On Friday June 19th the State of Maine timely filed their brief in the matter of Aquafortis Associates, LLC v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection Docket No. WISSC-AP-20-04. The original appeal was filed by AQF in December 2018 in response to DEP’s issuance of an Order transferring the Clary Lake Water Level Order from Pleasant Pond Mill LLC to the Clary Lake Association, after we bought the dam in October, 2018 and it’s taken a convoluted and circuitous route to get where we are today. If you’re wondering WHY Aquafortis Associates LLC decided to spend the time and money appealing the WLO transfer, you’re not alone. You may want to also review Aquafortis Associate LLC’s brief, previously filed on May 27th. Seeing as how this is an ongoing case in which the Clary Lake Association is an interested party, I’m going to refrain from further comment at this time.
Category Archives: Association News
Maine Lakes Society’s This Week’s Hero
I blame my father. I’m not one to seek attention but I suppose this is news and if I don’t share it here, no one will 🙂
From the Maine Lakes website’s 50 Lake Heroes for Our 5oth Anniversary post:
George Fergusson, Clary Lake
In 2011, Clary Lake and its Association were in trouble. A dispute with the owner of the dam controlling the lake level was leading toward seven years of unswimmable, unboatable water and significant environmental damage to the natural resource. Only 28 of 100+ littoral owners were members. Now in 2019, thanks to the unwavering efforts of George Fergusson, the Association’s long-time Secretary, the CLA has purchased and repaired the dam, the water level has been restored, and 148 (!) members can once again enjoy the benefits of a healthy lake.
George has lived on Clary Lake his entire adult life, and has been its prime steward for decades. He instigated the 2012 petition to DEP for a Lake Level Order, and then bore the brunt of legal harassment by the dam owner that prevented the Order from being implemented for five years. This included endless hours compiling and drafting documents for court, attending innumerable hearings, and managing fund-raising for legal expenses. His personal solicitation of new members meant that when the dam fell into bankruptcy, the Association could raise $120,000 for purchase and repair. George is a certified Water Quality Monitor, and has measured and maintained daily records of the lake level for years, information that was crucial to DEP’s recent approval of CLA’s Water Level Management Plan. He has been tireless in meeting with town officials, state agency staff, the press, contractors, and attorneys to keep the effort moving forward, and continually encouraged the Board of the CLA even when the quest seemed hopeless and endless.
CLA 2020 Summer Newsletter Mailed
The Clary Lake Association’s 2020 Summer Newsletter went in the mail a few days ago. If you live in Whitefield or Jefferson it has probably already been delivered. If you’re out of Town or out of State, it’ll probably take another day or two to reach you. The biggest news item is that the CLA Board at their regular May meeting a few weeks ago decided out of an abundance of caution to cancel this year’s Annual Meeting, originally scheduled for August 7th. It was not an easy decision to make, we considered just postponing it and also how we could hold a meeting while trying to maintain social distance and cancelling the pot luck supper but in the final analysis, given the uncertainty of what this summer may bring and given that pretty much all other public events have been cancelled this summer that we needed to follow suit. Dave Knight in his “President’s Message” does a good job of explaining our thought process around this issue. The health and safety of our Membership is of paramount importance. The newsletter discusses our deliberations around this issue. Continue reading
25 May 2020: Courtesy Boat Inspection Program Under Way
Our 2020 Courtesy Boat Inspection program is underway and our first (long) weekend is behind us. The big surprise was the lack of traffic for Memorial Day weekend! Over three days our volunteers conducted only 24 inspections (we inspect water craft both entering and leaving the lake) many of which were kayaks or paddle boards. Perhaps the sub-zero temperatures this weekend has had something to do with the lack of traffic 😯
Another surprising thing: many of the motor boats did not have 2020 registrations! The main reason people cited were closed town offices and in most cases they said they’ve registered their boats online but haven’t received the stickers yet. Not particularly surprising was the pile of trash (and a full diaper) that our intrepid volunteers collected and hauled off on Saturday. Good grief. What is wrong with people? Many people use my field in Jefferson to access the lake, and they generally do a pretty good job of keeping it clean and respecting the land. If I found a fraction of this amount of trash on my property I’d close down access in a heartbeat. Why do people think they can treat the State boat launch this way?
Last year we recorded data on paper forms which we scanned and emailed to Midcoast Conservancy who did the data entry for us. This year our inspectors are entering their own data at the boat launch directly into the DEP database using a cool phone app developed for the purpose. This is much much more efficient. The data is immediately available for review on the 2020 Maine Courtesy Boat Inspection Dashboard. Cool technology.
We’ll be conducing boat inspections at the State boat launch off the North Clary Road from 6 AM to 2 PM on Saturdays and Sundays through Labor Day and perhaps further into the fall. If you’re out and about stop by and say hello!
Memorial Day
The Clary Lake Association Board wishes everyone a safe, meaningful, and memorable Memorial Day on this Day of Remembrance, May 25, 2020. In these trying times, as difficult as they are, we still have much to be thankful for and many to thank. Be safe out there.
6 May 2020: Browntail Moth Season Ahead!
A Browntail Moth caterpillar with the 2 distinctive orange dots at one end of it’s body.
Any day now, over-wintered Browntail Moth caterpillars will start to emerge from their tree-top leaf nests and start eating. Last year they did a great job (?) of defoliating Oak trees around Clary Lake and spreading their poisonous hairs all over the place. The south shore of the lake by Hodsdon Lane was particularly hard hit. I haven’t seen near as many Browntail moth nests in the trees around my house this spring, making me think this year the infestation may be less severe than last year, but it still pays to be alert to the risk they pose to our trees and our health. According to the newly published Browntail Moth Risk Map (PDF | 2.44 MB) however, the towns of Whitefield and Jefferson still have a HIGH Browntail Moth Risk Rating. Continue reading
27 April 2020: Maine VA health care professionals deploy to New York City
Ms. Nora Hoesing (pictured at left) is one of the nurses headed for New York City to help out with the Coronavirus Pandemic and mentioned in this CentralMaine.com article. She bought a camp on Clary Lake a few years ago. I have never met her, but I sure look forward to meeting her some day and thanking her for her service. Good luck Nora!
03 April 2020: Clary Lake is Featured Lake on Lakes of Maine Website
Lake Stewards of Maine maintains several great websites including the Lakes of Maine site which provides detailed technical information about most lakes in Maine, including Clary Lake. They also feature a different Maine lake on their website every month including a picture and a brief write up about the lake. April’s Lake-of-the-Month is Clary Lake! The picture they’re using for Clary Lake was taken by David Hodsdon. Another cool site maintained by Lake Stewards of Maine is the Near Real Time Lake Data site.
02 April 2020: Local Woman Tests Positive for Covid-19
Many of you know Arlene Wing. Arlene is a Registered Nurse and went through CDC sponsored pandemic training about 15 years ago. She has continued to study microbiology and epidemiology and not surprisingly, she has a much better grasp than most people of what happens when epidemics and pandemics arise. Back at the beginning of March of this year she started a Facebook page called “About Covid 19.” Her intention has been to post helpful information about Covid 19 without the politics, spin, and hyperbole that accompanies so much 0f what’s out there, and to offer her unique perspective into this pandemic in the belief that being informed and prepared reduces fear and improves outcomes. I’ve been following her page since she started it, and have found her posts to be both helpful and informative. Continue reading
28 March 2020: We Have An Ice Out Contest Winner!
Linda Gallion
Finally! David Hodsdon has proclaimed this year’s ice out date to be March 27th. That was the day when all the ice was completely gone from the coves and inlets around the lake. That makes Linda Gallion (picture at left, from last year’s Annual Meeting) the winner of our 2020 Ice Out Contest! Her’s was the closest guess (March 24th) without going over. Linda has been a long time CLA member and served as Treasurer for ten years from 2005 to 2015. Congratulations Linda! Hope you enjoy your tee shirt! Many thanks to all who participated in our first Clary Lake Ice Out Contest. Here are their guesses:
2020 Ice Out Contest Guesses
Ice Out was determined to be March 27th. The closest guess wins!| Name | Guess |
|---|---|
| Jane Chase | 03/14/20 |
| Rick Gallion | 03/14/20 |
| Jack Holland | 03/17/20 |
| June M. Lordi | 03/23/20 |
| Linda Gallion | 03/24/20 |
| ICE OUT: | 03/27/2020 |
| Lee Prager | 03/28/20 |
| Paul Devlin | 03/28/20 |
| Steve Cowles | 03/29/20 |
| Malcolm B | 03/29/20 |
| David Knight | 04/01/20 |
| Carolyn Curtis | 04/02/20 |
| Gareth Bowen | 04/03/20 |
| Leslie Gillette | 04/04/20 |
| Terry Crummett | 04/07/20 |
| Kate Seba | 04/09/20 |
| Arlene Wing | 04/12/20 |
| Karen Stutzer | 04/14/20 |
| Dan Burns | 04/16/20 |
If you think it took a longer than usual for the lake to become ice-free this year it is because it did! I don’t think the ice was really ready to melt off, but a heavy rain event on March 13th which dropped 1.20 inches of rain followed by strong winds the next day got rid of a lot of ice on the north side of the lake. There were actually people ice fishing the previous weekend. After that initial melt-off, the ice seemed to take forever to melt out of the coves on the south side, and down by the boat launch.
2020 Courtesy Boat Inspections: Looking for Volunteers!
Water Chestnut (Trapa natans L), one of Maine’s Eleven Most Unwanted Aquatic Plants.
As we gear up for our second season of Courtesy Boat Inspections, everyone who volunteered last year has informed me that they are totally on board for another season which clearly indicates just how much fun they had doing courtesy boat inspections last summer: it really was a lot of fun! However, we very much want more volunteers to join our effort this year to help share the load: summer is a busy time and nobody can be expected to be available every day of every weekend, all summer long. Last year, with just 8 volunteers and 8 two-hour shifts per weekend to cover, some people just weren’t able to take a shift so some of us ended up pulling doubles. With enough volunteers to draw on, nobody should have to take more than one 2 hour shifts per weekend, if that. I very much enjoyed inspecting boats at the boat launch last summer and talking boats and fishing with people, and I look forward to doing it again. Continue reading
The Hors D’oeuvre Party Was A Blast
The “We can’t believe it’s 48 days until Spring” Hors D’oeuvre Party, held on February 1st at the home of Beverley and Gareth Bowen was a great success! Twenty seven people showed up for the party which went for about 3 hours. The food was incredible and the conversation even better. Sorry it’s taken so long for me to post anything about the party, I’ve been unusually busy for a retired person in the Winter. While I’m apologizing, sorry for the sub-par photographs! Cell phones just don’t do all that well indoors in poor lighting conditions, but they are what they are. Some of them were taken by me, some by Dave Knight. Here’s gallery of the better pictures:
04 February 2020: Kennebec County Judge Rules In AQF Appeal Hearing
We’ve received word that Kennebec County Superior Court Judge William Stokes has issued his ruling on the January 10th hearing in regard the Aquafortis Associates LLC appeal of the Clary Lake water level order transfer. The Order, dated January 17th, DENIES AQF’s motion to supplement the record and GRANTS the Clary Lake Association’s motion to transfer the venue to Lincoln County. This is Good News. We’re hearing about it now because the Court mailed the Order to our lawyer’s old mailing address. Continue reading
CLA Hors D’oeuvre Party Announcement!
We’re having a “We can’t believe it’s 48 days until Spring” party! Only kidding! We don’t need an excuse to gather together and have a little neighborly fun. The date is Saturday, February 1st and the place is the lovely home of Beverly and Gareth Bowen at 739 Gardiner Road in Jefferson (map). The time is 7 PM. Everyone is asked to bring their own favorite beverage and a hors d’oeuvre platter to share. Bring yourself and bring a friend! We hope to have a good showing, there’s plenty of room, and it will be a great opportunity for people to get together, get reacquainted with other CLA members, and meet new friends. Let’s shake off those mid-winter doldrums together! Maybe someone will even bring a guitar and we can sing the CLA theme song. Hmmm… do we even have a theme song? Well, we can think of something! Continue reading
Aquafortis Associates Appeal Hearing Reminder
The other day I emailed our Membership to remind them of the upcoming hearing on the Aquafortis Associates LLC appeal of the WLO Transfer, scheduled for 10:30 AM on Friday, January 10th. The hearing will be held at the Kennebec County Superior Court, 1 Court St Suite 101, Augusta, ME 04330 (map). I wanted to get notice out soon enough so those who would like to attend have time to make arrangements. If you’re not familiar with this proceeding and it’s history, I’ve posted about it a few times on the CLA website, most recently back in the middle of December. Here’s a link to that post, for more information: Continue reading
We Give A Dam! Clary Lake Association Tee Shirts For Sale
The Clary Lake Association is making another foray into the world of online retailing and to that end we’ve set up a simple shopping cart system using Paypal as our payment processor. While it isn’t the world’s most sophisticated shopping cart system, it works and should serve our purposes well for the time being. It should be self explanatory and problem-free, but if you have any questions or issues with it, please contact the Webmaster.
To start out, we’d like to sell the last of these classic We Give A Dam! tee shirts! There won’t be any more of these! We had a dozen made for the 2019 Whitefield Fourth of July parade and people said they wanted to be able to buy some, so we ordered a bunch. Most of them were sold last summer at the Ice Cream Social and the Annual meeting. We still have a few of these classic tee shirts left (in several sizes) that we’d like to sell. You can have any color you want as long as it’s BLUE! A few of our original Clary Lake Association Sweat Shirts have turned up as well and we’d like to sell them too. Please visit our Items For Sale page to see what we have to offer.
We’re already getting to work on some new products for the upcoming year. We’ll be starting out with tee shirts again but are also planning on offering CLA hats, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, etc. Stay tuned.
Greetings Friends of Clary Lake!
Greetings Friends of Clary Lake!
Here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year… and more inclusively, Happy Holidays, or whatever and however you choose to celebrate this time of year, this special season that we all cherish as we try to adapt to the waning light of winter. Remember, the light shines from within: may we always be mindful of the blessings we have been given and work to share those blessings with those less fortunate. Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving 2019 from the Clary Lake Association
On behalf of the Clary Lake Association Board, I’d like to wish everyone a very happy and bountiful Thanksgiving. We’ve certainly got a lot to be thankful for this year! Enjoy family and friends, don’t overeat, don’t drink and drive, and most important, DON’T TALK POLITICS 🙂
15 October 2019: Minor Repairs to Clary Lake Dam Completed
Last spring when the water level reached the top of the Clary Lake dam we discovered a few leaks that were missed during major repairs last fall. There were three gaps between stones near the south end of the dam by the red building, obscured by vegetation, and one small hole at the north end of the dam. At the time we just used sandbags to staunch the flow and made plans to repair the leaks properly this fall when the lake level was down.
We began the fall draw down back in mid-September and as of today the lake was 1 foot below the HWM, plenty low enough to allow us to make the repairs. Two bags of high strength Quickrete mortar mix and an hour and a half and we were done. Many thanks to Dam Operations Committee members Dave Knight and Steve Cowles for helping out with this project! Here are a few pictures from this morning’s work:
30 August 2019: 1st Annual Coffee Clutch
1st Annual CLA Coffee Clutch
The CLA Coffee Clutch event was held last Saturday August 24th and we had a beautiful day for it. All told we had 7 boats and 6 kayaks show up carrying more than 30 people, all rafted together on Clary Lake, drinking coffee, eating donuts, and yakking up a storm. There was a stiff northerly wind so rather than anchoring out in the middle of the lake as originally planned, we moved the event closer to the north shore where we were a bit more sheltered from the wind. People who approached the flotilla from the south (which was almost everyone) had to battle high waves and a stiff headwind before arriving at the Coffee Clutch. Nobody had any trouble finding us- the sight of a few boats moored on the lake was hard to miss. Continue reading