The Association board meeting held today at the home of Ellis Percy was well attended and quite productive. Members in attendance were Ellis Percy (President), Malcolm Burson (Vice President), Margaret Fergusson (Secretary), Linda Gallion (Treasurer), Jack Holland, Tom Vigue, George Fergusson, David Knight, and Bob Antognoni (Board members, each and every one), and Sue McKeen, visiting Association member. There was lively discussion and a lot of business conducted, including the following items of note (these aren’t the minutes, they’re from my notes):

• The Annual meeting of the Clary Lake Association will be held at 2 PM on Saturday August 3rd 2013 at the home of Bob Antognoni on Robert E. Dow road, in Jefferson. Bob, his daughter Mary, and Linda Gallion will be taking care of planning the event.

• A Nominations Committee was formed to be chaired by Trudi Hodgkins. Sue McKeen has also joined that committee. They’re looking for a 3rd member. Terms are for 2 years. The role of the committee is to come up with names of people to be voted on at the annual meeting. I’ll be posting a list of positions to be filled soon.

• A Fund Raising Committee was formed to be chaired by Margaret Fergusson. Jane Chase will be joining the committee in June and I will be a consulting member. The board also authorized the Fund Raising Committee to work with me to set up an online fund raising and ultimately, a membership subscription system. I’m pretty excited about this!

• A Membership Committee was formed to be chaired at least initially by Margaret Fergusson (someone had to do it) at least until someone else agrees to take that role. Malcolm Burson and Sue Mckeen have agreed to be members. The Membership committee is still looking for additional members.

• As expected, a decision was made for Ellis Percy as President to make a formal (and public) written offer on the Clary Lake dam. The terms of the offer were discussed and agreed upon. It will be going in the mail on Monday.

• The board authorized me to request permission from Pleasant Pond Mill LLC to conduct an engineering assessment of the Clary Lake dam and to contact Kleinschmidt Associates in Pittsfield Maine for an estimate of the cost of such an assessment in time for a vote by the board at their next meeting which will be in about 3 weeks. The thinking is that regardless of the outcome of Pleasant Pond Mill LLC’s petition or the Clary Lake water level petition, and regardless of who ends up owning the dam, a complete and current engineering assessment of the dam will be invaluable in planning repairs to the structure. The Association will fund this endeavor and make the results available to any parties interested (I just got off the phone with Paul and he has asked for a request from the Association in writing signed by the President. And so it shall be).

• The next board meeting will be 18 May 2013 again at the home of Ellis Percy, at 2 PM. This meeting is not expected to be as well attended as today’s was and the agenda will be much shorter. One more board meeting will likely be scheduled before the annual meeting.

• The board reviewed and approved a new Clary Lake Association letterhead.

The board also discussed Pleasant Pond Mill LLC’s petition and what the likely outcome of it will be as well as the role the Association and the towns might or might not play in that outcome. We also discussed the current status of the Clary Lake water level petition and what the likely outcome of THAT will be. We agreed to work on developing a contingency plan designed to address each of the handful of potential scenarios that are likely to play out this summer. The plan will consist among other things of steps the Association is prepared to take, and more importantly, is authorized to take. The idea is to be flexible, and be prepared. Wish us luck.