Category Archives: Association News

Posts about Clary Lake Association stuff.

05 February 2018 Reminder: WLO Appeal Hearing for Oral Arguments Tomorrow, February 6th

A quick reminder that a hearing for oral arguments in the Clary Lake Water Level Order Appeal is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday February 6th at 1:30 PM at the Lincoln County Courthouse in Wiscasset. The hearing is expected to last about 1 hour. I wrote about this in a Water Level Order Appeal Update post back on January 11th. The hearing will be in the Superior Court Room on the second floor of the Lincoln County Courthouse building. If you’re going to attend, plan to show up at least 30 minutes early; on court days, parking can be hard to find and there is a metal detector to pass through which slows down people entering the building. You’ll want to be on your best behavior and should leave your attitudes at the door: there will be no opportunity to speak, and disruptions of any sort will likely not be tolerated by the Judge. So no clapping, hooting, booing, or general mayhem; this is an opportunity to listen; pay attention and you’ll probably learn something. Make a scene and the lot of us will probably be thrown out of the court room 🙂

Assistant Attorney General Scott Boak will be there representing the Department of Environmental Protection. Attorney Anthony Buxton and likely several other lawyers from PretiFlaherty will be there representing Aquafortis Associates LLC.

15 January 2018: Bruce J. Relyea Has Passed Away

It is with sadness that I inform you of the passing of Bruce Relyea. Bruce was a friend of mine, a faithful steward of Clary Lake, and a long time member of the Clary Lake Association. Bruce and his wife Audrey bought their property on the south shore of Clary Lake in Jefferson from Francis Ward in 1967 and it remains in the family today. Bruce was an early supporter of the Association which was formed not too long before Bruce arrived, in 1960. Bruce served as Association President from 2002 through 2004 and has been a generous benefactor of the Association over the years. He will be missed. Here’s his obituary from the Fort Worth Texas Star-Telegram:

Bruce J. Relyea 1928 – 2018

Bruce J. Relyea FORT WORTH — Bruce J. Relyea, 90, of Fort Worth, passed away on January 9, 2018. Bruce was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Mildred and Bruce Relyea. He enlisted into the United States Army Air Force at age 18, serving in Japan as a control tower operator, and upon discharge he attended Miami University of Ohio, earning a degree in Business Administration. In 1950, he began his career as an auditor for General Electric Co. in Cleveland. Four years later, he married his wife of 64 years, Audrey Jennison. Bruce was later employed at Penn Central Co., Ebasco Industries, and as Comptroller with Union Pacific. He ended his career as Vice President of Finance at Champlin Petroleum Company in Fort Worth. Not one to sit idly, after retirement, Bruce took up ranching in Grandview before returning to Fort Worth to spend time with his children and grandchildren. Bruce was an avid reader, a talented bridge player, an enthusiastic golfer, and a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. He enjoyed spending summers with Audrey and family at his wild blueberry farm, North Forty, in Jefferson, Maine. Bruce was preceded in death by his infant son, Douglas Edward. SURVIVORS: His wife of 63 years, Audrey Jennison Relyea; children, Robert Bruce Relyea (Jeraldine), Susan Relyea Pardee (Tom), Steven Jennison Relyea (Adrienne), Gregory John Relyea (June); . his sister, Lynda Metzler. 11 grandchildren; and five great grandchildren.

On behalf of the Clary Lake Association Board I wish offer our condolences to his wife Audrey and the family.

Season’s Greetings from the Clary Lake Association

Everything you ever wanted to know about Sea Lamprey!

Unfortunately I have another engagement Monday night or I’d be going to this presentation. It sounds fascinating:

Come learn about Sea Lamprey

with expert Lee Margolin

Sea Lamprey expert Lee Margolin will be presenting about Sea Lamprey and taking questions at a public meeting on Monday, December 4 from 6-8pm at the Sheepscot Lake Fish & Game Club in Palermo. This is the first of what will be several opportunities to learn about Maine’s native sea-run fish species.

Lee has a PhD in Biology with research focused specifically on Sea Lamprey and over 25 years of experience with the species. Anyone curious to learn more about Sea Lamprey or their impact on other fish species and ecosystems is encouraged to attend.

The Fish & Game Club is located at 19 Leeman Arm Rd, Palermo, just off of Route 3 next to the boat launch. Please direct any questions to Garrison Beck, Midcoast Conservancy Director of Water Conservation, 207-389-5157 or garrison@midcoastconservancy.org.

We hope to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association

On behalf of the Clary Lake Association Board I’d like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy family and friends, don’t overeat, don’t drink and drive, and most important, DON’T TALK POLITICS 🙂

03 November 2017: Anyone Lose A Canoe?

Lost canoe, washed up on David Hodsdon’s shoreline.

David Hodsdon emailed me a photograph of a canoe this morning that washed up on his shoreline. The lake has risen about 15″ as a result of heavy rains and this canoe floated off. If it’s your boat, come get it.

There was considerable damage to several properties around the lake as a result of the intense wind storm that blew through early last Monday morning. Of particular note, Gordon Frizzell’s house was virtually cut in half by a large pine tree that landed on it’s roof. I’ll post photographs when I get a chance.

07 September 2017 Lincoln County News: Commissioners Hear about Clary Lake Dam

Last Tuesday September 5th CLA Board member Jane Chase and I and my wife Margaret attended the Lincoln County Commissioners meeting in Wiscasset to update them on the current status of the Clary Lake water level crisis. The meeting which lasted about 30 minutes came about as the result of a chance meeting between CLA President Malcolm Burson and County Administrator Carrie Kipfer at a Midcoast Conservancy function where they discussed the Clary Lake situation. Ms. Kipfer offered to put us on the agenda for the next County Commissioners meeting. Charlotte Boynton, staff reporter for the Lincoln County News attended the meeting and wrote up a short report of the meeting in this week’s Lincoln County News. The article didn’t make it into the online news site, so I’ve scanned a copy of it for our archive:

07 September 2017: Commissioners Hear about Clary Lake Dam

This is the first time we have met with the Lincoln County Commissioners though likely not the last; the purpose of this first meeting was to bring the Commissioners up to speed with where things stand with Clary Lake and answer any questions they had. They had a lot, and we covered a lot of ground in 30 minutes. While the Commissioners were generally aware of our water level crisis, they were not particularly familiar with many details surrounding the controversy. I found them genuinely interested and concerned, and fully expect they will be keeping a much closer eye on the situation going forward. We did not ask them to take any action at this time.

One minor correction to the article: the caption for the photograph lists the people left to right, and it should be right to left 🙂

Clary Lake water level story will run Thursday on “Maine Things Considered”

Most of you have heard that Susan Sharon of Maine Public Radio is doing a story on Clary Lake, I posted about it last week. I had expected a little more notice about when the story was going to run but I only found out this evening that it will probably air tomorrow (Thursday, 8/31) at 5:30 pm on “Maine Things Considered.” If for some reason it doesn’t air Thursday, then it should be on Friday either on “Morning Edition” (6 am to 9 am daily) or “Maine Things Considered” at 5:30 pm.

If you happen to miss the on-air presentation, don’t worry! The story will be available on the Maine Public Radio website at some point, and I’ll post a link here when I get it.

Keep an eye out here for updates on this story!

23 August 2017: Maine Public Radio is doing a Story on Clary Lake

Maine Public Radio Deputy News Director and General Assignment Reporter Susan Sharon is going to be doing a story on Clary Lake. She came out to Whitefield last Monday to interview me and Malcolm Burson. Her visit included a boat ride to see first hand the impact of our water level crisis on the life and times of Clary Lake. Our tour included a stop on the north shore to meet and interview Kelsie French, long time Clary Lake shore owner with a camp over on Duncan Road in Jefferson. Ms. Sharon’s visit concluded with a stop to see the Clary Lake dam and Clary Mill.

Her story will likely appear sometime within the next week. When I find out the particulars I’ll post them here.

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22 August 2017: CLA Petition to DEP Submitted

I want to thank EVERYONE who signed our petition to DEP and to let everyone know that the Petition which the Board introduced at the Clary Lake Association Annual meeting on August 12th, along with over 350 signatures collected both at the meeting and over the course of the week following the meeting, was hand-delivered to the office of the Commissioner of the DEP yesterday, Monday August 21st, as planned. Looking over the signature sheets I believe ALL Clary Lake Association members managed to sign the petition even if they weren’t at the meeting; quite a few people who are currently out of state printed out the signature sheet, signed it, and mailed or emailed it back to me. A lot of people collected signatures for us, but I’d particularly like to thank Debbie Duncan, Ellis Percy, Malcolm Burson, and Jack and Ann Holland for their efforts to collect signatures. It seems like more often than not, when I asked someone to sign they’d say “Already signed it!” 🙂

CLA Petition to DEP August 21, 2017

It remains to be seen how the Department will respond to the petition and what if anything action they will take towards enforcement of the Clary Lake water level order. They have a variety of enforcement options and while I don’t expect miracles, I am cautiously optimistic they will take this matter as seriously as we do. I do expect to hear from them and will keep everyone apprised of any developments.

The petition was also sent to the Lincoln County News, Central Maine Papers, and the Portland Press Herald, and I do expect articles to appear later this week in most if not all those papers.

15 August 2017: Membership Update

At our Annual Meeting just concluded, we added 22 people to our membership rolls, less than usual only because so many people joined or renewed their membership before the meeting. This brings our current member total to 104, by far the most members we’ve ever had right after the Annual Meeting. Typically dues continue to come in for several months after the Annual meeting so I am confident we’ll reach this year’s membership goal of 140. Eight of our new members have never been members before. I find it particularly heartening that we continue to attract new people! Now more than ever, Membership Matters.

For those of you who are a little confused about our membership year, it is not based on the calendar year but instead straddles it, running from Annual meeting to Annual meeting which is usually on the 1st Saturday in August (this year it was changed to the second Saturday to accommodate our meeting hosts). It’s been this way since the the Association was first formed back in 1960 and while there has been talk over the years of changing our membership year to correspond to the calendar year, it’s never happened and probably won’t anytime soon.

I posted these membership numbers last spring in a previous “membership update” and they bear repeating here:

Clary Lake Association Membership History

Membership Year	Number of Members
2011/2012	28
2012/2013	41
2013/2014	50
2014/2015	70
2015/2016	81
2016/2017	120
2017/2018	140
2018/2019	150
2019/2020	154
2020/2021	164
2021/2022	168
2022/2023	177
2023/2024	175
2024/2025	167
2025/2026	?

While the change in our bylaws a few years ago allowing 1) multiple members per family and 2) not requiring that members own property on Clary Lake or have deeded (legal) access to it explains some of the increase in recent years, it doesn’t begin to fully account for it by any means. Clearly, there is increased concern over the health and wellbeing of Clary Lake and a burgeoning of interest in and appreciation of the important role the Clary Lake Association is playing in current events. The value of the work we’re doing to represent the interests of lake shore owners and community members alike and keeping everyone informed and engaged is extremely important. While we haven’t succeeded in resolving the current water level crisis yet, we are helping guide it to a satisfactory conclusion. And progress IS being made.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their ongoing commitment to Clary Lake, and the Clary Lake Association.

12 August 2017: Annual Meeting a Great Success

Annual Clary Lake Association Meeting, August 12, 2017. Meeting finally underway. About 50 people attended the meeting. Photograph by George Fergusson

The Annual 2017 Clary Lake Association meeting was a great success. I’ll post a thorough update in a few days, but for now I just wanted to get a few pictures online and say THANK YOU!! to all the people that helped make this a great meeting. In particular, many thanks to Erin Grimshaw for hosting the meeting.

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These pictures are in the Spring/Summer 2017 Gallery.

12 August 2017: ANNUAL MEETING NOT CANCELED!!

Despite the somewhat wet and rainy conditions outside your window this morning, we’ve been assured that Partly Sunny conditions will arrive for this afternoon. The rain is forecast to stop later this morning with only a chance of showers late this afternoon and evening.

We will NOT be invoking the rain date provision of our meeting announcement! Going forward we will be moving away from having a rain date at all, which means finding a venue that works rain or shine. This time of year, it’s hard enough to schedule an afternoon let alone keeping 2 consecutive afternoons available. People are busy.

Hope to see you at the meeting!

09 August 2017: ClaryCam2 Back In Service

ClaryCam2 is back in service! David Hodsdon has replaced the dead camera with a new one of the same make and model and we got it hooked up and connecting this afternoon. From the looks of it I’d say he hasn’t been keeping his shoreline mowed. You can just make out the State Boat launch on the right side of the photo. I think David is going to straighten the image just a bit if he hasn’t already.

You can see all 3 cameras on the Clary Lake Webcams page. Here’s the updated Remote Access information:

Remote Access

Realtime remote access is currently working for all 3 cameras. The username and password is the same: Username: guest Password: 123abc
Clarycam 1
For access with a browser: http://clarycam1.ddns.net:88/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@clarycam1.ddns.net:554/videoMain
Clarycam 2:
For access with a browswer: http://la9446.myfoscam.org:88/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@la9446.myfoscam.org:554/videoMain
Clarycam 3:
For access with a browser: http://clarycam3.ddns.net:89/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@clarycam3.ddns.net:555/videoMain

Annual Meeting Reminder

The Annual Meeting of the Clary Lake Association is next Saturday, August 12th at 2:00 PM. The meeting is to be held at the home of Erin Grimshaw and Christina Bishop located at 739 Gardiner Road in Jefferson. Erin and Christina hosted the meeting last year and it turned out to be such a great venue that we’ve decided to hold it there again. Their home is located about 1/3 of a mile west of (towards Whitefield) the intersection of Route 126 and 215. You’ll know the place: this is the house at the foot of the old MacDonald hay field overlooking Clary Lake, and at the end of a looooong driveway. Andy Goss built the house a few years ago; Erin and Christina have owned it since 2013. Here’s a Google Map showing the location. If you need help finding the place George at 207-549-5991 for directions.

The rain date, on the off chance it is raining on Saturday, is the same time, same place, the next day. I can’t remember the last time the Annual meeting was rained out (though it got a little dicey last year). As usual, there will be a pot luck supper at the conclusion of the meeting so bring your favorite casserole, salad, desert, bread, dip, or what have you and plan to stay awhile and socialize.

Petition Announcement

This year the CLA Board intends to introduce for discussion and Membership approval, a petition to the Department of Environmental Protection requesting they take enforcement action in the matter of the Clary Lake Water Level Order. As most of you know, the Water Level Order was issued over 42 months ago on January 27, 2014 and a subsequent Notice of Violation was issued on September 28, 2015. Since then the Department has taken no further action. The order however is still in force and has not been stayed. We see no reason why they shouldn’t immediately initiate enforcement action. We hope you’ll be able to attend the meeting and sign this petition.

The Board will be collecting additional signatures and endorsements during the week following the Annual meeting and plan to submit the Petition to DEP on or about Monday August 21st. You do not need to be a Clary Lake Association member or a Clary Lake shore owner to sign the petition. If you can’t make it to the meeting but would still like to sign the petition, please contact George Fergusson at secretary@clarylake.org or call at 207-549-5991 and we’ll try to accommodate you.

Summer 2017 Newsletter Now Online.

Typical Clary Lake Sunset, photograph by Craig Brann, used by permission. Taken at the State boat launch, August 2016.

The Summer 2017 Newsletter went in the mail early last week. It is now available for download from our Newsletter Archive. Please feel free to share it with your friends.

This year’s featured picture is a stunning sunset photograph (at left) taken by Craig Brann. He recently posted it on the Clary Lake Association Facebook Page.

07 June 2017: Loon Nest Spotted on Clary Lake

The Loons are once again trying to nest on Clary Lake. This year’s nest is located in more or less the traditional loon nesting location, in the cove over by the floating bog on the north shore, just east of the outlet. The loons haven’t faired too well in recent years and I truly hope they succeed this time around. The last time they successfully hatched some eggs was back in 2008. We’ve documented numerous failed nesting attempts since then, and severe variations in water level has been the primary cause of nest failure. Last year, their eggs turned out not to be fertile.

Typically the male and female loons build the nest together over the course of a about week in late May or early June and lay eggs shortly thereafter. Gestation is 28 to 30 days. Since they can only walk on land with great difficulty, they try to build their nest just a few inches above the water surface to facilitate getting on an off it. I don’t know when they started sitting on this latest nest, but it appears to be a good 8″ to 10″ above the water surface indicating the lake may have already fallen as much as 5″ or 6″ since being built. Therefore I’d guestimate they started sitting on the nest around the 1st of June, give or take a few days. With a lot of luck, we might see babies somewhere around the end of June. This however depends on the lake level staying relatively stable for the rest of this month. It is currently falling about 3/4″ per day, and it won’t take long to strand the nest at that rate.

The lake level is currently -38″ below the high water mark and falling. I challenge Mr. Kelley to shut the dam’s gate to maintain the current water level for the next month to give the nesting loons a chance to raise a family. Continue reading →

CLA Spring/Summer 2017 Newsletter is in the mail!

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] will be dropping off 200+ copies of our 2017 Summer 2017 Newsletter at the Whitefield post office tomorrow morning. Expect a copy in your mailbox in a couple of days! Next weekend I’ll post it in our Newsletter Archive here on the site so you can download a copy and share it with your friends. We send the newsletter to all Clary Lake shore owners regardless of whether they’re a CLA member or not. We also send it to a number of Friends of Clary Lake. If you’d like to be added to our mailing list, please email me your contact information and I’ll add you.

Gone from this newsletter is the original “tear off the bottom half of the page” membership renewal form that we’ve been using for years; it has been replaced with a handy remittance envelope. Going with a remittance envelope has the added benefit of freeing up some valuable space. You can still download a copy of the old membership renewal form, print it out and mail it in if you lose your envelope or didn’t get one, or you can sign up online via Paypal. There is no shortage of ways to become a member!

Membership Matters

The other day I had the pleasure of adding a final Clary Lake shore owner to our current year membership rolls, bringing the total Membership for the 2016/2017 year to 118. It is unusual for people to be sending in dues this late for the current year. Given that our membership year runs from Annual meeting to Annual meeting and with only 4 months left in this membership year, I decided to contact the person to ask if they intended their dues to apply to this year, or the upcoming year? Their response was heartening: they apologized for being late in renewing and said the dues were for this year, and that they’d be paying their 2017/2018 dues shortly. And they did. Well alright. I like that. Because Membership Matters.

Before going any further, I wish to thank everyone who saw fit to join the Clary Lake Association this year. To give you an idea of how amazing it is to have 118 members, consider that last year we had 81 which was the most members, ever. That’s an increase of 45% in one year. Here are our membership numbers for the past 6 years. As you can see, there has been a steady increase from year to year: Continue reading →

Spring Supper to Benefit Fergusson Family After Fire

Happy Spring, everyone!

For those of you who don’t already know, the ancestral Fergusson family home on Clary Lake caught fire last week. Luckily, nobody was hurt in the blaze, however, a large part of the home was destroyed in the fire and George’s son Colin Fergusson and his partner Sara Roy lost pretty much everything in the fire.

The Fergusson family has been living on Clary Lake for 95 years. George Fergusson is the current Secretary of the Association and plays an integral role in the Association’s management and ongoing success. His father Stuart Fergusson was one of the CLA’s founding members of the Clary Lake Association back in 1961. Colin and Sara are already making plans to rebuild and hope to be moved back into part of the house by next winter.

The Clary Lake Association Momentum Committee will be co-sponsoring a Spring Supper with (and at) the Sheepscot General Store on Townhouse Road to benefit the Fergusson Family on May 6th from 5-7PM. Admission to the supper is two-fold: $5 and a dish of some sort to share (either a side dish, a salad, a dessert, or a beverage), but don’t let the lack of a dish stop you from coming by.

Please feel free to pass this email along or advertise as you see fit. The more, the merrier! If you have questions contact the Momentum Committee at momentum@clarylake.org. All proceeds will go to the Fergusson Family home rebuilding fund.

All the best,

Erin Grimshaw, CLA Momentum Committee Chair