Category Archives: Association News

Posts about Clary Lake Association stuff.

Upcoming Ice Cream Social and Meet & Greet Event

Mark Your Calendars! Our Annual Ice Cream Social and “Meet & Greet” event will be held on Saturday, July 15th from 1:00 PM to whenever, at the Clary Lake dam on the Mills Road (Route 218) in Whitefield. In the unlikely event of inclement weather, the rain date is the next day, Sunday July 16th, same time, same ice cream. We postponed this event in 2020 and 2021 out of an abundance of caution, due to the pandemic. This will be a great opportunity to meet some of the many new CLA members and other people on and around Clary Lake. This event is open to all, not just Clary Lake Association members. The ice cream is free but donations will be gratefully accepted.

Summer 2023 Raffle

This event is also a great opportunity to buy raffle tickets to support the Clary Lake Association’s Dam Repair Fundraising initiative. Talk about a worthwhile goal! First prize is a Masterbuilt Digital Charcoal Grill + Smoker donated by Louis Doe Garden Center. There are 3 great gift certificates for runner up prizes. Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20. For more information about the Raffle and how/where to get tickets see the Summer 2023 Raffle page.

In addition to our regular ice cream offerings, Linda Gallion will once again be bringing a couple of buckets of her own very excellent home made ice cream (this year it’s going to be Blueberry and Strawberry). Linda and her husband Rick run the Clary Lake Bed & Breakfast. In addition to all the popular ice cream toppings, this year we’re going to have sugar cones which I have it on good authority are the environmentally friendly way to eat ice cream 🙂

Plan on coming and staying a while. There will be tables and chairs set up so you can sit and linger with friends, awnings to get out of the sun, and water to keep you hydrated… and most importantly—plenty of ice cream! There is also ample parking and you can always come by boat, kayak, or canoe. We hope to see you there!!

We’ve added this event to our Events Calendar and here’s a link to add it to your calendar. We’re posting about it early because summer is short and weekends fill up fast! We’ll post a reminder here as the event approaches! Stay tuned!

Summer 2023 Raffle!

The 2023 Raffle is Over!

We held the drawing at the conclusion of our Annual Meeting yesterday afternoon, September 2nd. The winner of the grill was Cheryl Willis, the Winner of the L.L. Bean gift card was Linda Gallion, the winner of the Reny’s gift card was Geraldine Hull (wife of Paul Barton), and the winner of the Sheepscot General gift certificate was Lee Sledjeski (a friend of our new President, Gareth Bowen). There was an additional 5th prize made and graciously donated by Linda Clark, wife of Alan Clark, a lovely sun catcher and a pendant made with real flowers (picture at left). This unexpected lovely final runner up prize was won by Steve Cowles daughter-in-law, Jess Puth.

We’ll be collecting the grill from Louis Doe Garden Center this coming week and delivering it to it’s new home.

All told we raised $2335 for our Dam Repair Fund bringing the fund balance to an impressive $26,310. We would like to thank EVERYONE who bought tickets this year for helping support our dam repair efforts.

The Second Annual Clary Lake Association Raffle is underway! Once again, Mark & Tara Doe of Louis Doe Garden Center in Newcastle have graciously donated our First Prize, a Masterbuilt Digital Charcoal Grill + Smoker (pictured at left) with a retail price of $599. To increase your chances of winning something, we have three runner up prizes too! Our 1st runner up prize is a $250 Gift Certificate from LL Bean in Freeport. Our 2nd runner up prize is a $100 Renys Gift Certificate, and our 3rd runner up prize is a $50 gift certificate from Sheepscot General. Tickets cost $5 each or 5 tickets for $20.

The drawing for the raffle will be held at the Clary Lake Association’s Annual Meeting on Saturday September 2nd at the Clary Lake dam on Route 218 in Whitefield. The meeting starts at 2PM and usually goes for about an hour and a half. We’ll hold the drawing at the conclusion of the Membership Meeting. There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy so if you want to increase your chances of winning, buy a lot!

Why Are We Raising Money?

We are raising money for our Clary Lake Dam Maintenance and Repair fund. The dam is in reasonable shape now but it leaks, and leaks only get worse, not better. Someday in the not too distant future we’re going to have to make some costly repairs to the dam and gate mechanism. This is your chance to help fund that effort and maybe win something as well. Sadly, money that you spend on raffle tickets is not tax deductible, even if given to a nonprofit organization such as the Clary Lake Association. Sorry! If you WOULD like to make a tax deductible contribution, please visit our Donate to the Association page!

Here’s what our tickets look like. You keep the big part. We keep the small part:

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE PRESENT TO WIN! Make sure that you write your contact info (at least your first name and phone number) on the back of the ticket stub so we can reach out to you to let you know you won. Gift certificates can be mailed. Particulars for claiming the 1st prize will be furnished at a later date.

How To Get Tickets

There are lots of ways you can get raffle tickets:

Make out a check made out to Clary Lake Association and mail it to PO Box 127, Whitefield ME 04353 and we’ll mail you your tickets! How easy is that?
We’ll be sending out our Summer 2023 Newsletter soon with an included Dues envelope. Just include your ticket money with your dues and we’ll mail your your tickets! 2 birds with one stamp!
If you know a Board member, go see them, they’ll have tickets to sell.
We’d like to make it easy to buy tickets! You can simply email your name, mailing address, and phone number to ticketsales@clarylake.org and someone will call to make arrangements to meet up with you to get you some tickets!
Tickets will be available at the Annual Meeting on Saturday September 2nd from about 1PM until the drawing.
You can buy tickets at the Clary Lake Association’ Ice Cream Social (Saturday July 15th)
Starting in June, we plan to have a table set up to sell tickets at the Whitefield Recycling Center (and possibly other places to be announced); stop by and grab some tickets!
You can use the button below to buy tickets and pay for them with a credit card or with your Paypal account. Make sure we have your full name, mailing address and email address and we’ll put your tickets in the mail to you and put your ticket stubs in the bucket with all the rest. How easy is that!

We’re continuing to work on easy ways to see you tickets. Stay tuned for future announcements!

April 3, 2023 Ice Out, Finally!

I consulted with David Hodsdon a little bit ago and we are in agreement: the conditions for calling Ice Out on Clary Lake have been achieved. There’s still one small ice floe still drifting around down in the east end of the lake but it is not attached to the shore, it is visibly shrinking by the hour, and it will likely be gone by morning. It is not preventing circumnavigation of the lake.

The winner of the First Prize of a $25 Gift Certificate from The Jefferson Scoop is Gayle Knight! Congratulations Gayle! She was the only person to have guessed today’s date, hence there are no runners up. However, I’d still like to offer runner up prizes of a laminated 8.5″ x 11″ Clary Lake Depth map to the 4 people who guessed tomorrow, April 4th. They are: Sarah Hazelton, David Marsh, Brian Vogel, and Beverley Bowen. I’ll email you and let you know how to collect your prize!

I’d like to thank everyone for playing, it’s been fun.

Ice-Out Contest Closed to New Entries

I’ve closed the 2023 Ice Out contest to new entries. Now we wait! We’ve got 38 ice out guestimates ranging from tomorrow March 17th (sorry no way!) to April 25th (could happen!). I have no idea if there’s thin ice out there yet or not, but looking out my upstairs office window at the lake today I can see the lake surface has taken on a gray cast indicating there’s water soaked snow on top now. You can’t see that on the Webcams because the images are overexposed, but it’s there. Wet snow on the ice combined with a higher sun angle and warmer temps means winter is coming to an end and the ice’s days are numbered.

Stay tuned!

2023 Clary Lake Ice Out Contest!

This is our fourth year running a Clary Lake Ice-Out contest. This year’s prize for first place is a $25 Gift Certificate to The Jefferson Scoop. Yay Ice Cream! If you guess the correct ice-out date or come closest without going past it, you’re the winner. It’s quite likely that the ice will go out before the Scoop actually opens for business. You were warned. In the event there are two (or more) people who guessed the same winning date, the person guessing first (based on the recorded timestamp) will be the winner and the other less-lucky (but still lucky!) person (or persons!) will win a laminated 8.5″ x 11″ Clary Lake Depth Map as a runner up prize (see below). FYI, the earliest the lake has been deemed completely free of ice was on March 13, 2016; the latest the ice has gone out was on April 24, 2001. Last year’s “official” ice out date was March 29th which was correctly guessed by Vicki Grimaldi. She won a beautiful 12″ H x 15″ W framed loon photograph taken by David Hodsdon. We also awarded some second places prizes to a couple of lucky but not that lucky people. Visit our Ice In and Ice Out page to see all our historical data back to 2001. Reviewing historical ice-in and ice-out data is NOT CHEATING!.

We’ll be closing the contest to new guesses late on March 15th or sooner if it looks like ice out is actually imminent. Guess as often as you want, but remember: only your last guess counts! Here’s the Entry Form: Continue reading →

Help Wanted! Inquire Within!

Welcome to the Clary Lake Association website as we enter the doldrums of winter! If this is your first time visiting our website, an extra hearty welcome, and we do hope you’ll come back. If you are a returning visitor, know that your continued interest in our website and in the Clary Lake Association is greatly appreciated. The Clary Lake Association plays a vital role in protecting and preserving Clary Lake, and we very much need interested and engaged people to keep the Association functioning and relevant. We’re an all-volunteer organization and we depend on people like you who love Clary Lake to get involved and help out. Continue reading →

Sign Up to Receive Post Notifications In Your Email

For a few years now we’ve been using a plugin on this website to provide a variety of features and functions. One of those functions has been collecting addresses of people who want to be notified of new posts. These have been collected by WordPress.com (not to be confused with WordPress.org) and not by the Clary Lake Association. Sadly, this plugin has become bloated and annoying, and some of the features we’ve been most interested in are going to become value-added in the near future meaning we’ll need to pay for them if we want to keep them. I’m disinclined to pay for something when reasonable (and free!) alternatives exist. Therefore, we’re getting ready to ditch this plugin and make other arrangements to implement the parts we like.

Right off we’re going to implement Post Notifications with list software we already have. This means it will be really easy to manage all your subscriptions to our lists. Any email you receive from us will have “Unsubscribe” and “Manage Your Subscription” links at the bottom. If you click on “Manage Your Subscriptions” you’ll be able to subscribe or unsubscribe to all of our available lists.

If you’ve previously subscribed to post notifications using WordPress.com (the old system), you’ll now be receiving them using our new system. If you subscribed to notifications on comments on specific posts, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. If I can implement that feature in the future, I will do so.

You’ll find a blue form on the sidebar you can use to signup for post notifications, or you can use this one:

When I get a chance I’ll put up a page where you can review and signup for all our lists.

Happy New Year!

Frances Lorraine Hodsdon December 30, 1926 – December 3, 2022

It was with sadness that I learned of the passing of Frances Hodsdon earlier this month. I had spoken with her brother David just recently knew she was nearing the end of her life, but it still came as a shock. I’ve known this talented artist for many years. She has been a loyal Clary Lake Association supporter for as long as I can remember, and she will be missed. Her obituary which appears below, appeared on line in the Central Maine Papers only early this morning; the picture at left was sent to me by Linda Gallion a few days ago, she is one that Frances’ neighbors. The Clary Lake Association Board offers their condolences and best wishes to her brother David and his wife Jannette Hodson, her son Jeff Howe, and the rest of her surviving family. George Fergusson

Frances Lorraine Hodsdon

JEFFERSON – Frances Lorraine Hodsdon, 95, of Jefferson, died peacefully in her sleep with her loved ones by her side on Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, at the Sussman Hospice House in Rockport.

She was born in Portland on Dec. 30, 1926, the daughter of Sumner and Hazel (Woodbury) Hodsdon. After growing up in Wilton, the family moved to Massachusetts. She attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mass. This was to be her destiny–producing and teaching her passion of the art of printmaking and drawing.

Marriage to Richardson Howe took her to Delaware where she started a family and continued her education. She followed her passion teaching out of the home. Later going to Ohio where she completed her BFA at Kent State University and took courses toward her Masters. She was on campus in May 1970 when four students were killed during the Kent State peace rally.

Life took a turn after her divorce and passing of her father and she was once again in Maine in 1975 on the family blueberry farm overlooking Clary Lake. Here she thrived–teaching at the University of Maine and Round Top Center for the Arts, all the while working from a home studio and immersing herself into her environment, producing work from views of the lake, blueberries and later bark on the trees. Never content with plain white she took the lowly resin chair to previously undiscovered places starting with fogging black paint on them. This led to her show in 2004, “Frances Hodsdon, Friends and Family” at Roundtop Center for the Arts.

This was not her first exhibition. In the early 1990s, as she became known in the art world, Frances’ work was featured in both solo and group exhibitions at many well-known galleries throughout Maine. Solo exhibitions include the 1991 ”Verticality” exhibit at Unity College Art Gallery, “Maui Series” at Le Va-tout Gallery in 1993 (following her trip to Hawaii), “Death & Memory” and “Paper Works” at Maine Coast Artists in 1996 and 1998, and “Etchings” at Uncas Farms in 2002. Her prints were added to collections at the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Mass., Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, and the Portland Museum of Art, Portland. Frances was featured several times in the Portland Press Herald and as recently as September 2021 by The Boston Printmakers.

Her legacy will be the many students she taught that will carry on the love of art she instilled in them.

Frances’ family gives a special thanks to Kim, Darlene and rest of the dedicated team at Waldoboro Green Assisted Living for the wonderful care the last year and a half of her life. Also Lou Bertel of Power Play Training that encouraged her to keep her strength up with his tutelege for her long term health.

She was predeceased by her brother, James S. and wife, Phyllis Hodsdon; and nephew, Christopher A. Hodsdon.

Frances is survived by brother, David M. and his wife, Janette Hodsdon, of Jefferson; sons Jeffrey Howe of Jefferson, Gregory F. and wife Dianne Howe, Elkton Md., Bradley M. Howe, Charleston; and nieces Ann Hodsdon, Hudson, Mass., Cynthia R. Hodsdon, Reading, Pa., nephew, James P. Hodsdon, of Gloucester, Mass.; grandson, Gregory Howe, of Elkton Md.; two grandnieces and a grandnephew; six great-grandnieces and three great-grandnephews.

Services at the gravesite in Jefferson will be held in the spring at the convenience of family.

Arrangements are entrusted with Staples Funeral Home and Cremation Care, 53 Brunswick Ave., Gardiner. Condolences, memories, and photos may be shared with the family on the obituary page of the Staples Funeral Home website, http://www.staplesfuneralhome.com

November 2022 Water Level Chart Archived

November 2022

I have archived the November water level chart (at left). Our plan at the beginning of the month had been to start dropping the lake to it’s early winter level around 14”-16” below the HWM. November is actually the month with the highest rainfall with an average of 4.58 inches but the first 10 days of the month were rain-free and we really didn’t know what to expect for the rest of the month so we didn’t take any drastic management actions, preferring to let the lake find it’s own happy level. Then the rains started first with a 1.85” rain event on the 11th followed by several more rain storms over the next 5 or 6 days which brought the lake level back up to the top of the dam by the 18th. On the 23rd we pulled the last two stop logs out of the weir and the lake level started dropping again, but two more large rain events towards the end of the month (1 inch on 27th and 1.34 inches on the 30th) brought us to 5.53 inches for the month and despite having opened the gate ¾ of a foot, the lake level rose back up to the top of the dam. We ended the month with a full lake and a full inch above November’s average rainfall. This brings us to 44.29 inches for the year to date, 3.67 inches more than average. Needless to say, the drought is over for this year. Continue reading →

Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association Board

Website Changes Ahead

I’ve been running a website for the Clary Lake Association since I was elected President of the organization back in 2007. The first website ran on and old 486 computer in my office with the host name clary.gwi.net. Since then I’ve changed servers several times, each time moving to newer and faster equipment. For the past few years the site has been running on a rented VPS (Virtual Private Server) and honestly, the work involved in administering a unix server has become a drag. I’m now looking to simplify my life in a big way. To that end, we’re getting ready to make one final move, to a Commercial Hosting Provider. System administration will become a SEP (Somebody Else’s Problem, my favorite kind of problem!) and I’ll be able to devote my time to the site and other fun stuff rather than spending time keeping the underlying system running smoothly. This move is slated to take place somewhere around the last week of November. Continue reading →

Larry E. Prescott January 9, 1950 – October 23, 2022

Larry E. Prescott January
9, 1950 – October 23, 2022

November 2, 2022

Larry was a genuinely nice man, a simple man, a man without pretenses, and generous. I liked Larry, and he loved Clary Lake. He has been a loyal Clary Lake Association member for as long as I can remember, and likely long before that too. He never just paid his dues, he always paid his dues AND added a substantial donation too. He was only 72, and his passing came as a great surprise. He will be missed. Here is his obituary. You’ll find this post over on the Members No Longer With Us page. George Fergusson

Larry E. Prescott, 72 of Kings Road, passed away unexpectedly at home on Sunday, October 23, 2022.

He was born January 9, 1950 in York, Maine son of the late Eugene and Madge (Ames) Prescott. He graduated from York High School and had served in the United States Army.

He had worked as a Mechanic for 36 years at Exeter Events & Tents. He later worked for Spinney Shellfish Co. in Eliot, Maine.

He will be remembered as a loving husband, father and brother, a Workaholic and a teacher of Automotive. He loved spending time at his camp on Clary Lake in North Whitefield, ME and recently winters in Leesburg, FL.

He leaves his wife of 49 years, Sandra G. (Jennings) Prescott; a son Christopher R. Prescott and his wife Meredith of Bethlehem, PA; 2 sisters Sylvia E. Cutting of Eliot, ME and Marie Hardy of Rochester, NH; several nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be private. Memorial contributions may be made to the York Village Fire Dept. or York Ambulance Assoc. Lucas & Eaton Funeral Home, York, Maine is assisting with arrangements. Visit www.lucaseatonfuneralhome.com for online condolences.

Spring/Summer 2022 Newsletter Is Out

The Spring/Summer 2022 Clary Lake Association Newsletter went in the mail about on schedule a little over a week ago and is now available for download from our Newsletters page. Feel free to grab a copy and share it with your family and friends. Dues envelopes were included in the mailing, and dues have already started arriving. How gratifying is that! I’ll be updating the “Next Year’s 2022/2023 Membership List” as more checks arrive. At the time of this writing we’re up to 47 members. This year we totally met our Membership goal of 165 Members. Our Membership goal for the coming year includes a modest increase to 175 Members. Totally doable. You can help us reach (or exceed!) that goal by becoming a member today! Visit our Benefits of Membership page for more information about why you should join the Association, and how to do it. Continue reading →

Lake Water Quality Monitoring Resumes for 2022

Clary Transparency

Kelsie French and I resumed our water quality monitoring efforts for 2022 on Saturday May 14th, a little later than originally planned due to circumstances which all seemingly conspired to keep us off the lake. We’re back in the saddle now however and plan to visit Clary’s deepest spot to collect data every couple of weeks this season. Continue reading →

17 April 2022: The Special Membership Meeting Happened

Happy Easter!

Yesterday’s Special Membership Meeting happened. It was, interestingly, both well attended and poorly attended. I was there along with my wife Margaret, Gareth and Beverly Bowen were there (it was after all at their house) and Board members Steven Cowles, and Mary Gingrow-Shaw attended. Also present were Greg & Karren Briggs (they have recently moved to Hodsdon Lane) and Pam and David Heath (they bought Tim & Brenda Robbin’s place on 215 last year). Also present via were nearly 100 Clary Lake Association members whose votes were to be counted.

Gareth and I perfected a great Zoom setup involving 2 laptops and a large screen TV. However, nobody attended the meeting by Zoom! I was quite surprised! This arrangement will work fine for future *indoor* meetings and may, perhaps with slight modifications, work for outdoor venues as well, assuming we can have internet access. We’ll see.

The purpose of the meeting was to count the returned proxy ballots (along with any votes cast in person) and certify the election results. The ballots, sent out in late January, included the following 3 Articles:

Article 1: To see if the Membership will approve changing the quorum as defined
in our Bylaws in Article 3, Section 6 “Quorum and Attendance” from one-third (1/3)
of the voting members to 15% of the voting members;

Article 2: To see if the Membership will approve changing Article 3, Section 6
“Quorum and Attendance” of our Bylaws from: “Anyone may attend any meeting of
the Members provided that only Members shall have a vote at such meeting.” to
“Anyone may attend any meeting of the Members either in person or virtually (if
it is an available option) provided that only Members shall have a vote at such
meeting;

Article 3: To see if the Membership will approve changing Article 3 Section 3 of our
Bylaws from “The Annual Meeting of the Members of the Corporation shall be held
on the first (1st) Saturday in August or at the call of the President.” to “The Annual
Meeting of the Members of the Corporation shall be held on a Saturday in
August to be announced, or at the call of the President.”

I’m happy to announce that all three Articles passed. I’ve updated the website with the latest Clary Lake Association Bylaws.

Respectfully,

George Fergusson, Secretary
Clary Lake Association

Special Membership Meeting Ahead!

This is a reminder that we have a Special Membership Meeting scheduled for this coming Saturday April 16th at 3:00 PM at the home of Gareth & Beverley Bowen at 739 Gardiner Road, Jefferson Maine.

Proxy ballots were mailed to all CLA members back in late January along with a cover letter and a self addressed stamped envelope to return the completed ballots. The main question on the ballot involved a change to the wording of our bylaws pertaining to the definition of a quorum; currently a quorum is 1/3 of our voting membership, a hard number to muster! We’re looking to change that to 15% of our voting members. The purpose of this meeting is to officially count the proxy ballots that were returned and any raised-hands at the meeting, and announce the results of the vote. Continue reading →

01 April 2022: Unidentified Animal Sighted on Clary Lake

I spotted this Clary Lake critter this morning when I was out checking my rain gauge. At first I thought it was a goose but the sound it made wasn’t goose-like at all. Sounded more like… I dunno. It was weird. It didn’t stick around. Fortunately I was able to find a picture of it in the webcam archive. Anyone have any idea what this is?

29 March 2022: ICE OUT! We have a Winner!

It’s Official: the sheet of ice that extended from shore to shore down by the boat launch yesterday and which blocked access to the lake was ground up by the high wind this morning and driven into the cove at the east end of the lake. I just consulted with David Hodsdon and we agree that the official Ice Out date is today: 29 March 2022.

Vicki Grimaldi with her guess of March 25th was the closest to ice out without going over, making her the Winner of this year’s ice out contest! Congratulations Vicki! She’ll be receiving the framed loon photograph by David Hodsdon (see image below). Vicki bought Dennis Morgan’s place on Hodsdon Lane back in the summer of 2021. For runners up we have Jack Holland with his guess of March 24th, winner of the “What do you mean it’s not ice out yet?” award, and Dan Burns and Steve Relyea with their March 30th guesses are both winners of the “Missed it by >< that much” award. All 3 runners up will receive a laminated copy of the Clary Lake Depth Map (image at left).

And so concludes our 2022 Ice Out Contest! A month ago I wouldn’t have bet dollars to donuts that the ice would be out before the end of the first week in April, based on how thick the ice was this winter and how cold it’s been this spring, which I suppose just goes to show you what I know. If you’re forgotten your guess, you’ll find it in this post. It’s also unusual for it to take so long (9 days) to go out once open water first showed up on the north shore (like it always does). The reason it took so long I think it because it really wasn’t ready! Usually ice-out occurs much faster. Even more interesting: this year’s ice out date is the same as last year’s ice out date. I didn’t see that coming!

I’d like to thank everyone for playing and encourage you to try again next year. I’ll be picking up the framed loon photograph and delivering it to Vicki later this week. The runners up will get their prizes the next time I see them, which might be the next time they stop by my house if I don’t stop by their house first!

23 March 2022: Still Got Ice