Category Archives: Association News

Posts about Clary Lake Association stuff.

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!

Ice-Out-3-29-2022-LargeIt’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: Ice Out Update: Close but No Cigar!

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I have never seen the ice disappear from Clary Lake as fast as it has this year! Last Friday there were people ice fishing. Rain on Saturday and with winds on Monday and Tuesday with gusts of 35-40 mph really hammered the ice into submission. As of this morning, winds have let up considerably but are still blowing 8 mph or so. There is a considerable amount of ice left on the south shore both in Whitefield and Jefferson. We’re not calling ice out yet, but it won’t be long now. Tomorrow we’re expecting rain during the day with moderate winds from the south which change to the east and pick up in intensity come night fall. It’s hard to imagine the remaining ice hanging around to the weekend.

You can keep an eye on things with our Clary_cams (which President Dave Knight insists on calling Spy_cams) and if you haven’t tried yet, livestream them!

2022 Clary Lake Ice Out Contest! [UPDATE]

This is our third year running a Clary Lake Ice-Out contest. This year’s prize for first place is a beautiful 12″ H x 15″ W framed loon photograph taken by David Hodsdon. If you guess the correct ice-out date  or come closest without going past it, you’re the winner. 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 Bambi Jones. She won a blue “We Give A Dam” tee shirt. We also awarded second places (also tee shirts) to Kelley Doore and Alan Nicholas Decker who correctly guessed the “What Do You Mean It’s Not Ice Out Yet?” date of March 28th. 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!

[UPDATE]: I’ve posted the current guesses at the bottom of this message and I’ll update the list at least daily. We’ll close the contest some time before the ice actually goes out. And yes, you can submit more than one guess, but only your last guess will count 🙂

Continue reading →

04 February 2022: Busted Links: I hate em!

I HATE busted links, everywhere, but especially on our own website. It’s come to my attention that a lot of links to documents & stuff that are stored on Google Drive have recently become inaccessible due to a more stringent security procedures. Security is a good thing, busted links are not. I’ve fixed quite a few already but more undoubtedly are hiding, waiting to not show you what you want to see. If you try to view something and get “You need access” instead (picture, at left) PLEASE click the “Request Access” button. This will send me an email and let me know you found a busted link. Thanks in advance!

Stanley M. Whittier January 10, 1931 – January 24, 2022

Stanley Whittier

Stanley Whittier built his camp on Clary Lake back in 1955 and he has been a Clary Lake Association member since we formed back in the summer of 1960. Due to failing health, it’s been a few years since he was last a CLA member but his many years of support are not forgotten. Here is his Obituary in the Central Maine Papers:

WATERVILLE – Stanley M. Whittier, 91, formerly a long time resident of Augusta, died Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, at the Alfond Center for Health in Augusta following a long illness. He was born in Bath on Jan. 10, 1931, a son of the late Stanley A. and Frances (Martin) Whittier.

Mr. Whittier attended Augusta schools and was a communicant of St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church. He was a US Army veteran, serving during the Korean War.

Mr. Whittier had been self-employed barber for many years in Augusta, where he also enjoyed organizing the Chamber of Commerce Whatever Week Races and you could always spot him in the bleachers at Cony basketball games. In 1955 he built his camp on Clary Lake in Jefferson which was his favorite place to spend time with family.

He was predeceased by his wife, Irene J. (Valliere) Whittier; two brothers, Keith and Leonard Whittier and his sister, Joyce Chick.

Mr. Whittier is survived by his two daughters, Gail J. Champine of Waterville and Jane F. Roy of Biddeford; five grandchildren, Stacy Grondin, Jessica Grondin, Carly Champine, Morgan Burnette, and Dylane Farrington, nine great-grandchildren; three great-great- grandchildren; and several nieces, nephews and cousins.

Relatives and friends may visit on Tuesday, Feb. 1 from 10 – 11 a.m. at Plummer Funeral Home, 16 Pleasant St., Augusta where a funeral service will follow at 11 a.m. Burial will be in the spring in Sand Hill Cemetery, Somerville.

Condolences, stories and photos may be shared at http://www.plummerfh.com.

The family requests that donations in Stan’s memory be made to:

Travis Mills Foundation
89 Water St.
Hallowell, ME 04347

Merry 2021 Christmas from the Clary Lake Association!

We’ve had quite a year together and perhaps more than ever have come to realize that it ‘takes a village’. It takes all of us working together in common cause to realize our community dreams and aspirations. It takes a village to keep going when times are difficult and with many different ways of thinking and operating at play. This time of year our social customs lead us to a place of gathering in our own unique and traditional ways. We hope and trust that your holidays can be filled with what you love most and that you and all that you hold dear remain safe, healthy and ready to take on a new year of friendship, kindness and compassion.

Merry Christmas…Happy Holidays…Happy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association!

Usually I post a more or less traditional picture with traditional Thanksgiving sentiments, perhaps a Turkey or maybe a cartoon of a Turkey or even once I posted a picture of a turkey made of hotdogs (sorry!). This year I thought this picture from Clary_cam2 of a Thanksgiving Daybreak Muskrat was an appropriate thing to post.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association!

19 November 2021: Live Stream the Clary Cams!

You’ve always been able to live stream the Clary cams IF you were technically savvy enough to install the right plugin in your browser or conversant with a program like VLC. It certainly wasn’t easy and I suspect most people have been content to simply look at the pictures that are updated every 2 minutes rather than deal with trying to get a live feed working. I’ve recently added all 3 Clary Cams to the IP Cam Live website which takes the H.264 compressed video stream from a  camera and converts it to MPEG format which most modern browsers can display without special plugins. Yay!!

The pictures that are displayed on the website are beautiful 1920 x 1080 pixel images (like the one above). The live video feed uses a HD stream with a resolution of 720p and a bit rate of 512K. Not the highest resolution and not as nice as the still pictures, but certainly pleasant to look at. One reason for choosing this live stream format is the bandwidth requirement is lower. Two of these cameras (1 & 3) feed through my internet connection and I don’t want it to bog down. You may still see “buffering” message from time to time, depending on how many people are viewing the stream.

You’ll now find “Live stream in your browser” links for each camera on the Webcam page. Here are the links:

Clary_cam1: Live Stream in your browser

Clary_cam2: Live stream in your browser

Clary_cam3: Live stream in your browser

I’m interested in your feedback! Send me an email (or use our Contact Form) and let me know what you think of the streams, and if you’re having any issues.

 

A Harvest Message

Hello to all who take an interest in Clary Lake – those who live on its shores, members and non-members alike, friends and family who come to visit lakeshore owners, those who make use of the State boat launch and those of you who are catching this message by way of just checking in on the website.

Over this last Spring/Summer season we have all been delivered a bit from the intrusions and curtailments that a climate of pandemic has generated. What a blessing it was to be out in Nature and partake of the many activities in and around the lake with friends and loved ones. We were able to safely congregate for an Ice Cream Social and to hold our Annual Meeting, seemingly without detriment to anyone’s health. We hope, as we move further and further away from precaution-minded operating in the world, that we can add to these gatherings, other events on a regular basis; events you can always count on annually, such as an annual Marsh Tour, Coffee Clutch/’Dock Hopping’ events out on the lake; 4th of July CLA float; Community Cookout; Harvest Pot Luck; Winter Ice Frolic* and February Doldrums Hors d’oeuvres Party, to name a few! Continue reading →

2021 Courtesy Boat Inspection Season Finished

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We’ve concluded our 3rd season of Courtesy Boat Inspections at the State boat launch. There is still some boating activity but it has slowed  down considerably since Labor Day weekend and I think it’s safe to say that anyone trailering a boat to go fishing this time of year are both avid and conscientious fishermen and are well aware of the need to clean their boats and trailers of hitchhiking plants. Most CBI programs ended their season on Labor Day. We decided to continue through September.

The main purpose our CBI program is two-fold. First is to prevent the accidental introduction of invasive plants into Clary Lake and second, to educate the General Public about the risks posed to Maine lakes from invasive plants and to encourage them to inspect, clean, and dry their boats after use. This year we removed 4 plant fragments from incoming boats, none of which turned out to be invasive. Statewide there were a total of 2,539 plant fragments removed from boats and trailers, 19 of which turned out to be invasive plants. The Maine DEP’s 2021 CBI Dashboard shows the lakes that have CBI programs on them and where invasive plants were intercepted this year. Continue reading →

21 September 2021: Dry Fire Hydrant Installation Complete

20210920_113534It’s been a long time coming, but finally the dry fire hydrant installation over at the Clary Lake dam is complete. The work was started on Saturday but we encountered ledge which required a redesign of the piping and a few more elbows. Work resumed on Monday and proceeded quickly. The hydrant is actually located on land belonging to Steve and Julie Cowles, adjacent to the Clary Lake dam property. Access to the hydrant is over the Association property. Many thanks to David Boynton for donating his time and equipment and for Steve Cowles for managing this project!

The Clary Lake Association provided the funding for this project and has plans to install another dry fire hydrant in Jefferson near the intersection of Routes 215 and 126 perhaps as soon as next year. Here are more pictures of this installation:

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[Show slideshow]

16 September 2021: Website Done For Now!

After three days of more or less non-stop work on the website (and a couple of sleepless nights!) I’m fairly happy with where it stands. On Monday I announced I was going to install a new responsive website theme, on Tuesday I did that, on Wednesday I completely redesigned the menus (after first accidentally deleting the old ones!) and today, four days later, after making some final tweaks to the menus, I’m proclaiming the site redesign done. More or less. Sorta. One thing I’ve learned over the past fourteen years running a website for the Clary Lake Association is that they’re never done, they’re always a work in progress. Continue reading →

15 September 2021: Ain’t Life Grand?

I had a minor malfunction here in website land this morning. A simple and truly functional menu layout is the secret to a good website and I haven’t been particularly happy with the old menus since switching to a new responsive website theme.  In the process of “fixing” them I managed to break them instead. Badly. I should have had that second cup of coffee before sitting down to work! Fortunately I make regular backups and I’ve restored the system. Work continues, and I appreciate your patience.

14 September 2021: Responsive Website Theme Installed

I’ve updated the Clary Lake Association website with a new fully responsive mobile-ready and mobile-friendly theme. You might recall that I threatened to do this just yesterday! In fact I had no idea that I’d be cutting over to a new site so soon but I found a more or less suitable theme that required only minor changes and those took less time than I had anticipated. Continue reading →

We’re Contemplating Some Site Changes

I’ve grown quite fond of the look and feel of the twenty-ten “theme” in use on this website. It’s clean, simple and fast, but it’s NOT what they call in the website industry “responsive” i.e., it presents the same pages rendered for a desktop computer to all visitors whether they’re viewing the site with a desktop computer, a tablet, or a phone. This can make accessing and using this site hard for people using devices with small screens because they’ve got to continually zoom-in and zoom-out to get pages and menus sized appropriately. Those of you who have been accessing this site on your smart phones know exactly what I’m talking about. Modern themes can dynamically adjust the site’s pages to fit whichever device a visitor is using. It’s long past time when we should have moved on to a responsive website theme.

To that end I’ve begun looking for a suitable replacement. My primary goal is to implement a responsive theme while keeping our current functionality and basic layout, and without breaking the site too badly. Stay tuned and if you show up and the site looks a mess, know that I’m working on it!

2021/2022 Election of Officers and Directors Concluded

Y’all will be happy to know that we’ve finalized the election of Officers and Directors for the 2021/2022 year at a brief Special Membership Meeting held yesterday afternoon at the home of Gareth & Beverly Bowen. Five Board members showed up for the meeting (by golly, a Board quorum!) and two (count `em!) CLA members were in attendance as well (we did not encourage people to attend this meeting). The final tally of in-person and proxy ballot votes was 91 in favor of electing the slate of officers, 0 opposed. The outcome was not in question and the meeting was over almost before it started. Continue reading →