Category Archives: Town/Community

26 February 2017: Fire On Ice Winter Festival A Great Success!

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February 2017 Fire on Ice Festival. This is about as close as I came to getting a group photo. A few people had already left, a few were yet to arrive.

The Winter “Fire on Ice” Festival put on by the CLA Momentum Committee last Saturday was a great success. The weather was good, the companionship was even better and the S’mores were perfect. By this time of the winter it seems like everyone is suffering from cabin fever to some extent, and it was wonderful to be able to get outside and enjoy the day without having to be all bundled up against the cold. All told about 2 dozen adults and 10 kids showed up for the event. Most were existing Clary Lake Association members but there were some new faces in the crowd including Stephanie Chamberlain and her partner Steve Berry, who recently bought a house in Coopers Mills. Over the course of the afternoon I took a lot of photographs which I’ve added to the Winter 2017 Photo Gallery (duplicated below). Continue reading →

24 February 2017: Prospects for Tomorrow’s Festival: MUD!

OK so it’s not THAT muddy yet but nonetheless Mud Season is here. The field was pretty soft this morning when I drove down to the lake to drop off some firewood. We don’t want anyone getting stuck or the field getting rutted up so people should plan to park on the road and walk the short distance to the lake. We’ll have a few sleds available if you have firewood or something else to haul in. In any case, rubber boots are called for. The weather forecast for tomorrow is mild temperatures in the 40’s with a chance of showers the late afternoon which doesn’t sound too bad at all! The lake is still solidly ice-covered.

I’ll update this posting if I think of anything else to add.

21 February 2017: Winter Festival Update

Road plowed across field in preparation for the February 2017 Winter Festival.

Just a quick reminder/update email about our upcoming “Winter Festival” event being put on by the CLA Momentum Committee this coming Saturday, February 25th, from 12pm-3pm on Clary Lake. “Winter Festival” might imply a bigger event than what is actually likely to happen: we’ll have a small fire burning and will provide the makings for S’mores. You are also welcome to bring your own beverages (no alcohol please) and food to eat. The event is rain or shine, so dress appropriately. Check the weather report so you’ll know what sort of conditions you’ll be facing. We’re not expecting a huge turn out but do hope some of you will be able to find the time to stop by and enjoy the afternoon, the fire, and the company.

The event will be held on the south side of the lake off Route 126. Parking will be available in the field belonging to the Fergusson family where people for years have parked and gone swimming which is located just west of the Whitefield/Jefferson town line, about 1.7 miles from the Whitefield Superette (here is a Google Location Map to help you find it). Today David Knight plowed out a road down to the lake (pictured above). The wind had already swept a good sized area clear of snow right on the lake so there’s parking available.

We had planned on making an ice-carousel but with 1′ to 2′ of snow on the lake, that plan didn’t get out of design phase. We’ll try that next year. We’ll put out some traffic cones and a sign out beside the road. Contact me if you have any questions.

Hope to see you Saturday!

Clary Lake Association Winter Festival Announcement

The CLA Momentum Committee is pleased to announce a Winter Festival event for this coming February 25th, a Saturday, from 12 PM to 3 PM. OK, so maybe “Winter Festival” is a bit grandiose for what we have planned, but that’s what we’re calling it. A notice went out to our membership by email last night announcing the event. Members of the CLA as well as friends, family, and community members alike are invited to join us for a bonfire on the lake. Many of us have been cooped up all winter and an afternoon outside in the fresh air is likely just what the doctor ordered. The event is free, and the only item we’ve put on the menu is S’mores! We will provide the materials for S’mores, you make them and eat them. You are also welcome to bring your own beverages (no alcohol please) and food to eat. The event is rain or shine, so dress appropriately. Check the weather report so you’ll know what conditions you’ll be facing. Continue reading →

01 January 2017: Happy New Year from the Clary Lake Association

The Clary Lake Association Board wishes you all a very Happy New Year and hope you find peace and prosperity in the coming year. We look forward to continuing to serve you in 2017 and remain deeply committed to doing everything in our power to bring about a final and lasting resolution of the Clary Lake water level crisis, and better serve the interests of all Clary Lake shore owners in the coming year. We will of course need your help to achieve these and other goals, and we look forward to your continued support of our organization. 2016 saw a record increase in Association membership, and unparalleled participation by our members. The coming year is going to require that much and more. We’re counting on you to help keep up the momentum!

I had toyed with the idea of sending around a “Year-End Survey” to our membership soliciting comments and suggestions for the year ahead, but I’ve decided instead to keep it simple and use our website forum to invite comments and suggestions from both members and non-members alike. Please let us know how the Clary Lake Association can better serve you- our members, and our community, this coming year. Our handy (and anonymous if you want!) Contact & Feedback form works well for this purpose, or you can contact me (or the Board) directly with your suggestions. We really do want to hear from you, whatever it is you have to say.

A good example of such a suggestion, and one which has been a personal goal of mine for some time now, is for the Clary Lake Association see to having several dry fire hydrants installed in key locations around the lake to provide year round access to water for fighting fires. These hydrants would result in a lower [the_tooltip text=”ISO rating” tooltip=”ISO – Insurance Service Office – This is a, for profit, organization that provides statistical information on risk. For many years the ISO Rating had a large impact on most fire departments. The ISO (PPC) rating is from 10 – 1. With 1 being the best.” url=”” background=”lavender” color=”black”] for the Whitefield and Jefferson communities which would directly translate into lower fire insurance premiums. This suggestion is already on the table for discussion at our next Board meeting.

So give it some thought. We look forward to hearing from you.

10 December 2016: Gate Status, Lake Status

IMG_20161210_113204 (Custom)From the “For What It’s Worth” department, the Clary Lake dam owner was seen at the dam this morning. It appears the purpose of the visit was to close the gate, at least partway; it now appears to be about 1/2 open though it’s still not closed enough to back up water (see picture at left). He opened the gate all the way last Saturday apparently in a knee-jerk reaction to an alleged trespass on the dam by some duck hunters, which he reported to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department- prompting a visit from an officer. I’ve not heard any more about that incident. The gate had been completely closed since early July until he opened it last weekend.

We see good skating on Clary Lake about 1 year out of 3 (if we’re lucky) and even when we do have good skating, it usually doesn’t last that long. This year is not looking like one of the good ones but it is early yet. The picture at left is a composite photo showing simultaneous views from all three Clary WebCams taken yesterday morning- it’s actually a screenshot from my tablet IP Cam Monitor app. From the lake-level views of Cams 1 and 3 (the top two images) it looks like the lake is entirely frozen over but in fact from my second-story office window I can see that the whole north half of the lake is still wide open. Also, as you can see in the bottom image, the entire east-end of the lake is open. I estimate only about 1/4 of the lake is iced over so far, and what ice we have isn’t looking very good.

Continue reading →

Lost and Found: Are You Missing a Pie Plate?

[dropcap]There[/dropcap] has been a very nice 9″ glass Anchor Ovenware(tm) pie plate with a glass cover over at Sheepscot General, waiting for someone to come by and claim it, but nobody has. Today my wife brought it home for safe keeping. We believe it was left behind by someone who brought food to the Harvest Potluck Supper earlier this month. If it belongs to you or you know who it does belong to, give Margaret a call at 458-3143 or email her and make arrangements to pick it up.

15 November 2016: Harvest Potluck Supper a Great Success!

harvest_flyerThe Harvest Potluck Supper held last Saturday was a great success and a lot of fun, thanks to all the people who donated food and all the people that showed up to eat it! We all owe a huge Thank You to the Momentum Committee Chair (Erin Grimshaw) and committee members (Margaret Fergusson, Mary Gingrow-Shaw) for the work they did preparing for this wonderful event.

We had over 50 people in attendance and we made over $319 dollars (after expenses)! 

Sorry for not posting this update until now, but I’ve been a little busy. Here are a few pictures I took during the supper:

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[Show as slideshow]

 

09 November 2016: Reminder, Harvest Potluck Supper this Saturday

A quick reminder, the Association’s Harvest Potluck Supper/fundraiser is this Saturday, November 12th, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Sheepscot General on Townhouse Road in Whitefield. This event is open to the general public and we hope members and non-members alike will take this opportunity to get together and share good food and good company. 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. My wife informs me that we’ve had a fantastic response to our outreach and we expect lots of food of all sorts, and a good turn out as well. Also, it is not too late to contribute to the fare, that we are still in need of a few side dishes such as salads, of whatever sort. Please contact Margaret Fergusson @ 207-458-3143; Mary Gingrow-Shaw @ 207-622-3308 with any questions or suggestions.

I’m going to send out a reminder email to all current Clary Lake Association members this evening. I realize that a number of you are no longer in Maine and will be unable to attend the Supper, but you’ll get an email just the same! Consider it a test of our Emergency Broadcast System. Please keep an eye out for it and if you don’t see it in your inbox in the next 24 hours, please check your spam folder. We’ve done extensive testing of our mail system and most mail hosts recognize our emails as Not Spam (Gmail seems to get confused on occasion). IF it ends up as spam, tell your mail program it is NOT spam!

Thanks and hope to see you at the Supper!

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/

06 October 2016: Clary Lake Parcel Map Now Online

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 →

02 October 2016: Where Are Our Members Located?

Clary Lake Association Members. Google Earth photograph with Jefferson and Whitefield Parcels highlighted in red to show where the Current Year CLA Members are located. As you can see, we're well represented by Jefferson property owners, somewhat less so by Whitefield property owners. Prepared by George Fergusson 02 October 2016

Clary Lake Association Members. Google Earth photograph with Jefferson and Whitefield Parcels highlighted in red to show where the Current Year CLA Members are located. As you can see, we’re well represented by Jefferson property owners, somewhat less so by Whitefield property owners. Prepared by George Fergusson 02 October 2016

Well, as it turns out, mostly in Jefferson! Or at least that’s how it looks on the Google Earth photograph at left which shows parcels owned by CLA members colored RED. In actual fact, owners of approximately 55% of the lake shore properties in Whitefield are members of the CLA while in Jefferson the figure it more like 65% which is not a really significant difference. It just looks significant because the majority of shore front property in Jefferson belongs to CLA members whereas there are a lot of large acreage properties with large amounts of shore front located in Whitefield whose owners are not members of the Association. Just a few of those Whitefield residents joining the Association would change the look of the map considerably. There are also a few members who live outside of the Clary Lake watershed who aren’t represented on this map. Continue reading →

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.

12 September 2016: Price Reduced!

40 Enos Lane, Jefferson Maine

40 Enos Lane, Jefferson Maine

According to recently posted real estate listings on the Zillow Real Estate site and at the Trulia Real Estate site, the price on the Arthur Enos home and property on Clary Lake has been reduced from the original summer 2014 asking price of $875,000 to a more reasonable but still breathtaking $765,000. The real estate listings include a bunch of recently taken pictures. So much for Art’s “I don’t really care if I sell it or not” remark. I assume now he still doesn’t care if he sells it, but at a lower price. According to Zillow, the property was originally listed in July 2014 (see “22 July 2014: Enos Property on Clary Lake for sale“) and was just taken off the market a few months ago. It was relisted at the lower price just a few days ago. I wish Mr. Enos all the luck selling his property.

State Boat Launch Cleanup Update: Saturday 27 August

IMG_20150810_104257 (Custom)We’re all set to go tomorrow morning to move rocks at the State boat launch. A good crowd of people have indicated they plan to come by to either help move rocks, or kibitz. In any case, all are welcome: it promises to be a fun time and the weather is looking to be about perfect.

The Momentum Committee will be showing up about 9 AM to get things set up with the work set to start about 10 AM. Hopefully we’ll be able to wrap up around 2 PM or shortly thereafter. Lunch will be served mid-way through the day. We’re providing hamburgers, hotdogs, potato chips, water, etc.

The water level hit -66″ below the top of the dam this morning (a little lower than the picture shows above, which was taken last summer) so it really is about as low as it can get. However, there’s still a good 6″ to 12″ of water where we’ll be working, so plan your wardrobe accordingly: rubber boots or sneakers are in order along with shorts and work gloves. Remember we’ll be handling wet slippery rocks so sandals or barefeet are NOT recommended. The bottom is generally pretty hard however, so you don’t have to worry about getting stuck in the mud!

Any last minute questions, feel free to call George Fergusson. Hope to see you there!