Category Archives: Association News

Posts about Clary Lake Association stuff.

01 January 2017: Happy New Year from the Clary Lake Association

The Clary Lake Association Board wishes you all a very Happy New Year and hope you find peace and prosperity in the coming year. We look forward to continuing to serve you in 2017 and remain deeply committed to doing everything in our power to bring about a final and lasting resolution of the Clary Lake water level crisis, and better serve the interests of all Clary Lake shore owners in the coming year. We will of course need your help to achieve these and other goals, and we look forward to your continued support of our organization. 2016 saw a record increase in Association membership, and unparalleled participation by our members. The coming year is going to require that much and more. We’re counting on you to help keep up the momentum!

I had toyed with the idea of sending around a “Year-End Survey” to our membership soliciting comments and suggestions for the year ahead, but I’ve decided instead to keep it simple and use our website forum to invite comments and suggestions from both members and non-members alike. Please let us know how the Clary Lake Association can better serve you- our members, and our community, this coming year. Our handy (and anonymous if you want!) Contact & Feedback form works well for this purpose, or you can contact me (or the Board) directly with your suggestions. We really do want to hear from you, whatever it is you have to say.

A good example of such a suggestion, and one which has been a personal goal of mine for some time now, is for the Clary Lake Association see to having several dry fire hydrants installed in key locations around the lake to provide year round access to water for fighting fires. These hydrants would result in a lower ISO rating for the Whitefield and Jefferson communities which would directly translate into lower fire insurance premiums. This suggestion is already on the table for discussion at our next Board meeting.

So give it some thought. We look forward to hearing from you.

26 December 2016: The Year in Review

2016 Boat Launch Cleanup

As 2016 draws to a close it is a good time to reflect on what has (hasn’t) been accomplished this year. In many ways it has been a banner year for the Clary Lake Association: with 116 current members, our membership is at an all-time high and community involvement in and support of the Association and it’s activities has never been higher. Even during the height of the water level petition process in 2012 and 2013 we only had at most 70 members, and last year we had 82 members. Furthermore, our current membership is engaged and informed like never before and willing to step up and participate when the need arises (see picture above!).

2016 was the 5th full year that we’ve been engaged in our battle to restore Clary Lake which fact in and of itself, is rather sobering. Who would have thought this problem would take so long to resolve? The fact that after all this time we’re still waiting for the Water Level Order to be enforced is simply hard to believe, and even harder to accept. Through it all the Clary Lake Association Board has steadfastly remained diligent, attentive, and responsive, and 2016 was no exception. We officially met 12 times this past year to conduct Association business, discuss strategy, and make decisions, not to mention the piles of emails sent and phone calls made. It has literally been a full time job for some of us, and I’m deeply grateful for the dedication and commitment of all our Board members. It’s a great group of people and I’m proud to count myself among them. That said, I feel like we have not done Continue reading →

Merry Christmas from the Clary Lake Association

10 December 2016: Gate Status, Lake Status

From the “For What It’s Worth” department, the Clary Lake dam owner was seen at the dam this morning. It appears the purpose of the visit was to close the gate, at least partway; it now appears to be about 1/2 open though it’s still not closed enough to back up water (see picture at left). He opened the gate all the way last Saturday apparently in a knee-jerk reaction to an alleged trespass on the dam by some duck hunters, which he reported to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department- prompting a visit from an officer. I’ve not heard any more about that incident. The gate had been completely closed since early July until he opened it last weekend.

We see good skating on Clary Lake about 1 year out of 3 (if we’re lucky) and even when we do have good skating, it usually doesn’t last that long. This year is not looking like one of the good ones but it is early yet. The picture at left is a composite photo showing simultaneous views from all three Clary WebCams taken yesterday morning- it’s actually a screenshot from my tablet IP Cam Monitor app. From the lake-level views of Cams 1 and 3 (the top two images) it looks like the lake is entirely frozen over but in fact from my second-story office window I can see that the whole north half of the lake is still wide open. Also, as you can see in the bottom image, the entire east-end of the lake is open. I estimate only about 1/4 of the lake is iced over so far, and what ice we have isn’t looking very good.

Continue reading →

Lost and Found: Are You Missing a Pie Plate?

[dropcap]There[/dropcap] has been a very nice 9″ glass Anchor Ovenware(tm) pie plate with a glass cover over at Sheepscot General, waiting for someone to come by and claim it, but nobody has. Today my wife brought it home for safe keeping. We believe it was left behind by someone who brought food to the Harvest Potluck Supper earlier this month. If it belongs to you or you know who it does belong to, give Margaret a call at 458-3143 or email her and make arrangements to pick it up.

29 November 2016: Maine VLMP Fall 2016 Newsletter now available

The Maine Volunteer Lake Monitor Program (VLMP) has issued their Fall 2016 newsletter “the Water Column” and it’s available online from their website at the following link:

Fall 2016 Water Column Newsletter

The VLMP has always done a great job with their newsletters, and this one is no exception: with 28 pages of informative articles, reports, and pictures, it is well worth taking the time to look it over. I found the article “The 2016 Drought and it’s Effect on Maine Lakes” particularly interesting.

The Clary Lake Association is long-time supporting member of the VLMP and has been contributing water quality monitoring data to the VLMP program since 1975. You’ll find the last 5 years worth of water quality data on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page.

The newsletter includes a report and pictures from this summer’s 2016 Lake Monitoring Conference which David Hodsdon and I attended. Below is the group photograph taken at the conclusion of that event:

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.

15 November 2016: Harvest Potluck Supper a Great Success!

The Harvest Potluck Supper held last Saturday was a great success and a lot of fun, thanks to all the people who donated food and all the people that showed up to eat it! We all owe a huge Thank You to the Momentum Committee Chair (Erin Grimshaw) and committee members (Margaret Fergusson, Mary Gingrow-Shaw) for the work they did preparing for this wonderful event.

We had over 50 people in attendance and we made over $319 dollars (after expenses)!

Sorry for not posting this update until now, but I’ve been a little busy. Here are a few pictures I took during the supper:

[Show as slideshow]

09 November 2016: Reminder, Harvest Potluck Supper this Saturday

A quick reminder, the Association’s Harvest Potluck Supper/fundraiser is this Saturday, November 12th, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Sheepscot General on Townhouse Road in Whitefield. This event is open to the general public and we hope members and non-members alike will take this opportunity to get together and share good food and good company. The cost is $7.00 for adults and $3.00 for children under 12. There will also be a raffle with details to be announced. My wife informs me that we’ve had a fantastic response to our outreach and we expect lots of food of all sorts, and a good turn out as well. Also, it is not too late to contribute to the fare, that we are still in need of a few side dishes such as salads, of whatever sort. Please contact Margaret Fergusson @ 207-458-3143; Mary Gingrow-Shaw @ 207-622-3308 with any questions or suggestions.

I’m going to send out a reminder email to all current Clary Lake Association members this evening. I realize that a number of you are no longer in Maine and will be unable to attend the Supper, but you’ll get an email just the same! Consider it a test of our Emergency Broadcast System. Please keep an eye out for it and if you don’t see it in your inbox in the next 24 hours, please check your spam folder. We’ve done extensive testing of our mail system and most mail hosts recognize our emails as Not Spam (Gmail seems to get confused on occasion). IF it ends up as spam, tell your mail program it is NOT spam!

Thanks and hope to see you at the Supper!

Harvest Potluck Supper Flier

These flyers will be going up around town this coming week. Download one!

Harvest Potluck Supper

a benefit for the

Clary Lake Association

Saturday November 12 at Sheepscot General
from 4:00 to 7:00 PM
$7.00 adults, $3.00 children

Mark your calendars! The Clary Lake Association invites you to join us, the community coming together, lakeshore owners, neighbors, friends, and family alike, for a Harvest Potluck Supper to enjoy each other’s company, good home cookin’ and to celebrate our Lake.

We are still looking for volunteers willing to contribute food: crockpot items, casseroles, salads, desserts, & beverages. People interested in contributing to this event, please contact Margaret Fergusson @ 207-458-3143, Mary Gingrow-Shaw @ 207-622-3308, or Erin Grimshaw @ 207-346-4640.

Hope to see you there! Check for updates on the Clary Lake Association website as the event draws near: https://clarylake.org/

13 October 2016: Looking For Volunteers

I’m looking for volunteers to help with testing our email and digital newsletter distribution system. Recent events have made it painfully clear that we need to make some improvements if we’re going to be able to reliably email our Membership.

Sending emails is pretty much routine these days and generally a reliable means of communicating as long as humans are doing it, but as soon as you put a program in control of the process and try sending an email, announcement, or newsletter to even as few as 80 or 100 addresses, remote mail hosts get twitchy, some more twitchy than others. If they sense spam, they’re either going mark it as spam so it ends up in the recipient’s spam folder, or they are just as likely to reject the message outright. Spammers are getting more sophisticated and spam has become a serious problem. Mail hosts are increasingly taking a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach in dealing with it. This may minimize the spam that ends up in your mailbox, but it also can prevent legitimate non-spam emails from being delivered. There are ways to minimize the chances that a bulk email will be marked as spam, but there are no guarantees.

The Clary Lake Association has sent several emails to its membership in the past few months. The first one was about the Boat Launch Cleanup Initiative back in August, and more recently, an email about the upcoming Harvest Potluck Supper was sent to our Membership just a few days ago. Both emails failed to successfully get sent to all addresses on the first try, with each requiring additional shenanigans on my part to finally get the emails sent. It was a tedious process and not wholly satisfying, to say the least. And for all that, I still have no idea how many of those emails ended up in spam folders or weren’t delivered at all. I do know that for the most recent email, for whatever reason, only about 1/3 of the emails that I know were actually sent have been opened. We can do better than that. Continue reading →

06 October 2016: Clary Lake Parcel Map Now Online

Clary Lake Parcel Map

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I love maps. I love looking at maps and during my nearly 4 decades in the Surveying profession I made a lot of maps, as part of my job. Now I make maps for fun and making cool and useful maps has gotten faster & easier with freely available Geographic Information System and CAD software integrated with database systems and online mapping services like Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Fusion Tables. Enhancing traditional data with Geocodes (latitude and longitude) like a mailing list allows you to look at information in ways that hasn’t been all that easy to do in the past. This latest map is a Parcel Map (image above) that I’ve just completed using Google Maps and Google Fusion tables which shows property parcels in and around the Clary Lake Watershed with blue dots representing the locations of everyone in our Clary Lake mailing list database. It wasn’t particularly hard to do, the tedious part was scaling a latitude and longitude off a map and assigning it to a name in a spreadsheet. The rest was just data manipulation. The tax parcel information comes from the Maine Office of GIS, a great site which offers loads of free geocoded data, digital terrain data, and photography.

Some of you will recognize this map as similar to the Clary Lake Watershed Survey from a couple of years ago which uses the same parcel information, and the Clary Lake depth map which uses the same base map of the area. Continue reading →

02 October 2016: Where Are Our Members Located?

Clary Lake Association Members. Google Earth photograph with Jefferson and Whitefield Parcels highlighted in red to show where the Current Year CLA Members are located. As you can see, we’re well represented by Jefferson property owners, somewhat less so by Whitefield property owners. Prepared by George Fergusson 02 October 2016

Well, as it turns out, mostly in Jefferson! Or at least that’s how it looks on the Google Earth photograph at left which shows parcels owned by CLA members colored RED. In actual fact, owners of approximately 55% of the lake shore properties in Whitefield are members of the CLA while in Jefferson the figure it more like 65% which is not a really significant difference. It just looks significant because the majority of shore front property in Jefferson belongs to CLA members whereas there are a lot of large acreage properties with large amounts of shore front located in Whitefield whose owners are not members of the Association. Just a few of those Whitefield residents joining the Association would change the look of the map considerably. There are also a few members who live outside of the Clary Lake watershed who aren’t represented on this map. Continue reading →

CLA Harvest Pot Luck Supper This November 12th

Mark your calendars! The Clary Lake Association Momentum Committee invites you to join us- the community coming together, lakeshore owners, neighbors, friends, and family alike, for a Harvest Potluck Supper to enjoy each other’s company, good home cookin’ and to celebrate our Lake.

Our Potluck supper will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2016 at The Sheepscot General on Townhouse Road in Whitefield from 4-7pm. The full scope of the event is still being developed, but we are now actively soliciting volunteers willing to contribute food— crock pot items, casseroles, salads, desserts, beverages. The cost is $7.00 for adults and $3.00 for children under 12. There will also be a raffle with details to be announced. Also look for ongoing updates here about the event as the date draws closer. You’ll find this event marked on the CLA Events Calendar. The Harvest Supper is coming up [fergcorp_cdt_single date=”November 12, 2016 3:00 PM EST”].

Add this event to your Google Calendar:

The Momentum Committee was formed to foster a positive outlook as we move forward, appreciating what we have been given even in the face of the challenges presented by our lake’s current condition, acknowledging the challenges ahead, remembering all the hard work that has been done and will need to continue to be done in order to bring our lake back to its full health. It’s a call to thankfulness, generosity and goodwill and to focus on the simple yet powerful potential in people coming together. This event will be one of many in our continued commitment to celebrate the bounty of community and the importance of reverent stewardship of our nature resources.

The money raised will be used in part to fund future Momentum Committee events and activities. For more information or to contribute to this event, please contact Margaret Fergusson @ 207-458-3143; Mary Gingrow-Shaw @ 207-622-3308, or Erin Grimshaw @ 207-346-4640. You can also email the Momentum Committee with questions or suggestions.

12 September 2016: Price Reduced!

40 Enos Lane, Jefferson Maine

According to recently posted real estate listings on the Zillow Real Estate site and at the Trulia Real Estate site, the price on the Arthur Enos home and property on Clary Lake has been reduced from the original summer 2014 asking price of $875,000 to a more reasonable but still breathtaking $765,000. The real estate listings include a bunch of recently taken pictures. So much for Art’s “I don’t really care if I sell it or not” remark. I assume now he still doesn’t care if he sells it, but at a lower price. According to Zillow, the property was originally listed in July 2014 (see “22 July 2014: Enos Property on Clary Lake for sale“) and was just taken off the market a few months ago. It was relisted at the lower price just a few days ago. I wish Mr. Enos all the luck selling his property.

09 September 2016: CLA Membership Goal Reached!

[dropcap]Within[/dropcap] just 2 days of posting about our membership goal, we’ve added the additional 11 members needed to bring our total to 100, our membership goal for this year! It’s not just a goal, it’s an all-time record. The memberships consisted of 3 renewals and 8 NEW MEMBERS, people who have either never been Association members, or haven’t been for a long time. I wish to thank those people who stepped up, and apologize to those whose arms I twisted… a little bit. I never doubted that we’d reach our goal, I just didn’t anticipate the enthusiastic and supportive response to that post.

Just because we’ve reached our goal is no reason to get complacent. There are still a dozen or more people who were members last year who have not renewed their memberships this year, and I sincerely hope they will all renew soon. Just because we’ve reached OUR goal shouldn’t stop them or anyone else from joining the Association. There is strength in numbers. We’re on a roll folks, let’s keep it going.

In Memory of Christopher Gillette

Christopher Gillette
1955 – 2016

It is with sadness that I inform you of the passing of Christopher Gillette this past August 12th. Chris was a long-time and loyal Clary Lake Association Member and a personal friend of mine with whom I have corresponded at length in recent years about Clary Lake. He will be missed by many. The Board, and on behalf of the Clary Lake Association, wishes to offer our condolences to his wife Leslie Gillette, his 2 daughters Fallon and Alexandra, his father Thomas Gillette, his brother Baxter Gillette, and his cousin, Kate Seba, all of whom are Clary Lake Association members. Chris had just completed the construction of a new home on Clary Lake. Chris was 61.

07 September 2016: Making Progress Toward Our Membership Goal

We are very close to reaching this year’s Membership goal of 100 members. Currently at 89, many of this year’s members are new members to the Association: they have either never been members before, or they have not been members for a long time. In either case, this is a great trend that I hope to see continue! However, there are a number of people who were members last year or the year before who have NOT renewed their membership yet. We need all the support we can get, now more than ever, so if you are one of those people who has intended to renew your membership but just hasn’t found the time yet, please do so soon! It is important! If everyone who was a member last year would renew again, we would not only meet our membership goal, but exceed it.

I’d also like to bring your attention to our new online Current Membership List. For years, the Clary Lake Association did not disclose their membership list for no particular reason other than the organization was relatively small, the group fairly close knit, and everyone knew everyone else anyways. When I first became President of the Association back in 2o07, we were averaging 35 to 40 members a year. Since then, interest in and support of the Clary Lake Association has grown considerably and our membership numbers have reflected that increased interest. Last year we had 81 members and as I mentioned at the start of this posting, this year’s goal is 100 members.

Two years ago we started to publish a Membership List in the Summer Newsletter, and it was well received. People commented favorably about it and they universally appreciated being publicly recognized for being a member. In fact, I believe making our list public has actually helped increase our membership- it certainly hasn’t hurt it! So after discussing it with the Board, we decided publishing our Current Membership List on the website was a good idea. You’ll find it at the top of the list under the Membership Main menu heading.

28 August 2016: State Boat Launch Rock Cleanup Initiative Finished

The Boat Launch Rock Cleanup Crew

We had a great turn out for the Boat Launch Rock Cleanup event yesterday with 30 people showing up to move rocks or assist in other ways. A few people unable to move rocks fulfilled other important roles. Everyone contributed in one way or another. The rock moving itself, which was expected to take the better part of 4 hours, was pretty much finished before lunch, in about an hour and a half.

The folks in the group-photo are left to right, front row kneeling: Lucy Norman, Erin Grimshaw and her 3 sons Corey Dey Bishop, Jayden Dey Bishop, and Devon Dey Bishop, Colin Fergusson; Second row: Don Norman, Melissa Palmer-Karas, Alicia Fraser, Mary Gingrow-Shaw, Margaret Fergusson, George Fergusson (not smiling for some reason) Karen Nielsen and Sara Roy; Third row: Dee Ann Grazioso, Barbara Ahern, Bill Donovan, Osmand Karas, Nathan Williams, John Williams, Tom Vigue, Jeff French; Fourth row: Tim Harkins, David Knight, Jack Holland, Randy Wing. Not pictured are Ellis Percy and John Ahern who weren’t involved in the rock moving, and Thomas Gillette and Bruce MacDonald who showed up later when the work was finished.

The work got done, we had a blast, nobody got hurt, and nobody freaked out when a good sized water snake crawled out of the shrinking rock pile and swam off between people’s legs. I caught a brief glimpse of it but wasn’t quick enough with my camera to get a picture of it. Continue reading →

State Boat Launch Cleanup Update: Saturday 27 August

We’re all set to go tomorrow morning to move rocks at the State boat launch. A good crowd of people have indicated they plan to come by to either help move rocks, or kibitz. In any case, all are welcome: it promises to be a fun time and the weather is looking to be about perfect.

The Momentum Committee will be showing up about 9 AM to get things set up with the work set to start about 10 AM. Hopefully we’ll be able to wrap up around 2 PM or shortly thereafter. Lunch will be served mid-way through the day. We’re providing hamburgers, hotdogs, potato chips, water, etc.

The water level hit -66″ below the top of the dam this morning (a little lower than the picture shows above, which was taken last summer) so it really is about as low as it can get. However, there’s still a good 6″ to 12″ of water where we’ll be working, so plan your wardrobe accordingly: rubber boots or sneakers are in order along with shorts and work gloves. Remember we’ll be handling wet slippery rocks so sandals or barefeet are NOT recommended. The bottom is generally pretty hard however, so you don’t have to worry about getting stuck in the mud!

Any last minute questions, feel free to call George Fergusson. Hope to see you there!