Category Archives: Association News

Posts about Clary Lake Association stuff.

04 August 2013: Association Annual Meeting not rained On :)

We had perfect weather for yesterday’s Annual Meeting of the Clary Lake Association though first thing in the morning it wasn’t clear that was going to be the case: it rained heavily early on but then cleared by 11 am and became beautiful and sunny, well in time for the meeting. Then about 5 PM just minutes after the last person left for home, the sky opened up and it rained with a vengeance. How fortunate it held off until after the meeting! An hour later we were graced with a beautiful double rainbow.

45 people showed up to conduct the Association’s business. The only glitch was that I had neglected to print out copies of the 2012 meeting minutes which were supposed to be read and approved. What ensued was a comedy of errors including trying to get them printed off the website, then trying to read them on a laptop whose batteries quit part way through, finally culminating with a motion to cease the struggle and move on, which passed unanimously. Both the bylaws and newsletter committees were formed and populated with volunteers, and all the (3) proposed articles also passed unanimously. I was particularly pleased to receive not just a mandate from the membership to pursue the Clary Lake Watershed Survey update, but a good number of volunteers as well. More about this later. The meeting adjourned at 4 PM and was followed by the usual pot-luck supper. I’ll post minutes as soon as they’ve been written and approved.

03 August 2013: Association Annual Meeting Still Scheduled

Meeting Still On!

Rain resulted in an auspicious start to the day but even as I type this I can see out my window that the sky is getting brighter and the rain is letting up. The forecast this morning was for showers this morning, clearing later in the day with a chance of a passing shower this afternoon. The forecast isn’t any better for tomorrow either so we’re taking our chances. Hope to see you there!

01 August 2013: Annual Meeting Agenda, 2012 meeting minutes

minutes Finally got around to posting the proposed agenda for the Annual Meeting scheduled for this coming Saturday, August 3rd. I had intended to make them available sooner but I’ve been a little busy this week. We’ll have printed copies available at the meeting. I don’t think in the history of the Association we’ve ever had an agenda that was 2 pages long, as this one is. I blame this on several things. First, legitimately, we’ve got a lot of stuff to discuss and second, I wrote it 🙂

2013 Proposed Annual Meeting Agenda

Also here are the 2012 Annual Meeting minutes… I wasn’t aware that they weren’t on line yet and nobody was clamoring for them anyways. So better late than never and, in keeping with my move towards using Google Docs as a document distribution system, here is a link to the Membership Meeting Minutes folder- I hope others besides Paul Kelley will enjoy perusing these files:

Clary Lake Association Membership Meeting Minutes

David Hodsdon has recently given me a CD with all the Association records from 1997 through 2004. I won’t be posting everything but I will go through the files in my copious spare time and choose some to post. There are also some pictures which I will definitely post.

30 July 2013: [UPDATED] Clary Lake has officially entered an algae bloom state

David Hodsdon and Jack Holland completed their routine water quality monitoring task yesterday. I have updated the Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page. David reports that the secchi disk reading he obtained yesterday (4.92′ or 1.5 meters) without question indicates that Clary Lake is experiencing an algae bloom, a fact that should not come as a surprise if you’ve been out on the lake lately. A lake is considered to be experiencing an algae bloom when the secchi disk reading is at or below 2 meters (6.56′). We’re well into bloom territory.

David has been in touch with Scott Williams of the VLMP about this issue and they may be sending someone out to independently assess the situation. The picture at upper left is from last summer’s bloom. It hasn’t gotten that bad yet.

I’ve written recently about algae blooms (here and here) and why we’re more at risk now because of the extreme low water conditions we’re experiencing. I’m going to get on the phone and rattle some cages.

[UPDATE]: I took a ride around the lake this afternoon- with bright sun shining down, I could just barely make out the bottom in 3.5′ of water off the end of my dock. I took a water sample just a bit ago and examined it under a microscope: it is loaded with Anabena cyanobacteria, the blue-green algae pictured at left that is largely responsible for freshwater algae blooms. The transparency of the lake water has deteriorated seriously over the last month: On the 1st of June the secchi disk reading was 10.1 feet; by the 19th it had dropped 2 feet and in the last 10 days dropped another 3 feet. Transparency is now less than 1/2 of what it was a month ago. They’re multiplying. Fast.

27 July 2013: First test of E-NEWS Newsletter system a resounding success

bottle2 Many of you were subjected the other day to the first mailing of the Association’s E-NEWS Newsletter which I liken to an Emergency Broadcast System but that’s just my flare for the dramatic. In reality it’s just another way to disseminate information in a timely, cost effective way to a targeted audience and one which we have no intention of over-using: the ability to drop emails into your inbox is a privilege we don’t want to abuse or lose. We’re happy most of the time to let you drop in and peruse the website at your leisure but there will be times when we want to get your attention sooner rather than later. And of course there is an E-NEWS archive where we’ll keep copies of the mailings available for reference. The newsletter system also includes options to unsubscribe and edit your profile. So far nobody has unsubscribed 🙂

There has been a little confusion over subscribing to NEWS versus subscribing to E-NEWS. NEWS are the posts that appear on this news page and you can sign up to get email notices of new posts and even new comments on individual posts. On most other pages you’ll find a “Subscribe to Clary Lake Association News via Email” text box on the side bar where you can enter your email address. On the other hand you can sign up for E-NEWS newsletters on the Join our E-NEWS Mailing List page and in a few other places on the site (like on the home page). You’ll only get E-NEWS emails or newsletters on those rare occasions that the Association decides to send them out.

August 3rd Clary Lake Association Annual Meeting taking shape

talking-heads-custom Plans are well underway for the Association’s Annual meeting to be held Saturday August 3rd at 2 PM at the home of Robert Antognoni. Robert lives on the south side of Clary Lake at the end of Robert E. Dow Road in Jefferson. For those of you who don’t know where it is, here’s a Google Map showing the location. For those of you who are Google Map challenged, Robert E. Dow Road is located off Route 126 0.16 miles east from the Jefferson town line, 0.92 miles west from the intersection of Route 215 and 126 at the head of Clary Lake, and 1.83 miles east on Route 126 from the Whitefield Superette in North Whitefield Village. If you still manage to get lost, call Robert Antognoni at 549-7694 and we’ll guide you in for a smooth landing. Continue reading →

17 July 2013: Land for Maine’s Future Project – Clary Lake

confused-monkey1 I received an email today from a fellow with the Natural Resources Council of Maine. He was looking to update the listing for Clary Lake on the Land for Maine’s Future Projects page and wanted us to review the current listing:

Clary Lake

Clary Lake is a popular destination for boaters and anglers. With funds from the Land for Maine’s Future program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sport Fish Restoration Program, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (IF&W) secured funds to acquire a site that provides permanent and safe access for motor boats and hand-carry craft, as well as bank fishing and swimming.

Clary Lake is a popular destination for fishing year-round, offering bass and perch as well as occasional brood stocks introduced by IF&W. The State purchased this parcel and built the access site to replace one across the lake that had a dangerous configuration (being located on a curve at the base of a long hill). The access site is owned and managed by IF&W.

Return to Land for Maine’s Future projects list.

Sounds idyllic doesn’t it. I emailed him and let him know that the State boat launch highlighted in the narrative is currently unusable due to low water conditions and that the future of Clary Lake is facing a serious challenge from a dam owner who just doesn’t give a dam. I don’t expect them to update the listing. Got to put a good face on it, know what I mean?

Anyways, I’ve added a link to the Natural Resources Council of Maine on the Links & Resources page. FYI, I was unable to actually find the Programs page without using the link provided.

15 July 2013: Completed form 1023 application for recognition of 501 C(3) status is in the mail!

phew Well almost in the mail. Our application to reinstate our 501 c(3) exemption is going in the mail in about an hour, just as soon as the post office window opens up again at 1 PM today. Again, we are grateful for Paul Kelley bringing this matter to our attention. Of course, I sincerely doubt he thought he was doing us any favors, but clearly he did. Who knows how long it would have been before we came to the realization that our 501 c(3) status had been revoked? What is totally ironic is that he filed an objection with the Attorney General’s office because he objected to our soliciting contributions without 501 c(3) status. And what were we soliciting contributions for? A dam repair fund which could well end up benefiting him. Go figure.

Incidentally, the approved form 1023 application with attachments in all their glory must by law be made available to the general public. The operative word there is “approved.” When our application is approved, I will post a link to it. Until then, try not to let the anticipation get to you.

Continue reading →

10 July 2013: Clary Lake Association’s Official 501 c(3) Status

oops

Paul Kelley was so happy to point out in his 44 page “closing brief” that the Clary Lake Association’s 501 C(3) non-profit status was revoked by the IRS somewhere back around 2007. We were not aware of this. I looked into the matter and this is what I found out. From the Instructions for Form 1023 “Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code”:

“The following types of organizations may be considered tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) even if they do not file Form 1023:

Any organization that has gross receipts in each taxable year of normally not more than $5,000 is not required to file Form 1023

Even though the above organizations are not required to file Form 1023 to be tax exempt, these organizations may choose to file Form 1023 in order to receive a determination letter that recognizes their section 501(c)(3) status and specifies whether contributions them are tax deductible.”

The Clary Lake Association’s annual receipts are and always have been well below the $5000 annual threshold so the fact that the IRS revoked our 501 C(3) status is a moot point: we are still a non-profit in the eyes of the law and donations made to the Association have been, are now, and always will be tax-deductible. So Kelley’s assertion that the Clary Lake Association is technically not a registered 501(c)(3) at this time is correct, if irrelevant. Nonetheless, we thank Mr. Kelley for bringing this matter to our attention. We will be filing to reinstate our 501 C(3) status shortly.

The Association’s non-profit status is also irrelevant in regard the water level petition and one has to wonder why he felt it was worth mentioning at all in his closing brief. The petition was not filed by the Association. Clearly his goal was to discredit everyone he could think of.

Incidentally, the requirement for non-profits to file annually with the IRS was part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006; prior to 2006 there was no requirement for a non-profit of our size to file annually. After 3 years of receiving no filings, a non-profit organization’s 501 C(3) status is “automatically revoked.” This actually happened to hundreds of thousands of non-profits when the law went into effect. I spoke to our Treasurer and she was unaware of the need to file annually. If there was ever a notice sent to the Association, it was lost or misunderstood.

Reinstating an automatically revoked 501 C(3) status is a routine procedure. We’ll be submitting a new Form 1023 shortly.

01 July 2013: [UPDATED] Whitefield and Jefferson Parcel Maps for Google Earth

googleearth If you’re anything like me, you’ve been annoyed that the Maine office of GIS has not updated it’s Google Earth Parcels.kml file to include the recently completed Whitefield parcels map file. Whitefield parcels have been available for a while as a shape file, but that’s no help unless you have Arcinfo or Arcview. If you wanted to view Whitefield parcels in Google Earth, you’ve been out of luck.

No longer! I managed to get my hands on both Whitefield and Jefferson parcel maps. No need to load in every organized town in Maine, you can just load in the town you want. We’ll be making use of these when we get to work on updating the Clary Lake watershed Survey:

These links will open up in Google Maps. To add them to Google Earth, download them to your computer, then open them in Google Earth and save them to “My Places”. I’ll likely put these under the Charts & Data main menu heading at some point for easier downloading.

[UPDATE] I’ve also separated out the KML files for the Clary Lake watershed and the Three Corner Pond watershed (which flows into Clary Lake):

Clary Lake and Three Corner Pond Watershed (kml) file

These too will be useful when we get to updating the Clary Lake Watershed Survey. Like the Parcel files, these will open in Google Maps. Just download them and open them up in Google Earth, save them to “My Places.”

21 June 2013: The Summer 2013 Clary Lake Clarion is going in the mail [UPDATED]

newsletter01 The Summer 2013 issue of the Clary Lake Clarion, the newsletter of the Clary Lake Association, is going in the mail tomorrow morning. As usual it’s being mailed to all Clary Lake shore owners as well as a number of other interested parties. I’m a firm believer that every organization, no matter how well represented digitally, really needs to put out something tangible once in a while to stay firmly in touch with their membership. The plan has been to prepare 2 newsletters per year but in for the past few years it’s been all I could do to get one out in time for the Annual Meeting. And so it is again this year.

I’ve uploaded the newsletter to the site and added it to the Newsletters page under the Membership main menu item. Feel free to download the newsletter and share it with your friends.

Clary Lake Association Summer 2013 Newsletter

[UPDATE] The above link was broken. It’s now fixed. When you encounter a broken link on this site, please email me!

Continue reading →

19 June 2013: Edward Grant Jr. has passed away [UPDATED]

Edward Grant Jr. passed away at 11:17 AM this morning at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana surrounded by his family. There are no more details available at this time.

Edward Grant Jr’s obituary is now online:

Edward Donald Grant, Jr. May 19, 1923 – June 19, 2013

It is also linked to a page under the Membership main menu heading called “Past Members No Longer With Us” and there is also a donation page where you can donate money to the Clary Lake Association in his memory, if you are so inclined. There is also a place at the bottom of the page to leave a comment.

14 June 2013: Association Member Update

I received a call from Ed Grant’s daughter Kate Seba last night, she called to let me know that Ed is not doing well and is not expected to live much longer. She’s asked for us to keep him in our thoughts and in our prayers. Ed has been an active and valued member of the Association for a long, long time.

Clary Mill log operation, Whitefield , Maine, c.1950

camera1 This video, posted by David Chase on YouTube some years ago, shows logs being unloaded at the Clary Mill mill pond and towards the end of the video, the dam with water coming out of the center weir. Great video, but mostly I just wanted to test the ability to embed YouTube videos in posts 🙂

I’ve also added a new post category “Video Multimedia” to make is easier to find these posts. Looking forward to posting more videos.

Saturday, June 22, 2013: 43rd MAINE LAKES CONFERENCE

pond_lily1 The Maine Lakes Conference 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM Saturday June 22, 2012 at the Diamond Building, Colby College, in Waterville. Cost is $15 for members, $25 for non-members. The Clary Lake Association is a member of COLA so if you’re a member of the Association and would like to go you can sign up for the reduced price. Here’s a link on the Maine COLA site where you can find out more about the conference and sign up for it.

43rd Maine Lakes Conference Information and signup

The program looks quite interesting. I’ll be going. If you want to go let me know, perhaps we can car pool. I’ve added this program to the CLA Calendar. You can also visit the COLA page on Facebook.

09 May 2013: Clary Lake Dam Repair Fund Update

With all the doomy and gloomy petition stuff I’ve been posting of late, it is a real pleasure (that’s me smiling at left) to be able to provide this update on the Clary Lake Association fund raising initiative. Don and Lucy Norman of Jefferson stopped by the other day to talk to me about making a donation to the Clary Lake Dam Repair fund. They hoped that by putting some “seed money” in the fund that it would encourage others to contribute. This afternoon, Lucy called to tell me that she had just dropped a check off with our Treasurer, Linda Gallion.

The check was for $1000.

I’m pretty much blown away by the Norman’s donation and wish to publicly thank them for their generosity. I’ve known this was coming for a few days and have been thinking in the back of my mind how I would acknowledge what they’ve done. Finally, I just decided to write this post.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Beverly D’Urbano for her generous donation of $50 to the fund and for being the first person (besides me) to try out our new online PayPal donation processing system! The dam repair fund, which a few days ago stood at $152 is now sitting pretty at $1202.

Make that $1302, Mary Shaw just donated $100 to the Dam fund!

Make that $1402, Bill Donovan just donated $100 to the Dam fund!

Dam Fund Progress: [progressbar url=”https://clarylake.org/data/dam.txt” rounded=”0″ width=”400px” color=”green”]

And….. we’re off! Remember: No amount is too big, or too small. Give Generously, and Give Often 🙂

05 May 2013: Update on Online Donation System now with Membership Signups and Renewals

dollar It took a little head scratching but I’ve implemented an online Membership Signup and Renewal system. I know I said I wasn’t going to bother with it till later this summer but it turned out to be simpler than I expected, once I grokked the internals of PayPal transactions.

I’ve also added a simple “progress bar” for tracking our progress towards our various Association goals including memberships, and donations to the Clary Lake Dam Repair fund.

Clary Lake Association Goals:
[progressbar url=”https://clarylake.org/data/total.txt” rounded=”0″ width=”400px” color=”green”]

You’ll find this “progress bar” somewhere on the sidebar to the right (currently at the bottom). It’s updated manually, not automatically so it’s not likely to reflect any given membership signup, renewal, or donation. I’ll update it periodically. No promises.

A note on the the Dam Repair Fund: $5000 is simply a goal and not necessarily an accurate estimate of the cost of repairing the dam. We have not yet received word back from Paul Kelley as to whether he’ll let us obtain an engineering assessment of the dam. The assessment would be used to obtain estimates from local contractors for needed repairs. What are you waiting for Paul?

Likewise, the goal of 100 members is an arbitrary number. Helps to have a goal.

Here is a link where you can renew your Association membership or join if you’re not yet a member:
Signup or Renew Your Membership On Line

Needless to say, the old tried-and-true way of signing up for or renewing your membership (printing the membership renewal form and mailing it in) still works. Or just come to the Annual meeting, and bring your check book.

Here’s a page where you can donate to the Association; the current fund raising initiative is the Clary Lake Dam Repair fund:
Donate to the Association

All the above links can be found under the Membership main menu heading.

03 May 2013: Online Donation System Launched

Perhaps you’ve noticed the donate button hanging out over on the sidebar. The Clary Lake Association is now set up to accept donations online via PayPal’s secure and convenient online payment processing system. We’re still setting up launch and landing pages and integrating the system into the site, but it’s basically operational. To make a donation, you’ll need to either log in to your PayPal account if you’ve got one, or create one if you don’t. PayPal accounts are FREE and offer many benefits over simple credit card processing sites including a wide variety of member services, dispute resolution, etc. PayPal accounts offer a convenient and secure way to shop on line- or in this case, to donate to a worth cause. So whether you’re signing up for a PayPal account or logging into your existing account, the donation process is painless, fast, and secure. Try it out!

The Clary Lake Association is a Non-Profit Organization so donations are tax deductible. After making a donation, you’ll receive a receipt by email suitable for tax preparation purposes. I’m not sure how small a donation you can make, but when I was setting up and testing things earlier I made a number of $1 donations so I know that amount works 🙂

Eventually we’ll be setting up an subscription system so you can join the Association or renew your Association membership on line, but I don’t see that happening for a while unless I find myself with a lot of free time this summer. You never know. The Fund Raising committee will also be conducting periodic fund raising campaigns and online promotions this year and will be using the same online donation system for their purposes.

29 April 2013: Clary Lake Association makes offer on the Clary Lake Dam

As anticipated, on behalf of the Clary Lake Association, Ellis Percy has made a formal offer on the Clary Lake dam. Normally such an offer would be kept private between the parties at least initially but Mr. Kelley has taken this whole mess public by his filing of a petition under MRS Title 38, Chapter 5 §901; Mr. Kelley wishes to obtain relief from dam ownership and has asked the State for their help in finding a new owner. This is no longer a private matter, it is a matter of public concern. The towns of Whitefield and Jefferson will be holding public meetings to discuss the matter of dam ownership and it’s price will certainly be discussed in these public forums. Various State agencies will be consulted. Presumably there will be other offers on the dam. Public offers. Here’s ours.

Clary Lake Association Dam Offer

The Association has also sent a letter to Mr. Kelley requesting permission to obtain an engineering assessment of the dam:

Request for permission to conduct study

Our rationale is that regardless of who ends up owning the dam, it will need repairs and a current engineering assessment of it’s condition will be crucial to that end. To my knowledge, there has never been a comprehensive engineering assessment of the dam made so such an initiative is way over due. The Association anticipates hiring Kleinschmidt Associates of Pittsfield Maine who is familiar with the dam, we’ll pay for the assessment, and we will make the results available to whomever requires them. We see no reason why Mr. Kelley will not authorize us to pursue this activity at his earliest opportunity.

27 April 2013: Association Board Meeting Resounding Success

minutes 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.