Well it turns out the loons had two chicks this year, not one as I originally thought. I went out this evening to get some pictures, and the loons cooperated happily. Even when I knew there were two I could often only see one. Having two loon babies is good because it increases the chances of one of them surviving to adulthood. On the downside, one almost always fails to thrive…
For the second year in a row, our resident loon family has successfully hatched a baby loon. Just one this year rather than the usual 2. I noticed one parent or the other hanging around the nest area today and saw one loon, presumably the male, chasing another loon around in a classic loon “get out and stay out” territorial battle, and suspected that hatching was near. Please give them a wide berth.
[27 June UPDATE]: We have 2 loon babies! No idea how the second baby escaped notice this long, but it did. No pictures yet, but I clearly saw two babies when over visiting our Treasurer this morning.
Late last week we sent a letter out to our membership with an update on the Clary Lake dam purchase effort explaining where we are, what’s up ahead, and what to expect. We also sent the letter out by email to those members for whom we have email addresses, just to get the message out a little faster. If you’re a member and have given us your email address but did NOT receive the email, please check your spam folder! I’m not sure why, but typically only about 2/3 to 3/4 of the emails we send actually get opened, though in the unsolicited email world, that’s actually a pretty high response rate. Now that most people have received the letter, we wanted to post it here for general consumption since there are a lot more people than just CLA members who are anxiously awaiting news:
Dear Clary Lake Association Member:
At a hearing in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Portland on June 7, the judge approved bid procedures for the sale of the Clary Lake dam and scheduled a deadline for objections and bids of Noon on June 28. The court also scheduled a July 5 hearing date to act on the Sale Motion. Sale of property by a Bankruptcy Court is done by public auction, and we started the bidding process with our $80,000 offer for the dam when the Sale Motion was filed back on May 22. Anyone wishing to bid on the dam has until Noon on Thursday, June 28 to submit their bid along with a $20,000 cash deposit and further evidence of their ability to pay should they win the auction. The minimum bid required to beat our $80,000 offer has to be at least $93,400, an amount set in advance by the court (subsequent bids have to be at least $1000 higher than the previous bid). Should someone submit a valid bid before the deadline, an auction will be held at 2 PM on June 28 at the offices of Drummond Woodsum in Portland. If there is going to be an auction, we intend to take part in it.
We have never thought there would be any competing bids for the Clary Lake dam given the costly repairs, the underground tank (see below), and the Water Level Order which as been recently upheld by the Lincoln County Superior Court. Nonetheless, the Board feels and our attorney agrees that we would be remiss not to be prepared to respond should a bidder surface on June 28. At a meeting on June 14 the Board reaffirmed its commitment to owning the dam and agreed to compete in such a bidding process should the need arise.
We do want you to know that in the event that we are forced to bid higher in order to buy the dam, it will be necessary for us to raise additional funds so the repairs can go forward in a timely manner. You have already been incredibly generous, and we currently have no plans for a new fund raising campaign. However, if any of you have suggestions for additional funds that the Board might pursue, or might be willing yourself to contribute again, please let me or Secretary Fergusson know confidentially.
We fully expect the sale of the dam to the Clary Lake Association to be approved by the Court on July 5, and we plan to go ahead this summer with permanent repairs to the dam. To this end we have been working with an experienced contractor. On or about July 1st we’ll file the required Permit By Rule application with DEP to cover the work on the dam, which should commence around July 15 and take 2-3 weeks. As soon as we actually own the dam we’ll also be filing the necessary paperwork with DEP to transfer the Water Level Order to the Association. All Clary Lake shore owners and people who own land directly across the road from the lake will receive a notice in the mail of this proposed transfer this week. A legal notice will also appear in the Lincoln County News on June 21.
You may also have heard of the discovery of an abandoned fuel storage tank on the dam property. This tank was abandoned in the early 1960’s, we think, and by law must be removed at the land owner’s expense. In theory it would be Pleasant Pond Mill LLC’s responsibility to deal with the tank but given that Mr. Kelley is in bankruptcy, that’s just not going to happen. We didn’t learn about the tank until after fundraising was already well underway, and after some investigation we concluded that it was not going to be an insurmountable obstacle to our purchase of the dam.
The Board is confident that we will be successful in our attempt to purchase the Clary Lake dam! We will send out an update immediately following the Court ruling on July 5th or when more information becomes available. Also keep an eye on the CLA website as we’ll likely post updates there as well. If you have questions, please get in touch.
Respectfully,
Malcolm Burson, President
Clary Lake Association
We’ve already received some favorable feedback from members affirming that yes, they want the dam, they want it fixed, and they want it soon and they’re willing to donate more money if necessary to accomplish our goal.
The loons are still sitting on their nest and while it’s sitting rather high out of the water, I think it’s still surrounded by water which is important for keeping predators away from the nest. The lake has fallen almost 5″ since I discovered the nest on May 31st. If the water falls too much or recedes too far from the nest, they’ll have to abandon it. For what it’s worth, the lake which just hit -48″ below the normal high water mark is now only falling about 1/4″ per day and any rain we receive will help slow the fall further. The biggest threat from fluctuating water levels is flooding and with yet another drought setting in, I don’t see flooding as a big risk this year.
I’m not sure when the loons laid their eggs so I don’t know when they’ll hatch but seeing as how they were sitting on May 31, barring complications the eggs should hatch around the last week of June. Gestation is around 27 days and can often stretch to 30. Fingers crossed.
I have not had a chance to get the Loon Nesting signs out but will try to get to it later this week. In the meantime, please avoid the marsh on the southwest corner of the lake by Route 126.
Roberta Dow Giampetruzzi 1924-2018
CASCO – Roberta Dow Giampetruzzi, 93, passed away peacefully at her daughter, Nina’s, home on Panther Pond in Raymond, during the early morning hours of Friday, May 25, 2018. Roberta was the first child of Mildred Plummer Dow and Robert E. Dow born Oct. 13, 1924. She was born in Brunswick and raised in Augusta. She had one sister, Arolyn Dow Antognoni.
From an early age Roberta demonstrated a strong curiosity or learning and academics and a force of will to set and accomplish goals. She often recalled with pride an early success to become the first chair violinist in the Cony High School orchestra. She received Bachelor of Arts Degree in Romance Languages from the University of Maine, Orono.
Roberta met Nino Giampetruzzi at UMO and they married in 1946. She was a devoted mother and raised six children: Janet Blessing, Peter (Sue), David (Carol Sue), Nina (Robert) Kamman, Robert (Joann) and Steven (Ann). They made their home on Center Street in Portland where Nino owned and operated Felice’s Market. Continue reading
At the U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing held yesterday afternoon in Portland, Judge Michael A. Fagone denied the Trustee’s Motion for Substantive Consolidation but approved the bid procedures and scheduled dates for the auction and the Sale Motion hearing. Sale Objections and competing bids are due by NOON on June 28, 2018. The auction will be held on June 28, 2018 at 2:00 pm at the Portland offices of Drummond Woodsum. The Sale Motion hearing will be held July 5, 2018 at 9:00 AM at the Bankruptcy Courtroom at 537 Congress Street.
Having the motion for substantive consolidation denied was not a setback to our plans to buy the dam. There are other, less extreme means to accomplish the same thing as substantive consolidation. The hearing was fascinating and covered a lot of ground. Here is an audio recording of the proceedings. It lasted almost 2 hours:
Besides the Trustee, the lawyers, and the legal assistants, the hearing was attended by Paul Kelley (with counsel) and Richard Smith (representing himself). The Judge has allowed Smith’s Objection to stand despite being filed late, but has not decided whether Aquafortis Associates LLC will require counsel or if it can represent itself. Butch Duncan was also at the hearing.
Yesterday afternoon Richard Smith and Aquafortis Associates LLC [AQF] together filed objections to the the sale motion and motion for substantive consolidation filed by the Bankruptcy Trustee in the Paul A. Kelley Jr. Bankruptcy proceeding back on May 22nd. The deadline for objections was actually the previous day, Tuesday, June 5th. Smith and AQF are representing themselves (pro se). There is a hearing on the bid procedures and the motion for substantive consolidation today at 2:00 PM in Portland, which I will be attending. I’ll provide an update on the hearing as soon as I can. Here, without comment, is the latest filing:
Please join me in thanking the Chickawaukee Ice Boat Club for their $500 donation to our campaign to raise money to buy and repair the Clary Lake dam! My friend Bill Bunting stopped by the other day to say the club would be donating to our fund, and this morning the check arrived. It is very gratifying to see this level of community support for our efforts to restore Clary Lake.
I enjoy ice boating, the picture at left is of me sailing on Clary 2 winters ago in a Lockley Skimmer. I’d like to get my hands on a nice little DN Class boat sometime. And a helmet.
And yes, we’re still accepting donations 🙂
There were two filings made Friday June 1st in the Bankruptcy Sale proceeding by J. Scott Logan Esq, counsel for Debtor Paul Kelley. The first filing, document #30, is an objection to the Motion to Sell and doesn’t contain any great surprises. The other filing, Exhibit A (document #31) is a letter from attorney Sarah McDaniel on behalf of Butch Duncan addressed to Bankruptcy Trustee Jeffrey T. Piampiano and it’s a bit of a head-scratcher:
Debtor’s Objection to the Sale Motion is interesting. And short (only 2 pages). Not surprisingly, the Debtor (Paul Kelley) opposes the sale of the dam without the “water level covenants” (the restrictive covenants) but doesn’t give any good reasons for keeping them other than stating that the “covenants pertain to environmental benefits and should not be stripped off as a matter of public policy.” What does that even mean? How does draining 300 acres of prime wetlands result in environmental benefits? Since Kelley will no longer own the dam and claims he has nothing to do with and no interest in Aquafortis Associates LLC, or their property, why should he care if the covenants remain in place? Continue reading
Representing the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Assistant Attorney General Kevin Crosman, Esq. has filed a brief with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in response to motions filed last week by Bankruptcy Trustee Jeffrey Piampiano, Esq. The State fully supports the Motion for Substantive Consolidation, the Motion to Sell, and the proposed bid procedures with respect to the bankruptcy sale of the Clary Lake dam. It is very helpful having the Maine Department of Environmental Protection take this position.
The State’s Response Brief is short, concise, and to the point:
May 2018
I have archived the May 2018 Water Level Chart (at left). What is particularly notable about the May chart is the steady decline of the lake level over the course of the month, falling from -18.24″ below the Normal High Water Mark [“NHWM”] on May 1st to -43.44″ below the NHWM on May 31st. That’s a total drop of 25.2″ in 31 days or about 0.8″ per day. Not once did the lake level rise, or remain stable. The reason for this steady decline in the water level was due to a lack of rainfall and of course, because the gate is wide open. As dry as it has been, the little rain we did receive didn’t slow down the rate at which the lake was falling one bit. During the first half of the month water was also exiting the lake through the hole in the dam.
We received only 1.17″ of rain in May or 2.5″ less than the May average of 3.7″ which puts us fully 3.2″ shy of rainfall for the year to date. It looks like we’re headed for another dry summer. For some reason, the National Integrated Drought Information System is showing us as WET which does not jive with my understanding.
Loon Nest May 31 2018
Margaret and I spotted this year’s loon nest yesterday evening, it’s located over on the southwest corner of Clary Lake not far from Route 126. I haven’t checked yet, but it’s undoubtedly visible from the road. This is the same place they tried to nest back in 2012, a nesting effort that failed when heavy rains caused the lake level to rise, flooding the nest (pictures in the Summer 2012 photo gallery). That year the loons attempted to nest a second time over on the north shore in the more traditional location (See News from 2012) but a falling water level resulted in that nest being abandoned as well. The loons didn’t even try to nest again until the summer of 2016.
Please give the nest a wide berth as much as possible. We’ll put the Loon Nesting signs out shortly, and I’ll try and get some better pictures.
No really! The Clary Lake Association’s Summer 2018 Newsletter went in the mail last Thursday afternoon and I have just added it to the Newsletter Archive. Many of you will have received it by now and you might notice it’s only 4 pages this year rather than the usual 6, that’s because a) I got a late start on it and b) I’ve been too “dam” busy, if you catch my drift. Actually it’s always been a challenge for me to write copy for the newsletter, and I’d love to have people contribute in the future. If you’d like to help out with or contribute to future newsletters, consider joining the Newsletter Committee. Contact me and we can talk about it. Eventually I’d like to get back to sending two newsletters per year. Continue reading
I got a call this afternoon from my old friend, Robert Giampetruzzi. He called to tell me that his mother, Roberta Giampetruzzi died last night after losing a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 93.
Robert and I are roughly the same age with birthdays only a few weeks apart. We met in the summer in 1957 or 1958 when our parents arranged for Robert and I to share a birthday party together. I can still remember the gathering in the garage by the middle cottage. Robert and I became close friends and spent our summers growing up together on and around Clary Lake, swimming, fishing, boating, and camping out, and, as boys will occasionally do, getting in trouble. Roberta was like a second mother to me and she treated me like one of her own children. And boy could she cook! “Life’s too short not to be Italian” she’d say.
One summer when I was 12 or 13 Robert and I were horsing around as boys will, and I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. Roberta comforted me, wrapped my arm up in a folded newspaper, and delivered me down the road to my parents who took me to Gardiner General to get my broken arm set.
Robert said he’d send me a picture of Roberta and an obituary when it’s ready, which I will post here. Roberta has been a generous member of the Clary Lake Association for as long as I can remember, and I wanted to post something immediately to let people know of her passing.
And we’re off! On May 22nd after weeks of preparation, Bankruptcy Trustee Jeffrey T. Piampiano, Esq. has finally filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court a Motion to Sell the Clary Lake dam to the Clary Lake Association. The Trustee also filed at the same time a “Notice of Sale and Invitation to Bid Motion” and a “Motion for Substantive Consolidation” (more about this later). A hearing has been scheduled for June 7th at 2:00 PM at the United States Bankruptcy Court at 537 Congress Street in Portland Maine to consider the proposed bid procedures and act on the Motion for Substantive Consolidation. Objections to the motions must be filed by June 5th. A hearing date for the Sale Motion proper will be set at the June 7th hearing for sometime later in June, presumably also in Portland, though that remains to be seen. All of these hearings are open to the public should you want to attend. I’ll post the Sale Motion hearing date, time, and place as soon as it has been scheduled. Assuming the Judge approves the Sale Motion, we should own the Clary Lake dam before the end of June 🙂 Continue reading
Today (May 15, 2018) marks the official end of our Spring 2018 “Buy the Dam” fundraiser and we would like to publicly acknowledge and thank our (anonymous) matching donors and by name, those other individuals, members and non-members alike, who have helped make our campaign such an outstanding success. We have reached our fundraising goal of $125,000 and we are extremely gratified by the outpouring of support for our efforts to buy the dam and protect and preserve Clary Lake. Donations arrived not just from people in our local communities of Whitefield and Jefferson, but also from people from elsewhere around Maine, and around the Country. Donations are expected to continue to arrive over the coming weeks, and the funds will be put to good use. There will be more work to do, and ongoing recurring expenses that need to be covered so if you haven’t yet donated, it is not too late! Continue reading
April 2018
I have archived the April 2018 Water Level Chart (at left). There is nothing particularly notable about the April chart but it was nice to see the lake rise above -24″ for the last 3rd of the month (the lake is currently about as low as you’ll ever see it once we own the dam). The level lake rose over 18″ as the result of 4.5″ of rainfall despite the gate being wide open. The hole in the dam appears to have been partially blocked by flotsam which impeded the outflow. Precipitation for the year stands at 11.53″ which is only 0.68″ less than average. Perhaps the drought trend that has plagued us for the last couple of years is ending?
I’ve sent emails to our Membership 3-4 times in the past few months including one yesterday afternoon. Generally only about 3/4 of them get opened. Now, by unsolicited commercial email standards (a.k.a. Spam) that’s a fantastic open rate, but I’m not sending spam, I’m providing important news and updates of special interest to our Members and if possible I’d like to see ALL of the emails opened. If you are a Clary Lake Association member and you haven’t seen any emails from us in recent weeks, chances are the emails are getting dumped into your spam folder. So first, check your spam folder! You may have to train your email program that emails received from webmaster@clarylake.org are not spam (generally you just open the message and click the “not spam” button). The other possibilities are that we either don’t have your email address (19 of our current 138 members have not provided us with an email address) or we have the wrong address. None of our emails have bounced, but not all mail hosts still bounce bad addresses; some do, some don’t. Therefore, if you are a CLA Member, have an email address but haven’t received any emails from us, please email me!
Secchi Disk readings 1975 to Present
We have resumed our water quality monitoring for the 2018 season. David Hodsdon and I went out this morning and collected secchi disk (transparency, see chart at left) readings and dissolved oxygen data as well as a water sample to be analyzed for Total Phosphorus content. We go out and collect data every 2 weeks during the boating season. This data gets sent to the Volunteer Lake Monitor Program (formerly VLMP, now Lake Stewards of Maine) and is also available on this site on our Water Monitoring Data page. The Secchi disk chart shows a general decline in water transparency over the last 15 years with a marked decline over the last 7-10 years, no doubt the result of generally lower water levels associated with Pleasant Pond Mill’s mismanagement of the lake level.
Total Phosphorus
Decreasing transparency goes hand in hand with increasing levels of Total Phosphorus, as the chart at left shows. Phosphorus is plant food and is the primary cause of algae blooms which have been increasingly a problem in recent years. We experienced our first algae bloom in 2009 and have experienced blooms almost every year since then, the exception being 2016 and 2017 when we were in severe drought. Drought means lack of rain which results in less runoff which results in less Phosphorus entering the lake. Higher Phosphorus levels combined with lower water levels are a recipe for algae blooms.
Hopefully all this will change once the Clary Lake Association owns the dam.
We’ve been busy! Our original matching donor cut off at $45,000. We have actually managed to secure another matching donor (who also wishes to remain anonymous) who will match up to an additional $10,000 worth of donations! Seeing as how we’re currently at almost $107,000, an additional $10,000 in donations along with these new matching funds will push us over the top of our phase 2 fundraising goal of $125,000. This means we should be able to make permanent repairs to the Clary Lake dam this summer, rather than having to wait a year. Our fundraising success has been incredibly gratifying and shows just how much people want this water level crisis to end. If you haven’t donated to our fundraising campaign yet, please consider doing so at your earliest opportunity. Checks may be sent to:
Clary Lake Association
PO Box 127
Whitefield ME 04353
Alternatively you can visit our Donate to the Association page and donate via Paypal.
We’re making progress towards purchasing the Clary Lake dam from the Bankruptcy Court, but it’s slow going just now. We’ll provide more updates as information becomes available. Your patience is appreciated.