Hi Everyone,
Colors are appearing in the trees and the cool nights and mornings are signaling Fall is arriving. It is hard to believe we are entering a new season. I hope you all have some nice memories from the summer that was beautiful weather wise yet strange in other ways. Once again I will reiterate how lucky we are to have Webster Lake as an escape from all that is happening in the world.
I want to thank everyone who participated in the WLA Food Drive. All the donations were delivered to the Twin Rivers Food pantry and was most appreciated. A total of 389 pounds of food were collected! There was also a cash donation of $150. What a great giving community we are!
Our WLA board meeting was held on Saturday, Sept 5th. Some updates from the meeting are:
We are hopeful our WLA events will be held next summer and set dates for them. We decided to hold the Breakfast on the Beach on Saturday, July 3rd and have the Boat Parade on Sunday, July 4th. Due to the 4th being on Sunday, people will have Monday off and we could use that as a rain date. Also having the activities on different days will extend the celebration. We had great participation in the Boat Parade this summer and hope to have the same next year. We felt part of the reason for increased participation may have been due to the fact that we did not have a specific theme for the parade. People were free to use their imagination and decorate their boats as they pleased. We will due the same for next year. The WLA Yard Sale is scheduled for Saturday, July 17th. It will be held at the property of Al and Sheila Rainford on the corner of Webster Ave and Rt. 11. We thank them for offering their yard as the old Rowell property on Rt. 11 has been sold. The WLA Annual meeting will be on Saturday, August 7th. The Ice Cream Social and Food Drive will be Saturday, September4th. All dates will be put on the WLA photo calendar. One more reason to purchase one to hang on your wall. The calendar is being created as I write this email and I will let you know when it is available for sale. There were over 60 photos submitted for consideration for the calendar. The Fall newsletter is also in the works.
At the WLA Annual meeting, I explained that we had received some grant money from DES to help pay for a diver to remove the invasive milfoil in Chance Pond. The milfoil was much more widespread than initially thought. After another round of diving and discussions with Amy Smagula at DES, it was determined that diving was not going to mitigate the problem. I made the decision to suspend the diver’s work and save our money to put toward a much bigger mitigation effort. I presented to the board that we will need to retreat Chance Pond with an herbicide in the Spring of 2021. Some of you may recall that Chance Pond was treated with an herbicide in 2018 and at the end of that season it was determined the herbicide was successful. DES paid for this initial treatment. Amy has explained that it is not uncommon for sites to be treated multiple times. This can be due to many factors such as maturity of the plants, its root system, water flow, water chemistry and more. Unfortunately this site is falling into that category of more treatment. This second treatment will have to come from our resources. Members in attendance at the annual meeting were very much in favor of being aggressive in treating this issue. We do not want this invasive species entering our lake. I have started the process of applying for grant money from DES for this project. There is no guarantee we will be accepted and if we are accepted, funding will likely be at 20-25% of the total cost of the project. I will keep you informed of where we are in the grant process as it moves forward. This will be a costly endeavor and we will likely be asking for contributions to help defray the cost from other resources in the Franklin community as well as our WLA community. I have reached out to the local advisory committees of the Merrimack and Pemigewasset Rivers as well. This will be a subject you will be hearing about a lot. We need to preserve and protect our beautiful lake. I know we will come together on this.
The Watershed Management Bureau (WMB), Water Division, of New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) has released a new report entitled “New Hampshire Lake Trend Report: Status and trends of water quality indicators”. The report documents long-term trends and short-term changes to the ecological condition of 150 lakes and ponds in New Hampshire that participate in the volunteer lake assessment program (VLAP). The report capitalizes on the state’s long term commitment to surface water quality monitoring by generating data summaries of water quality indicators such as pH, alkalinity, temperature, and many others, that describe the current conditions and relative comparisons among and between lakes. If any of you are interested in reading this report and learning more about lake quality, you can read the report here.
On a final note, Fall is a time we should all take note of our septic systems. Are they in need of inspection or pumping? Staying on top of your system is a way for you to help improve the health of our lake. Rowell’s Services will once again be having their Webster Lake Days where they offer a discounted price of $160 per !000 gallons for pumping. The dates those prices are in effect are October 16th and October 19th. If you choose to have them service your septic system, mention Webster Lake Days when you call.
I hope you will all be able to enjoy a few more days on or at the lake before saying goodbye for the Winter. Continue to stay safe.
Sincerely,
Val