Hi Everyone,
Did it feel like Spring to all of you over the weekend? What nice weather but certainly not February like. The lake is still frozen but unfortunately the Fishing Derby has been canceled again for the second year in a row.
Last Thursday, Daniels Construction Company appeared at the Lagace Beach Boat Ramp and the dredging process began!!! Set up of the equipment happened Thursday, dredging in the water took place on Friday and clean up was done this morning. This is not the long term solution for this boat ramp but hopefully, you will have an easier time launching your boats this Spring! I have attached a couple photos below. You may have to download them for viewing.
The WLA Board had their meeting last Thursday night and heard from board member Deb Parker about plans for celebrating the WLA 50th anniversary. She and the committee members have come up with some fun ideas that you will be hearing more about in the future. In the works are an Ice Cream Truck traveling around the lake the day of the boat parade, selling of LED lights for an environmentally friendly way to light up the lake the 4th of July weekend, prizes for participants in the boat parade, a BBQ Dinner to be held at the Steadman Pavilion on Griffin Beach and a cookbook/photo book of Webster Lake activities or your favorite recipes served while at the lake. I had mentioned this in a previous email, but the committee is still wanting more submissions. If you are interested in participating in this project, please send your recipes/photos to Deb Parker at deb@hindsdesigns.net.
As I told everyone at the WLA Annual meeting last August, I will be stepping down as president this year. At this time no one on the board would like to become president. At our meeting the other night, new board member Bruce Brown would be interested in taking over next year, however, he is looking to get a little more time under his belt before taking on this role. If there is someone who would like to be an interim president, talk with other board members or let me know. Elections for WLA officers take place at the August annual meeting.
Over the years the WLA has had numerous logos. The 50th committee as well as the board discussed the idea of standardizing a logo to be used in all of our communications. The idea of a logo contest was discussed and a committee to review submissions will be decided at our June board meeting. Then a vote on selected submissions would be held at the August annual meeting. If you might be interested in this, get your creative thinking cap on and more info will come on this matter.
A webinar summarizing the Cyanobacteria Plan adopted by the State of NH recently, was presented by David Neils and other staff members of DES-HAB on January 31st. The webinar is now available online. If you weren’t able to attend the webinar, I recommend checking out these links. The webinar was very informative and learning about this topic is very important to all of us living on any NH Lakes. Webinar summarizing New Hampshire’s Cyanobacteria Plan. A recording of the webinar is available on our cyanobacteria playlist on YouTube.
A variety of other information is available through the Cyanobacteria HAB page of the NHDES website, including:
- Healthy Swimming Mapper: Shows all active cyanobacteria warnings/alerts in the state and is searchable by waterbody or location.
- Bloom report form: If you see something unusual or suspect a bloom may be present, stay out of the water and report the bloom through this form. The form also includes photos of blooms in New Hampshire. Links to sign up for weekly updates of all warnings in the state, or to be notified of bloom warnings/alerts on a specific waterbody.
- Interim rules governing the newly-formed Cyanobacteria Mitigation Fund.
Finally, the new assessments for Franklin properties have been a hot topic of discussion. I wanted to let everyone know that on Monday, February 26th at 6:00pm there will be a City Council workshop meeting. At this meeting the City Manager will be presenting “Assessing 101”. The meetings are held at the Franklin Elks Lodge. It will be available via Zoom if you are not able to attend in person. This link should bring you to the page where you will be able to get the Zoom link 2024 City Council & Mayor Meeting Agendas | Franklin NH. The agenda for this workshop meeting is not posted yet but should be there by the end of this week.
Enjoy whatever crazy weather we have left of this winter season and stay safe,
Val