Category Archives: News

News from around the lake.

2016 Clary Lake Association Annual Meeting Scheduled

This year’s Annual meeting of the Clary Lake Association will be on Saturday, August 6th at 2:00 PM at the home of Erin Grimshaw and Christina Bishop (and their three sons) located at 739 Gardiner Road (aka Route 126) in Jefferson. Their home is located about 1/3 of a mile west of (towards Whitefield) the intersection of Route 126 and 215. Most of you will know the place: this is the house at the lower end of the old MacDonald hay field overlooking Clary Lake (picture, below left), and at the end of a looooong driveway. Andy Goss built it a few years ago; Erin and Christina have owned it since 2013. Here’s a Google Map showing the location. If you need help finding the place call 207-549-5991 for directions. The rain date, on the off chance it is raining on Saturday, is the same time, same place, next day. I can’t remember the last time the Annual meeting was rained out. I don’t know if it’s ever happened.

DSC_0502 (Custom)As usual, there will be a pot luck supper at the conclusion of the meeting so bring your favorite casserole, salad, desert, bread, dip, road kill, or what have you and plan to stay awhile and socialize.

We’ll be sending out the 2016 Spring/Summer Newsletter in a couple of weeks or thereabouts, and will include some additional information about the Annual meeting and what to expect. Included in the newsletter will be a membership form for the upcoming 2016/2017 membership year. Dues are still only $25 per year and the membership year runs from annual meeting to annual meeting, therefore in order to be able to participate in this meeting, you have to be a paid-up member for the coming year.  We encourage you to mail in your membership form prior to the annual meeting. A lot of you like to renew your membership at the meeting, and that is fine too but we ask that you come a early to register and get settled as we have a lot of business to conduct and will want to start the meeting promptly at 2:00 pm. The registration table will be setup by 1:00 pm. Continue reading →

21 May 2016: Clary Lake Water Quality Monitoring Resumes for 2016

IMG_20160520_084140 (Custom)On Friday May 20th David Hodsdon and I (Jack Holland was not able to join us) were finally able to resume Clary Lake Water quality monitoring for 2016 albeit a month later than we had planned, but still within the allowable time frame. Better late than never as the saying goes. We had originally planned on starting a month ago, but our YSI Pro 20 digital dissolved oxygen meter which the Association purchased through donations a few years ago failed to pass routine calibration which is performed each spring by Maine VLMP technicians. They first thought the problem was a bad probe but swapping it out for a known-good probe didn’t solve the problem. YSI Technical Support suggested it might be water in the cable connector housing so they let the unit sit around disassembled for a few days to dry out. After that it started working intermittently. They ran some more tests on it over the next week finally certified it for use with the instructions to “keep an eye on it.” We got it back midweek last week.

This first time out, the DO meter worked flawlessly (and we hope it continues). With a secchi disk reading of 4.1 meters (13.25′) the water clarity is excellent, and about normal for this time of year. But be warned: it’s early in the season yet, and the water quality can and will deteriorate. The lake has yet to “stratify” meaning that it is pretty homogenous (well mixed) and there is no thermocline yet: the temperature from the surface to the bottom only varied 2.5° Celsius. This means that if you were to go swimming now you’d think the whole lake was cold, not just 6′ down like during the summer. Likewise, the dissolved oxygen reading only varied 2.6 mg/l from surface down to 7 meters. Continue reading →

21 May 2016: Clary Lake Dam’s Gate Almost But Not Quite Closed

IMG_20160521_094122 (Custom)Late last Thursday afternoon for reasons known only to himself, the Clary Lake dam owner closed the dam’s gate to within about 7″ of completely shut. As you can see from the picture at left, there’s still quite a bit of water flowing out of the lake but the mill pond behind the dam has considerably more water in it than when the gate was wide open. However, while the water may be backing up behind the dam, the lake level is still falling about 1/4″ per day. Remember, water only flows down hill and there is a mile and a half of meandering channel down which the water has to flow to get from the lake to the dam. With the gate wide open and the lake this low, I suspect the water level right at the dam itself has been as much as 2 feet lower than out on the lake, perhaps even more. I’ve actually measured a 3″ difference when gate was wide open and the lake was almost full. Albert Boynton whose family owned the dam in the 1920’s and who was actually born in the little red house on the dam told me once that after a morning of sawing lumber, the upper mill pond would have fallen considerably; when they returned from dinner, it would be full again.

Continue reading →

05 May 2016: Black Crappies firmly established in Clary Lake

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Black Crappie

Well, we knew that. We’ve known for a while now that Black Crappies were being caught in Clary Lake, and I’ve written about before (see: 28 May 2015: A Black Crappie caught in Clary Lake) but I had not actually caught one myself until yesterday when I hooked this 11″ specimen. Unlike the bass that I catch, I kept this one and had it for dinner last night. It was not bad.

Black Crappie are firmly established in most waterways in other parts of the country, especially down south (in Louisiana they’re called “Sac-a-Lait”) and they are generally considered to be an excellent pan fish, good eating with firm white flesh. However, here in Maine they are considered an invasive species and they are not native to Clary Lake (for that matter, neither are large and small mouth bass which were introduced in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s). Apparently sometime in the last 10-15 years someone introduced them into Clary to “improve” the fishery. It’s clear from the size of this one that we’ve got a firmly established breeding population of Black Crappie in Clary Lake.

I sent a picture of the fish I caught to Jason Seiders, a fisheries biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and he responded that his staff will be conducting surveys of the Sheepscot River drainage this summer, focused mainly on assessing bass populations and confirming the presence of black crappie. Black Crappie are a very prolific fish and they can pretty much take over a water body. It is believed that they will likely affect Clary’s small mouth bass population the most.

Jason Seider’s final advice: don’t be afraid to keep all the Crappie you catch. For what it’s worth, I caught this one on a 6″ rubber worm but I expect you’ll be able to catch them on about anything you throw in the water.

02 May 2016: State Agrees to AQF Request for Stay of Proceedings

[dropcap]Back[/dropcap] on April 20th I posted about how Aquafortis Associates LLC (“AQF”) filed yet another Request for Stay of Proceedings in the matter of the ongoing appeal of the Clary Lake Water Level Order (see: “Lawyers for Kelley, Smith file Yet Another Motion For Stay of WLO Appeal“). That latest Request for Stay was dated April 14th and requested a stay of proceedings until June 1st to give the parties additional time to try and arrive at a settlement. When I reported on this matter, the State had not yet responded to the Motion though I anticipated that they would not object to the stay request. On April 22nd they did respond, and as expected, they did not object. Continue reading →

20 April 2016: Lawyers for Kelley, Smith file Yet Another Motion For Stay of WLO Appeal

Attorneys for Aquafortis Associates LLC (“AQF”) have filed another Motion For Stay of the WLO appeal until June 1st. The motion was filed on April 14th and states that AQF, Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (“PPM”), and the Department of Environmental Protection have been “cooperatively working to resolve the issues that are the subject of Aquafortis’ appeal of the Department of Environmental Protection’s (“DEP”) Water Level Order for Clary Lake Dam (“CLD”), including issues that impede repairs to the CLD.” Continue reading →

29 March 2016: Aquafortis Associates LLC Files Amended Petition in Superior Court

Attorneys for Aquafortis Associates LLC have finally filed an amended petition in the Superior Court appeal of the Clary Lake Water Level Order. You may recall that back on January 25th the Court issued an Order granting the State’s Motion to Dismiss and gave Aquafortis Associates, LLC 21 days to file an amended petition. Rather than filing the amended petition, they instead appealed the Superior Court ruling to the Law Court on February 16th, followed not quite 2 weeks later by Requests for Stays of Proceedings of both the appeal and the underlying Superior Court action. The appeal was subsequently dismissed by the Law Court on March 1st, and the 30 day stay requested on February 16th ended last Saturday, March 26th. The amended petition was filed yesterday, March 28th. Yes, it has taken a lot longer than 21 days for the amended petition to be filed; the reason for this is explained quite well in the cover letter accompanying the amended petition. Here’s the amended petition; it’s 23 pages and a rather large file, but interesting reading:

The most significant thing about this amended petition for me is that Paul Kelley and his company Pleasant Pond Mill LLC are not parties to it. This is because the Court’s January 25th Order granting the State’s Motion to Dismiss resulted in Mr. Kelley being removed from the proceedings. With that exception, this amended petition is not a whole lot different from the proposed amended petition filed with the court last summer.

So what’s been going on?

Continue reading →

20 March 2016: IFW Commissioner Opens Fishing Season Two Weeks Early

DSC_1146From the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife webpage:

“Effective Thursday, March 17, the 2016 Open Water fishing season began, two weeks earlier than usual, per an amended rule by the Commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.”

“The amended regulation allows bodies of water that were closed to open water fishing until April 1, 2016 to become open to open water fishing effective March 17, 2016.”

“Anglers throughout the state may now get a chance to enjoy the early spring by fishing on their favorite waterway earlier than usual.”

The two men who hit Clary Lake last Friday (picture above) no doubt wish they’d waited for warmer weather! The wind coming down the lake was very strong and bitterly cold, causing them to quit fishing early. The waves were breaking over the back of the boat as they were trying to maneuver it onto the trailer. At least there was enough water for them to launch and retrieve their boat.

15 March 2016: The Story of a Performing Arts Community on Clary Lake

The Whitefield Historical Society and the Jefferson Historical Society are putting on a program this coming Sunday, March 20th at the Whitefield Townhouse on Townhouse Road in Whitefield. Below is the cover illustration of the Whitefield Historical Society’s latest newsletter.

WHS-circle-of-friends

A performing arts community settled at the eastern end of Clary Lake beginning in the early 1900s. Clockwise from 12 o’clock: Ann Ward; Lucy Lee, a reader; Percy Hunt, baritone, and his wife, Katherine Ridgeway, a reader performed together on the Redpath Lyceum circuit; France King Ward, Crawford Peffer and his wife, Ella Harding, soprano; F. Morse Wemple and George Fergusson, baritones, who taught voice with Percy Hunt at the New England Conservatory. Mr. Peffer owned the New York and New England Redpath Lyceum and Chatauqua Circuits. Katherine Ridgeway and Ella Peffer went on to establish the Katherine Ridgeway Camp for Girls on the northern side of the lake. Descendants and people who knew them are encouraged to come and share their memories

George Fergusson, pictured above at 11 o’clock was my grandfather. He came to Maine and bought our property on Clary Lake in 1922. I well remember from my childhood days visiting with Percy Hunt and his sister Lucy Lee who lived across the road from the Highland Cemetery in a house now owned by Fasano, the Ward Sisters whose house and property on North Forty Lane is now owned by the Relyea family, and Morse Wemple whose property at the east end of Clary Lake was owned for many years by the Stickney family and is now owned by Glenn Bruce MacDonald. I never knew the Peffer family but understand their property was located just north of the Wemple property. The Robbins property on Clary Lake is part of the old Peffer place. They probably owned that nice red cape out in the field just up the hill from the Wemple place.

My sister and I have worked closely with Marie Sacks this past year to help her collect the information and materials she’ll be using in her presentation. I’m really looking forward to this!

13 March 2016: Time Lapse Video of Clary Lake Ice Out, Spring 2016

Last spring I made time lapse video using campics from the original ClaryCam showing the 2015 ice-out event. I decided to do that again, because I can. This video actually covers 2 days, March 12 and 13 with most of the night time images NOT included, because boring. Not much happens on the first day but the wind really picks up midday on the 13th:

13 March 2016: Ice Out on Clary Lake

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Clary Lake Ice Out 3-13-16

David Hodsdon usually makes the official ice-out determination but I haven’t heard from him today and according to my precise calculations, today Clary Lake became completely ice-free. The northwest end of the lake from the outlet around the point at the end of Duncan Road has been ice-free for some days but the southern side which gets less direct sunlight was still mostly iced in until yesterday. Today’s high winds (see above) rapidly broke up and dispersed the remaining ice sheets. Today marks the earlier start of the open water season on Clary Lake going as far back as 2001, when our records start. The criterion for ice-out is when the lake is sufficiently free of ice that one can boat round the lake within a few feet of shore (essentially completely free of ice).

According to the Clary Lake Water Level Order, at ice-out the lake level should be at or very near the “normal historical high water mark” of the lake which has been determined by DEP survey to be at an elevation of 151.2′ which corresponds with the top of the dam. The lake level is supposed to be maintained at that elevation or as close to it as possible through the end of July to provide a stable water level to maintain fish and waterfowl breeding habitat. Unfortunately, the lake level is currently a little more than 2 feet below that elevation and falling and with no snow pack to provide spring runoff, we’re entirely dependent on spring rains to keep the lake level from falling too far, too fast. I’m not very optimistic.

I’ll post a time lapse video of this year’s ice-out shortly. I can’t wait to get my boat in the water.

05 March 2016: Law Court Dismisses PPM Appeal

The appeal filed with the Law Court back in late February by counsel for Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (PPM) was dismissed last Tuesday, March 1st because the appeal was deemed to be “interlocutory” which is a term referring to an interim ruling issued before the conclusion of a suit. While it is certainly good news, one shouldn’t try to read too much into this decision: it is not uncommon for a Law Court to dismiss an appeal of a lower court ruling while the underlying suit is still being heard. Consequently, this dismissal isn’t really unexpected but it is interesting that the dismissal was issued so quickly. PPM’s Motion to Stay the appeal, filed last Monday, February 29th, has also been dismissed as moot.

So what all this means is that when the appeal of the Clary Lake Water Level Order in Superior Court resumes at the conclusion of the current stay on March 26th, it will proceed without the benefit of Paul Kelley/PPM being a party to it.

Things do seem to be proceeding at a fast pace.

03 March 2016: PretiFlaherty Files Motions for Stays of Suits

[dropcap]Last[/dropcap] Monday, February 29th attorneys representing Aquafortis Associates LLC (AQF) and Pleasant Pond Mill LLC (PPM) filed motions requesting a Stay of Proceedings in two pending suits, the February 2014 Water Level Order appeal in Superior Court (No. AP-14-1) and the recently filed appeal of the recent lower court’s ruling in the Maine Supreme Court (No. LIN-16-63). The stay requests are for 30 days and end on March 26th. The Law Court action was initiated when Pleasant Pond Mill LLC appealed the January 25th Superior Court ruling granting the State’s motion to dismiss (see PPM Appeals Superior Court Ruling on Motion to Dismiss).

Stay tuned.

01 March 2016: ClaryCam1 Back in Service

Clary Cam 1 - 2016-03-01 15.51.00ClaryCam1 is back in service thanks to a free replacement IP camera that arrived by Fedex today. You’ll find current webcam pictures for both cameras on the Clary Lake Webcams page again! I even managed to take a selfie while installing. I didn’t know my nose was so big.

For those of you who connect to the ClaryCam1 and ClaryCam2 for real-time video (you know who you are) I’m experimenting with a new DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name Service) server which hopefully will be more reliable than the service offered by Foscam which we have been using. For now they should both work. The service is free and for now only ClaryCam1 is using it but if it works out OK I’ll help David H. set it up for his camera too.

You’ll find instructions for connecting in a post from last October: Realtime access to Clary WebCam video now available.

Here are the new DDNS links for ClaryCam1. You’ll also find them on the ClaryCam1 page:

For use with a web browser:

http://clarycam1.ddns.net:88

For use with a VLC app:

rtsp://guest:123abc@clarycam1.ddns.net:554/videoMain

19 February 2016: Update on LD 1566 “An Act Concerning the Establishment of Water Levels”

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] am pleased to announce that at a work session held earlier today the Legislature’s Environment & Natural Resource Committee voted unanimously Ought Not To Pass on LD 1566 “An Act Concerning the Establishment of Water Levels.” In it’s place, DEP will add a requirement to their rules pertaining to water level petitions for a public informational meeting including notices in local papers, a mailing to all lake front owners, the dam owner, and the town(s) in which the impoundment resides. The purpose of the meeting is to inform everyone of the requirements of the law governing water level petitions and the actual petition and adjudicatory hearing processes, and to encourage people to find a negotiated solution to their water level issues.

Many thanks to all the people who advocated against this legislation including the Clary Lake Association, the Branch Pond Association, the Midcoast Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, the Maine Lakes Society, the Maine Audubon and others parties.

 

23 February 2016: Medius L3C changes Registered Agent (again)

[dropcap]For[/dropcap] those of you keeping track of such things, be advised that Medius L3C has changed Registered Agents again. The change was not unexpected and I’ve been checking the State’s Interactive Corporate Services website a couple of times a week in anticipation of it occurring, with the only question really being who they would choose? Well now we know: the new Registered Agent is Wiscasset attorney William Logan who interestingly enough was the Registered Agent for the Clary Lake Association at the time of our incorporation back in 1995. Small world.

Mr. Logan is the 3rd Registered Agent to represent Medius L3C since last October, the other 2 being Merritt Carey and most recently, Public Information Resource, Inc.

17 February 2016: PPM Appeals Superior Court Ruling on Motion to Dismiss

[dropcap]On[/dropcap] Tuesday PretiFlatherty attorneys filed in Superior Court an appeal of the Order issued by the Court back on January 25th approving the State’s Motion to Dismiss (see: “Superior Court grants State’s Motion to Dismiss“). The granting of the State’s Motion resulted in Pleasant Pond Mill LLC being removed from the proceedings. The granting of the State’s motion also made moot the Petitioner’s pending motion to amend their petition. The Court gave lawyers for Aquafortis Associates LLC 21 days to file a new, amended petition. That deadline was last Monday which turned out to be a holiday, so the filing was made yesterday. I picked up a copy this morning.

I am not surprised that they have decided to challenge the lower Court’s decision by appealing it to the Maine Supreme Court, and I expect they intend to appeal every unfavorable ruling that the Court hands down in this case. Classic delay tactics. This how the game is played. What will be telling is how quickly the Court acts on this. At least the filing is mercifully short:

14 February 2016: What’s Happening?

[dropcap]It’s[/dropcap] been over 2 weeks since the foreclosure/auction of the Clary Lake dam allegedly took place and we still don’t know who the new owner is, or if a transfer took place at all. Nothing has been recorded in the registry of deeds, and DEP has not to my knowledge been notified that there is a new owner of the dam. And Butch Duncan isn’t talking. So what are we to think? I have been getting calls and emails from people wanting to know what’s going on but sadly, I don’t have any answers. I could speculate, but I won’t. I must admit I expected we’d have heard something by now, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by what is happening.

It seems Medius L3C is the key to sorting all this out, but good luck trying to contact them for answers as the company has no mailing address or phone number, and no contact name. This is no doubt by design. The current registered agent, a reputable company in Readfield by the name of Public Information Resource Inc., is owned by a man named Ken Keene. When I asked him for contact information for Medius L3C he gave me the name and address of Ms. Merritt Carey who was the former registered agent. However, if you contact her she claims to have nothing to do with the company any more and refers you back to Mr. Keene. You end up chasing your tail. In short, nobody including the registered agent knows who owns Medius L3C or how to reach them. Apparently the only way to contact Medius L3C is via their email address: mediusl3c@gmail.com.

Continue reading →

06 February 2016: Maine Lakes Society Issues Alert on LD 1566

I received the following email from the Maine Lakes Society regarding the upcoming 10 February 2016 public hearing on LD 1566 “An Act Concerning the Establishment of Water Levels.” The Clary Lake Association will be testifying in opposition to the bill at the public hearing. A copy of the prepared testimony will be presented here at a later date.

Many impounded Lakes Will Be Affected by the Outcome of LD 1566 to be Heard this Wednesday before the Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Maine Lakes Society
Fluctuating lake water levels affect a host of stakeholders.
Water Level Bill Raises Concern
Water level issues on Maine’s great ponds raise major concerns for a long list of stakeholders. These include lake shorefront property owners and lake associations, state agencies, organizations and individuals concerned with maintaining navigable waterways and habitat for fishes, birds and other wildlife in and on surface and coastal waters, anglers, hunters and other recreationists, municipalities dependent upon lakefront property tax revenues to provide needed services, the Departments of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Marine Resources, and Environmental Protection which is charged with maintaining water quality standards and the designated uses of great ponds existing as of 1978 under the anti-degradation clause of the Clean Water Act, as well as all Maine citizens – to whom these waters belong.
 
LD 1566, An Act Concerning the Establishment of Water Levels, seeks to change Maine’s existing water level law by requiring 3rd party mediation before the Maine Department of Environmental Protection MEDEP) holds the required adjudicatory hearing to settle such water level disputes.  LD 1566 also introduces a new and substantial cost for such a hearing of up to $20,000. 
 
We oppose LD 1566 because the high cost of mediation and newly monetized adjudicatory process effectively cancel the right of citizens to petition the state for redress of environmental harm. The current, entirely satisfactory, law assures the constitutional right of citizens to equal protection under the law because it requires MEDEP Commissioner  to hold adjudicatory hearings when petitioners seek redress of environmental harm, and it should not be altered to lessen those rights. LD 1566 effectively removes those rights by imposing such a high cost barrier as to nullify citizens’ ability to exercise them.  This will negatively impact the voluntary grassroots lake associations dedicated to protecting lake water quality, wildlife habitat, and the social, economic and recreational benefits of Maine’s great ponds.
 
LD 1566 will be heard by the Environment and Natural Resources Committee on February 10 in Room 216 of the Cross Office Building, Augusta.  If water levels concern you, if you don’t want the water level law changed, if you wish to protect citizens’ rights to petition the state for redress of environmental harm, please write to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee via the Clerk of the Committee or testify in person.  You can also follow the hearing live on Wednesday Morning.
Maine Lakes Society Reports on Lake Policy and Issues
This is the first of several 2016 legislative reports from the Maine Lakes Society.  Check here to see other issues we are following this winter and to share this service with friends, neighbors and colleagues
Maine Lakes Society| info@mainelakessociety.org