Category Archives: News

News from around the lake.

23 August 2017: Maine Public Radio is doing a Story on Clary Lake

Maine Public Radio Deputy News Director and General Assignment Reporter Susan Sharon is going to be doing a story on Clary Lake. She came out to Whitefield last Monday to interview me and Malcolm Burson. Her visit included a boat ride to see first hand the impact of our water level crisis on the life and times of Clary Lake. Our tour included a stop on the north shore to meet and interview Kelsie French, long time Clary Lake shore owner with a camp over on Duncan Road in Jefferson. Ms. Sharon’s visit concluded with a stop to see the Clary Lake dam and Clary Mill.

Her story will likely appear sometime within the next week. When I find out the particulars I’ll post them here.

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22 August 2017: CLA Petition to DEP Submitted

I want to thank EVERYONE who signed our petition to DEP and to let everyone know that the Petition which the Board introduced at the Clary Lake Association Annual meeting on August 12th, along with over 350 signatures collected both at the meeting and over the course of the week following the meeting, was hand-delivered to the office of the Commissioner of the DEP yesterday, Monday August 21st, as planned. Looking over the signature sheets I believe ALL Clary Lake Association members managed to sign the petition even if they weren’t at the meeting; quite a few people who are currently out of state printed out the signature sheet, signed it, and mailed or emailed it back to me. A lot of people collected signatures for us, but I’d particularly like to thank Debbie Duncan, Ellis Percy, Malcolm Burson, and Jack and Ann Holland for their efforts to collect signatures. It seems like more often than not, when I asked someone to sign they’d say “Already signed it!” 🙂

CLA Petition to DEP August 21, 2017

It remains to be seen how the Department will respond to the petition and what if anything action they will take towards enforcement of the Clary Lake water level order. They have a variety of enforcement options and while I don’t expect miracles, I am cautiously optimistic they will take this matter as seriously as we do. I do expect to hear from them and will keep everyone apprised of any developments.

The petition was also sent to the Lincoln County News, Central Maine Papers, and the Portland Press Herald, and I do expect articles to appear later this week in most if not all those papers.

12 August 2017: Annual Meeting a Great Success

Annual Clary Lake Association Meeting, August 12, 2017. Meeting finally underway. About 50 people attended the meeting. Photograph by George Fergusson

The Annual 2017 Clary Lake Association meeting was a great success. I’ll post a thorough update in a few days, but for now I just wanted to get a few pictures online and say THANK YOU!! to all the people that helped make this a great meeting. In particular, many thanks to Erin Grimshaw for hosting the meeting.

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These pictures are in the Spring/Summer 2017 Gallery.

Lincoln County News: Whitefield Public Library Opens Doors at Arlington Grange

My wife Margaret has been helping setup and run the new Whitefield Public Library at the Arlington Grange. This is a great resource for the town:

Whitefield Public Library Opens Doors at Arlington Grange

Central Maine Papers: David Pond Losing Water

One of our Facebook followers posted the following article to our Facebook page. An interesting read. There are some clear parallels between the situation facing David Pond shore owners and that facing Clary Lake shore owners, but there is a clear and distinct difference: Clary Lake shore owners and friends of Clary Lake (with 2 exceptions, who shall remain nameless) are united in their opposition to the dam owner’s water level management:

Fayette’s David Pond losing water, alarming property owners who want action

10 May 2017 Lincoln County News: Despite Bankruptcy, Clary Lake Dam Situation ‘Status Quo’

Lincoln County News staff writer Abigail Adams attended the May 1st bankruptcy meeting of creditors and has written an article about it appearing in this week’s Lincoln County News. It’s a good, factual article but like the recent article in the Central Maine Papers, it incorrectly states that “Medius L3C foreclosed on the dam and held an auction for it in January 2016.” It would be more accurate to say that Medius L3C tried to foreclose on the dam, but failed. Had the foreclosure been successful, someone other than Pleasant Pond Mill would own the property now.

This confusion over foreclosure does nothing to detract from an otherwise accurate and well written article, and I am grateful that the Lincoln County News and the Central Maine Papers are helping keep this slow-motion train wreck in the news:

Despite Bankruptcy, Clary Lake Dam Situation ‘Status Quo’

Continue reading →

18 April 2017: Spring Musings and a Look Ahead

Isn’t it time to get a dry fire hydrant installed at the inlet of the lake on Route 126?

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] try to keep this news forum factual and informative and not all that speculative. From time to time however I am compelled to offer up some commentary on what has been happening, where we are and where it looks like we are headed. This is one of those times. My goal is to bring some perspective and commonality into our lives where they intersect with Clary Lake and the travails that have assaulted it for so long. Spring is a good time for this kind of musing: it’s a time to wake up, gear up, get in shape, and get ready for another season. I feel this is going to be an important year, that a lot is going to happen. We may not see a resolution of our water level crisis this year but then again we might, the problem being that I really have no idea what a “resolution” might look like. Certainly we’ll see some real progress towards a resolution. Not only am I prepared to be surprised, I expect to be. If one thing has been proven time and time again it is that we have no idea what lies around the next corner. Continue reading →

25 March 2017: Update on Pleasant Pond Mill Bankruptcy Filing

I have learned some details of the Pleasant Pond Mill LLC bankruptcy filing. First, it is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy which means the company and its assets will be liquidated by the Bankruptcy Court. Pleasant Pond Mill LLC [PPM] is being represented by a Portland attorney that specializes in bankruptcies. PPM will not emerge from this bankruptcy as a reorganized company; this is the beginning of the end of Pleasant Pond Mill LLC. Rest assured that while this action will wipe out PPM’s debt and dispose of its property, the bankruptcy will have no effect on the Clary Lake Water Level Order [WLO] which is and will remain in force, if not actually enforced, until the pending appeal in Superior Court is finished. Likewise, that litigation will not be affected by this bankruptcy because PPM and Paul Kelley are no longer parties to that appeal. Remember: the WLO runs with the land, not the owner; the new owner of the Clary Lake dam, whomever that is, will be subject to the WLO. Continue reading →

21 January 2016: Paul Kelley Introduces himself to the Whitefield Selectboard

Paul Kelley attended the regularly scheduled open (public) meeting of the Whitefield Selectboard on the evening of January 17th to discuss with them issues he has with some Town records, in particular certain Planning Board Meeting minutes. Reference may be had to the following letter which he presented to the Board in open session, which clearly explains his concerns, and what he would like to Town to do about them.

Here is the letter, presented without further comment:

Kelley Letter to Whitefield Selectboard January 17, 2017

It is not clear whether the Town intends to respond to this letter.

05 December 2016: Update on the Recent Police Visit to Clary Lake Dam

I spoke to a Lieutenant with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department today to see if I could find out more about the Lincoln County Deputy’s visit to the Clary Lake dam that I wrote about last Saturday. All the Lieutenant would tell me was there had been a complaint made of “criminal trespass” by Mr. Kelley and that he couldn’t say more at this time due to the ongoing investigation. I thanked him and hung up.

I have collected a little additional information about what was going on that Saturday morning by the dam, from talk around town. Apparently very early Saturday morning while it was still dark, some duck hunters parked two trucks in the field next to the fence near the dam, on property Jane Chase is caretaker of. Presumably they then launched their canoes and headed upstream to hunt. I know there were hunters up in the meadow that morning because I heard gunshots from that direction about 6:30 AM while I was having my first cup of coffee. Several people reported seeing those 2 trucks parked there later in the morning. They were long gone by the time I drove by around 1PM and saw Mr. Kelley talking to the police officer.

Did Mr. Kelley really call the police because some duck hunters parked their trucks on the neighbor’s property and headed upstream to hunt, or was something else going on? We may never know. I doubt we’ll hear much more about what happened Saturday unless there’s something in this week’s Lincoln County News. So move along folks, nothing to see here.

03 December 2016: Clary Lake Dam Gate Fully Opened Today

Clary Lake dam owner Paul Kelley, Jr. opening the dam’s gate today, December 3, 2016.

Today the Clary Lake dam owner was seen opening the dam’s gate (pictured at left) shortly after meeting on-site with a Lincoln County Deputy. I have no idea why Mr. Kelley summoned the police to his property or whether it had anything to do with his decision to open the gate today, but I was told by a passerby that he and the officer were seen standing on the road in front of the dam before he opened the gate and that Mr. Kelley looked “upset” and was “waving his arms” and pointing at the dam. I can’t imagine what Mr. Kelley’s problem might be.

The gate has been effectively closed since mid-summer, and I have been wondering if or when Mr. Kelley was going to open the gate this fall to provide the Minimum Flows required in the Clary Lake Water Level Order . Flows vary throughout the year: between November 16th and December 31st the Order says the gate should be opened 0.9 feet to provide 15.5 cfs (cubic feet per second) of outflows. Mr. Kelley has in fact opened the gate all the way, approximately 2.5 feet, letting out way more water than the recommended volume. Clearly, Mr. Kelley had more on his mind today than just meeting the minimum flows requirement, and he isn’t particularly interested in garnering anything like goodwill either. It seems to me Mr. Kelley could use a little of that about now.

By early afternoon the water level in the mill pond behind the dam had fallen noticeably. I’ve revised the Water Level Charts to reflect the change in gate status.

Harvest Potluck Supper Flier

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

Harvest Potluck Supper

a benefit for the

Clary Lake Association

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

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

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

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

07 October 2016: Remote Access to All 3 ClaryCams Finally Working

Real-time remote access to all 3 Clary webcams is finally working. My tendency is to explain in excruciating detail WHY it wasn’t working and WHAT I had to do to get it working. Instead I’ll just say there was a port conflict and a few other issues which prevented operating 2 cameras on the same internal network at the same time, and leave it at that.

Remote access to firewalled equipment requires Dynamic DNS service, and that is notoriously flakey. When access to a camera is NOT working, it is almost always due to the DDNS being out of date. DDNS is a mechanism whereby a dynamic IP address (which most of us have) is mapped to a static host name (which most of us want). Foscam, the camera manufacturer, runs a free DDNS service for their customers but it seems like it often doesn’t update the static host name with the right IP address in a timely manner. I’ve setup an account with a 3rd party DDNS server for my two cameras (Clarycam1 and Clarycam2) which seems to be working well. If it continues to work well I’ll see if I can get David Hodsdon to signup with the same service. For now his camera which is using the Myfoscam.org DDNS service is working fine…

Bottom line: If you try to connect to a camera and it fails, try again in half an hour. Continue reading →

06 October 2016: Clary Lake Parcel Map Now Online

Clary Lake Parcel Map

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

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

Test Posting Complete with Picture [UPDATE]

[UPDATE]: After pondering the problem I wrote about last night while I slept, I got up this morning and killed/reestablished the backend connection to WordPress.com and lo and behold, both notification emails and automagic posting to Facebook is working again.

It’s not a job, it’s an adventure.

I’ll be posting a few test articles in an attempt to resolve the email notification problem. Your patience is appreciated.

CLA Harvest Pot Luck Supper This November 12th

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

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

Add this event to your Google Calendar:

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

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

18 September 2016: NIDIS Drought Meter Now Online

sev I don’t need to tell anybody that we need rain. For some time now we’ve been experiencing SEVERE drought conditions around Clary Lake and SEVERE to EXTREME drought conditions in and around New England, depending on locale. I found this neat CGI script at the National Integrated Drought Information System site that provides up-to-date drought information and decided to put it on our website. Enter one of Clary Lake’s 2 Zip Codes (Whitefield o4353 or Jefferson 04348) for current drought conditions here. For current drought conditions in your area, enter your own zip code (or search for one). You can reset it with the reset button to check different areas. It works for the entire country.

Once you’ve entered a zip code, you’ll find some useful information by following the links provided under the Drought Meter graphic. The National Integrated Drought Information System is a great site to poke around. I’ve added it to our Links & Resources page.

I have put up a Drought Meter page. Check it out. You’ll find the page linked under the Weather Main Menu heading.

In Memory of Christopher Gillette

Christopher Gillette
1955 – 2016

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

08 September 2016: DEP Administrative Record Now Available Online

On August 17th DEP filed their Administrative Record with the Lincoln County Superior Court in preparation for moving forward with their defense of the Clary Lake Water Level Order. I wrote about this back on September 1st (see: DEP files Administrative Record with Superior Court). The State’s filing consisted of a 20 page document that listed the descriptions of 264 items totalling 345 megabytes of material, which are all included on a CD. I was particularly interested in getting a copy of the CD partly because it seemed like every other document had my name associated with it, and partly because there were a goodly number of documents listed that I do NOT already have in my files, primarily internal Department and Interagency communications, and correspondence between DEP staff and Paul Kelley that was not shared with the Service List. Continue reading →

28 August 2016: State Boat Launch Rock Cleanup Initiative Finished

The Boat Launch Rock Cleanup Crew

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

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

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