County Superior Court. The presiding Judge in the case is Justice Billings, the same Judge that spent 4 years presiding over the Clary Lake Water Level Order appeal so he’s no stranger to Clary Lake, its characters, and its issues. Bob and Cheryl’s lawsuit was initially delayed to allow the WLO appeal to finish (which concluded in February 2018) and then delayed further to let Kelley’s bankruptcy finish. When we ended up closing on the dam this past October, the Rubin/Ayer lawsuit finally went forward. Bob asked me early on not to write about the lawsuit as he didn’t want the publicity. Now that the hearing has taken place, the lid is off. You can read more about the trial in the latest Central Maine Papers article about Clary Lake. Continue reading →

Central Maine Papers: Repairs to Whitefield’s Clary Lake Dam completed

There’s an article that appeared in the Sunday December 23rd Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel by Central Maine Papers staff writer Jessica Lowell about the Clary Lake dam and the Rubin/Ayer v. Smith/AQF lawsuit which went to trial last week. This latest article is factually accurate which is somewhat of a marvel even considering Ms. Lowell has been following the Clary Lake saga for a number of years.

Repairs to Whitefield’s Clary Lake Dam completed

Here’s an archived copy if you have trouble getting it off the Central Maine Papers website:

Repairs to Whitefield’s Clary Lake Dam completed

26 December 2018: Aquafortis Appeals CLA License Transfer

In a move that should surprise no one, Richard Smith of Aquafortis Associates LLC [AQF] has formally appealed the Department of Environmental Protection’s decision to approve our application to transfer the Clary Lake Water Level Order to our organization. The appeal of the December 6th Department Order #L-22585-36-F-T was filed “in a timely manner” with the Board of Environmental Protection [BEP] on December 11th, the same day I posted that our license transfer application had been approved. This appeal can only be viewed as ongoing harassment of the Association by Paul Kelley and Richard Smith and a continued attack on Clary Lake, and the Clary Lake Water Level Order. One wonders what they can possibly hope to accomplish with this appeal save wasting our time and that of the DEP and the BEP? It appears the following email I received from DEP on December 13th is in fact the formal appeal: Continue reading →

25 December 2018: Ice Boating on Clary Lake

Cold! Very Cold! And fast! Very fast! I’d have taken more video but it was too cold! What great ice! There appears to be a solid 8″ to 10″ of ice.

Merry Christmas from the Clary Lake Association

On behalf of the Clary Lake Association Board I’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year!

24 December 2018: Water Over the Weir

Totally Staged Photo of George Fergusson posing at the gate. Colin Caissie actually did all the heavy cranking.

I had intended to post some news and pictures on the dam repairs before now but I have been out straight and only now, the day before Christmas, have I found the time to sit down and do it. Last Tuesday workers with PCS removed the concrete forms and pulled some sandbags. They came back the next day to clean up and load up the rest of their gear and materials, bringing to completion the initial repairs to the Clary Lake dam. That afternoon, Colin Caissie completed fabrication of a wrench to operate the gate, and we wasted no time in closing it. Part of the rush was the anticipated rain forecast for Friday: we really wanted to capture the runoff! Here are a few pictures from when we closed the gate, and a video of water flowing over the weir: Continue reading →

15 December 2018: Dam Repairs Completed!

On Friday December 14th, 2018 the PCS crew finished forming up the original log sluice gate in the middle of the dam and poured concrete, bringing to completion the major repairs to the Clary Lake dam. I can hardly believe it’s really happened! So many things had to go just right for this to happen now, from the lack of rain and snow over the last 2 weeks to the rising temperatures on the day of the pour. So much could have gone wrong, it really is a miracle. If the lake level hadn’t dropped enough and if the temperature hadn’t finally moderated, we’d still be waiting, and who knows when conditions would have permitted the repairs to be finished? It was only 4 days ago that I posted that dam repairs have resumed. All told this final phase of effort took 5 full days, made all the more difficult by the brutally cold temperatures for the first 4 days of the week. Here are some more pictures that tell this latest chapter in the story: Continue reading →

11 December 2018: Dam Repairs Resume!

Repair work on the Clary Lake dam has been on hold for a few weeks while we waited for the water level behind the dam to fall enough to allow work to resume. We weren’t sure if a sufficient work-window was going to open, but fortunately, the 2-storms-a-week weather pattern that dropped 7″ of rain on us in November has given way to good old fashioned cold, dry, Maine December weather, and the water level behind the dam started to fall rapidly. At the beginning of the month there was over a foot of water flowing through the open weir. By last Sunday morning, the water depth was down to a little over 3″ and dropping, and with a possible large rain event forecast for next weekend, Rick Pease of PCS Construction decided it was time to resume work.

Monday morning they started the day by filling sandbags (at left), and in the afternoon they constructed a small cofferdam to block water from flowing through the open outlet weir. There was a little leakage so this morning they draped a plastic sheet over the sandbags to stop the leaking. Then they built a tent around the work area and installed a portable propane heater to keep it warm. They then got to work finishing removing the old blocks of concrete fascia that formed the original log weir and constructing the steel rebar structure that will reinforce the concrete weir they’re building. The plan is to have it formed up and ready to pour concrete this coming Friday, and just in time too, as a large rain event is forecast for next weekend.

Here are a few pictures of the start of this next and final phase of effort:

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You can see all the pictures in the Fall 2018 Gallery.

This is so exciting I can hardly stand it 🙂

11 December 2018: Clary Lake Water Level Order Transfer Complete

We are pleased to announce that the Department of Environmental Protection has approved the transfer of the Clary Lake Water Level Order from Pleasant Pond Mill LLC to the Clary Lake Association. There was never really any question that the Department would approve the license transfer given that the State openly endorsed our effort to purchase the dam from Kelley’s bankruptcy estate, but it is nonetheless very nice to have this matter behind us. The WLO which was appealed right after it was issued in late January 2014, was upheld by the Lincoln County Superior Court in a ruling issued February 26, 2016. Now, if someone complains about how we’re managing the lake level, we will simply say we’re obeying the Order and if they don’t like it, they can take it up with the DEP.

WLO Transfer Approval 06 December 2018

As usual with DEP rulings, aggrieved parties have 30 days (from December 7th) to appeal the decision. Good luck with that! The chances of it being overturned are ZERO.

05 December 2018: Let’s Go Skating!

Good Skating on Clary Lake but as usual, you should use caution, check the ice thickness where you’re planning to skate, and avoid areas where there is likely to be a current i.e., the inlet and outlet of the lake, and where streams are entering. There was a little open water in the middle of the lake yesterday but it’s frozen today and the rest of the lake has been frozen since Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t be driving your car on the ice just yet, but around the edges there is 4″ to 6″ of good ice, mostly smooth and really great skating. With the cold temperature expected this week, the ice will put on thickness quickly.

November 2018 Water Level Chart Archived

November 2018

I have archived the November 2018 Water Level Chart (at left). I’m not sure what to say about it except that the lake level is too dam high! It is ironic that for the last seven years I’ve been wishing for HIGHER water, only to now find myself hoping for a LOWER water level so we can complete repairs to the Clary Lake dam. The lake rose only 6″ in October, and I had hoped that gradual rate of increase of the water level would continue into November, but it was not to be. We started the month at -48.84″ below the high water mark, peaked at -29.88″ on the 15th, and ended the month at -32.64″ below the high water mark. There is currently about 8″ of water flowing over the original log flume, enough to prevent finishing the repairs at this time.

We received 7.10″ of rain in November or a whopping 2.73″ more than the average for the month. This brings us to 39.06″ for the year to date, 0.39″ more than average. I suppose, considering how much rain we received in November, we’re lucky the lake didn’t rise even more. I attribute this to the vastly increased outflows resulting from opening up the original 7′ wide log flume in the middle of the dam on November 9th. Continue reading →

30 November 2018: Water Level Order Transfer Update

Since closing on the dam property back on October 13th, the Clary Lake Association Board has been out straight trying to get the dam repaired, the old underground storage tank removed, and the Water Level Order transferred over to the Clary Lake Association. The repairs are underway, the tank is gone, and the license transfer is moving forward.

We submitted the license transfer application to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) back on October 22nd and it was accepted for processing by the Department on October 26th. Anyone with a good reason had until the end of the day on November 16th to file a request with the Department for a public hearing on the application. Not surprisingly, two parties did make such a request: Richard Smith (on behalf of Aquafortis Associates LLC) and Butch Duncan. Also not surprisingly, we received word today that both requests for a public hearing have been denied:

The outcome of these attempts to interfere with the transfer of the Clary Lake Water Level Order from PPM to CLA was never in question, and I expect a satisfactory decision on our license transfer application in the near future.

29 November 2018: Fundraising Update

We’re within 10% of reaching our second fundraising goal and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us get this far. While we’re a little shy of the additional $15,000 we wanted to raise, we’re still in pretty good financial shape going forward. While donations have slowed down, they haven’t stopped coming in and I trust we’ll reach our goal before long. In round numbers, since we started fundraising last spring we’ve raised over $130,000 in donations. Impressive for a small lake association.

We generally don’t single out individual donors for recognition, but from time to time we do and I’d like to acknowledge a recent generous donation to our Dam Purchase & Repair Fund from the Whitefield Lions Club. It was both unexpected and greatly appreciated. I hate to say it but I wasn’t really familiar with the Lions Club and what they do so I read up about it. It’s an international, non-political service organization established in 1916 with currently over 1.7 million members world-wide. The Whitefield Lions Club has been serving the towns of Whitefield, Jefferson, Windsor and Somerville, Maine since 1953 and is part of Lions Clubs International Maine District 41. Thank you Whitefield Lions!

25 November 2018: Clary Lake Ice Report and Repair Update

Clary Lake was completely ice-covered by late afternoon on Friday, November 23rd, just one day after Thanksgiving. This is the earliest ice-in date we’ve recorded since we started keeping track (check out the Ice-In and Ice-Out Dates page). The lake was mostly frozen over a few days earlier but for some large areas of open water; to qualify as “iced in” the lake has to be fully covered by ice. As a kid I recall ice skating on Thanksgiving, but that was more than 50 years ago; in recent years, ice-in has been more likely in mid-December. It remains to be seen if the lake remains ice-covered with the somewhat warmer weather we’re expecting this coming week. If you plan to venture out on it, please be careful! Some areas of ice will be plenty thick while other areas may be unsafe; warmer temperatures, and rainfall will not help the situation.

Repairs to the Clary Lake dam have been on hold for a week; the combination of bitter cold temperatures and a high water level at the dam forced a temporary halt to the work and the PCS crew took the better part of Thanksgiving week off. With warmer weather forecast for this coming week and with water levels at the dam falling nicely, we’re hopeful that repairs can be completed in the next week or two before winter sets in with a vengeance. We’re hoping that today’s storm and the one due in next Tuesday won’t result in much precipitation.

The final phase of dam repairs will consist of filling the 7′ wide hole in the dam with new concrete and installing a 5′ wide weir in the top. The weir will have slots on either side for stop logs which will be used to adjust the lake level. Historically, repairs to the Clary Lake dam have been facilitated by the construction of a temporary cofferdam between the old Narrow Gauge railroad abutments, but one side is now owned by Aquafortis Associates LLC and we have not received permission from Richard Smith (owner of Aquafortis) to construct a cofferdam there. Consequently we’ve made other plans. In any case, repairs will be completed, sooner or later.

Stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving 2018 From the Clary Lake Association

On behalf of the Clary Lake Association Board I’d like to wish everyone a very happy and bountiful Thanksgiving. We’ve certainly got a lot to be thankful for this year!

16 November 2018: Shooting Gunite Videos

Here are a couple of short videos of Rick Pease of PCS Specialty Contracting “shooting” gunite into the Clary Lake dam yesterday:

16 November 2018: Shooting Gunite!

Yesterday was a landmark day at the Clary Lake dam for several reasons, not just because the underground storage tank was removed but also because PCS “shot gunite” to seal the upstream face of the dam! What an exciting (and loud!!) experience that was! I wasn’t familiar with gunite and had never seen the process so I didn’t know what to expect. The cement comes in a cement truck like regular concrete, but there the similarity ends; rather than a concrete slurry, the stuff that comes down the chute is actually only slightly damp concrete and sand mix. It dumps into a device with a strainer to trap large particles that “fluffs” it up and then blows it down a long rubber hose. At the nozzle end high pressure water is injected into the stream. The whole system is powered by high pressure air from a compressor.

It was very gratifying watching the high pressure stream of water and cement fill holes, cracks, and voids. Some of the larger voids took as much as 30 seconds to fill. I half expected one in a while to see water and cement come shooting out the other side of the dam, but I never did. Here are some more pictures of them “shooting” gunite:

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All told it didn’t take them long once they got started. The were plagued with equipment malfunctions all morning, but once the cement truck arrived around noon, they got right to it and were done in less than 2 hours. Then they draped insulating blankets over the dam to help hold in the heat generated by the curing of the concrete.

I’ve got a couple of short videos I’ll post separately.

15 November 2018: Underground Storage Tank Successfully Removed

Today was a landmark day at the the Clary Lake dam. First thing this morning, McGee Construction arrived on site and got to work. First they finished pumping out the contents of the underground storage tank, a process actually started the day before. All told they pumped about 650 gallons of reasonably clean water out of the tank. Then they got to work digging up and removing the tank. It didn’t take long. The good news: Beacon Environmental was on site to do soil and water tests, and ZERO contamination was found, so ZERO remediation needed. This did not come as a huge surprise to anyone, but we were all nonetheless pleased and relieved to hear that. They were pretty much done by lunch time. Here are a few more pictures:

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The permitting process to get that tank out of the ground was substantial… requiring in all, 5 separate forms/applications including a tank registration form, an intent to remove tank form, an NRPA Permit By Rule notice, a Maine DOT Highway Opening application (the tank was partly in the road right of way) and last but not least, a “tank was successfully removed” notice (which I have to file tomorrow). Gak. You’d think we were trying to do a bad thing, not get rid of a potential environmental hazard. All I can say now is I’m glad that tank is finally out of the ground and off my radar.

About the time that McGee was finishing up the tank removal, PCS Specialty Contracting was getting ready to shoot gunite to seal the upstream face of the dam against leaking. I’ll post pictures and video of that exciting work shortly.

12 November 2018: Clary Lake Dam Repairs Day 5

Day 5 of Clary Lake dam repairs: cleaning old mortar out of the seams on the upstream face of the dam in preparation to sealing them against leaking with gunite.