Category Archives: Newspaper Article

17 August 2021: Milfoil Returns to Cobbossee Lake

Variable Leaf Milfoil, Pleasant Pond, Litchfield Maine.

Eurasian Water-Milfoil was discovered in  Cobbossee Lake in 2018 (see our post dated August 8, 2018: “Invasive Milfoil Confirmed in Cobbosseecontee Lake“). The following year Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection treated several areas of the lake with an herbicide in an attempt to kill off the invasive plant. They were optimistic that the treatment would be successful because the infestation was limited (so they thought) to roughly an acre between the north shore and Island Park. Sadly, the following year Milfoil was again discovered in several areas adjacent to the original infestation, which is where this Central Maine Papers newspaper article picks up. Please read it! It paints an ugly but accurate picture of  the situation they’re facing trying to eradicate this unwanted aquatic plant: 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!

Maine VA health care professionals deploy to New York City

12 August 2019: UPDATED Lincoln County News Article

The Lincoln County News finally posted on line an article about our Annual Meeting. It appears to be the same article, but with better pictures 🙂

Clary Lake Association Looks Into the Future

The Bangor Daily News also carried the story, as did the Nonprofit Quarterly who wrote this interesting promotional piece about the Clary Lake Association’s recent accomplishments:

 

Nonprofit, after Long-Sought Success, Adopts New Stewardship Role

These are exciting times!

30 March 2019: Fire Spreads to Multiple Buildings at N.C. Hunt Lumber

N.C. Hunt Lumber Company on Route 215 in Jefferson suffered a major loss due to fire that apparently started late last night. Fire crews from Jefferson and surrounding towns were still there this morning pumping water out of Clary Lake. Here’s an article from the online version of the Lincoln County News:

Fire Destroys Sawmill at N.C. Hunt Lumber in Jefferson, Business Plans to Rebuild

DSC_6269I stopped down this morning when I heard about the fire, and took the photograph at left of fire trucks pumping water out of Clary Lake. We have been planning for some time to install a dry fire hydrant at this location. Fortunately, the lake is almost full and they were able to get plenty of water or they might have lost more structures in the fire. 

NCHunt_Fire-03-30-2019Jack Holland sent me a the drone photo at left which I believe was taken by Mark Allen. You can clearly see the main sawmill structure and associated buildings are totally gone. It is amazing they didn’t lose more structures.

This is very unfortunate. Norman Hunt has donated generously to the Clary Lake Association in the past. We wish him the best of luck in rebuilding.

Central Maine Papers: Repairs to Whitefield’s Clary Lake Dam completed

There’s an article that appeared in the Sunday December 23rd Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel by Central Maine Papers staff writer Jessica Lowell about the Clary Lake dam and the Rubin/Ayer v. Smith/AQF lawsuit which went to trial last week. This latest article is factually accurate which is somewhat of a marvel even considering Ms. Lowell has been following the Clary Lake saga for a number of years.

Repairs to Whitefield’s Clary Lake Dam completed

Here’s an archived copy if you have trouble getting it off the Central Maine Papers website:

17 October 2018 Lincoln County News: Clary Lake Association Closes on Dam, Plans Repairs

There is a follow up article in the Lincoln County News in this week’s paper by staff writer Jessica Clifford. The only factual inaccuracy that jumps out at me is the article states “The association received the deed to the dam Friday, Oct. 12.” when in fact, the closing on the dam was the following Saturday morning:

Clary Lake Association Closes on Dam, Plans Repairs

Good article, though I had hoped they would publish our mailing address and website address and encourage people to donate money to help restore Clary Lake! It is after all a Great Pond, held in trust for the People of the State of Maine. It’s everyone’s lake. No worries, anyone interested in donating shouldn’t have any trouble finding us.

I’ll post a link to a locally archived copy in a while.

10 October 2018 Lincoln County News: Countdown On for Sale of Clary Lake Dam

A nice article in the Lincoln County News by staff reporter Jessica Clifford. It was going to be in last week’s paper but it got bumped:

Countdown On for Sale of Clary Lake Dam

The article states: “The covenants were established to prevent damage to the mill building from water flowing downstream.” We all know the real reason the covenants were placed on the dam property.

Here’s an archived copy:

 

28 September 2018 Central Maine Papers: Federal judge OKs Whitefield dam sale

Well that didn’t take long: yet another fine article in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel by Staff Writer Jessica Lowell.

Federal judge OKs Whitefield dam sale

I find this comment amusing:

Paul Kelley said Friday after the ruling was announced that he doesn’t know “how things are playing out. I do know that parties are generally unhappy.”

I can count the parties that are “generally unhappy” with today’s ruling on the fingers of one hand and have a couple of fingers left over. Everyone else is VERY happy 🙂

A minor correction: the dam cost $80,000 not $32,500

Here’s a link to an archived copy of the article:

 

11 April 2018 Lincoln County News: Clary Lake Group Raising Funds to Purchase Dam

There is an article in this week’s Lincoln County News by staff writer Greg Foster about our plan to purchase the Clary Lake dam. It is for the most part factually accurate which is particularly impressive given the both complexity of this story and Mr. Foster’s being relatively new to it. The part about the CLA making an offer on the little red building sitting on the dam was really just me daydreaming out loud, something one probably shouldn’t do when being interviewed for a newspaper story! For the record, the Association currently has no plans to make an offer on the red building:

Clary Lake Group Raising Funds to Purchase Dam

Can’t beat the publicity: I was at the check out at Sheepscot General this evening when someone came up to me and gave me a $10 bill saying it was to help purchase the Clary Lake dam 🙂

I’ve archived a PDF copy of the article should you have trouble getting it off the Lincoln County News site:

07 April 2018 Centralmaine.com: Fundraising starts to buy Clary Lake dam in Whitefield

There is an article in this morning’s Centralmaine.com newspapers (Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel) by Staff writer Jessica Lowell. There are a couple of minor inaccuracies but all in all it’s a good article, and GREAT publicity. It’s also nice to see they finally got some new pictures to go with their Clary Lake articles:

Fundraising starts to buy Clary Lake dam in Whitefield

I thought I was smiling 🙂

Here’s an archived copy in case at some point in the future you can’t get to the on line version:

20 March 2018 Central Maine Papers: Clary Lake residents await enforcement of water level order

There is an article in today’s Central Maine Papers (Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel) about the recent Superior Court ruling by staff writer Jessica Lowell:

Clary Lake residents await enforcement of water level order following years of dispute

Love all the publicity 🙂

Here’s an archived copy if perchance you can’t get to the newspaper’s website:

14 March 2018 Lincoln County News: DEP’s Court Win Clears Way for Clary Lake Water Level to Return

We haven’t had a Lincoln County News reporter covering Clary Lake since sometime last summer, until now. Reporter Greg Foster has written a great first article on Clary Lake:

DEP’s Court Win Clears Way for Clary Lake Water Level to Return

Here’s an archived PDF copy if you have trouble getting the article off the LCN website:

07 September 2017 Lincoln County News: Commissioners Hear about Clary Lake Dam

Last Tuesday September 5th CLA Board member Jane Chase and I and my wife Margaret attended the Lincoln County Commissioners meeting in Wiscasset to update them on the current status of the Clary Lake water level crisis. The meeting which lasted about 30 minutes came about as the result of a chance meeting between CLA President Malcolm Burson and County Administrator Carrie Kipfer at a Midcoast Conservancy function where they discussed the Clary Lake situation. Ms. Kipfer offered to put us on the agenda for the next County Commissioners meeting. Charlotte Boynton, staff reporter for the Lincoln County News attended the meeting and wrote up a short report of the meeting in this week’s Lincoln County News. The article didn’t make it into the online news site, so I’ve scanned a copy of it for our archive:

This is the first time we have met with the Lincoln County Commissioners though likely not the last; the purpose of this first meeting was to bring the Commissioners up to speed with where things stand with Clary Lake and answer any questions they had. They had a lot, and we covered a lot of ground in 30 minutes. While the Commissioners were generally aware of our water level crisis, they were not particularly familiar with many details surrounding the controversy. I found them genuinely interested and concerned, and fully expect they will be keeping a much closer eye on the situation going forward. We did not ask them to take any action at this time.

One minor correction to the article: the caption for the photograph lists the people left to right, and it should be right to left 🙂

September 2017 Whitefield News: Clary Lake Association Petition Delivered to DEP

The September 2017 issue of the Whitefield News has an article on the front page I wrote about the Clary Lake Association’s recent Petition initiative to DEP. The article includes a little background to help give people who are new to town or who haven’t been following the Clary Lake saga an idea of what’s been going on with our Lake. I hope to write for the Whitefield News from time to time.

The Whitefield News is the monthly newsletter of the own of Whitefield and is available free of charge at the Town Office, the North Whitefield Superette, the Sheepscot General, and as a PDF download on the Town of Whitefield website. Here’s a local copy if you have trouble getting it off the Town site:

27 August 2017 Centralmaine.com: Whitefield and Jefferson residents list frustrations in petition to DEP

There is an article in today’s Centralmaine.com papers  by staff writer Jessica Lowell about the Petition we submitted to DEP last week. The article is in the Kennebec Journal, the Morning Sentinel, and was also picked up by the Portland Press Herald. I love all the publicity! Everywhere I’ve been this week people are mentioning Clary Lake, the petition, and asking me what’s new:

Whitefield and Jefferson residents list frustrations in petition to DEP

I assume the “good faith effort by DEP to bring relief to the residents around Clary Lake” referred to by DEP spokesperson David Madore was the 13 or so months of court-ordered mediation that ended in March 2015. The Notice of Violation (NOV) mentioned was subsequently issued in late September 2015.

My only complaint about the article: they could have used a new photograph! They’re still using a picture included in a story from August 2015.