Answers Sought On Ossipee Beach Proposal

Ossipee—October 8, 2017—How will the Town of Ossipee manage a 52-acre, 45-site commercial campground? What impact will additional car traffic have on the area? What will happen to the town beach on Duncan Lake? Is it credible that the cost to purchase and operate the campground will have no impact on taxes?

These are among the questions being raised in letters to a local newspaper and online posts about the Select Board’s proposal to pay $1.2 million for Ossipee Lake’s Camp Sokokis in order to secure a town beach on the lake. There is even a website on the topic at www.nobeachisfree.com.

The push to purchase the campground is being led by First Selectman Richard Morgan, who is a long-time champion of increasing public access to the lake for Ossipee residents.

While the town already owns Ossipee Lake shorefront, its Nichols Road beach lacks parking, and town officials say the beach at Constitution Park is not safe for swimming. The “official” town beach on Duncan Lake has a large shorefront and plenty of parking, but for Morgan, having a place to swim and recreate is different from having a place to swim and recreate on Ossipee Lake.

“I think this beach is about so much more than the beach or the ability to be able to stick your feet in the water,” he told the Carroll County Independent. “It’s about the identity of our town.”

Morgan is not alone in his belief. Since the 1950s, individuals elected and otherwise have publicly floated ideas about purchasing property on Ossipee Lake to provide access to local residents.

As each idea foundered and shorefront prices continued to rise, the ideas became more complicated, culminating in a proposal to lease a portion of Ossipee Lake Natural Area from the state and operate it as a town beach that would also have been open to the general public. DRED killed the idea as a threat to the environment.

Lack of Information Cited
Morgan has positioned the purchase of Camp Sokokis as Ossipee’s best, and likely last, chance to obtain a usable beach on Ossipee Lake. Whether that’s correct or not, the plan has raised questions that have Ossipee taxpayers scratching their heads in confusion.

Chief among the issues being discussed online and in the paper is the town’s explanation for why it continued to pursue paying $1.2 million for the property after it was offered 90 feet of the campground’s shoreline and a parking area at no cost.

Asked about the donation offer at a Select Board meeting, Morgan said simply that the board had tasked him with negotiating a purchase, and he had already worked out the terms with the sellers, Bill and Dianne Sheehan. Bill Sheehan told the Independent that after the donation offer was conveyed, Morgan asked him and his wife to “keep their promise” to sell the entire property to the town.

Other concerns have focused on the lack of information about how the town will manage the property and campground business. In a letter to the Carroll County Independent, Ossipee’s former Recreation Director, Peter Waugh, said he is on the fence about the purchase because officials have not said which town agency will oversee the property, or how liability issues, maintenance, and improvements will be handled and paid for.

Referring to the town’s long-time goal of having a beach on the lake, Waugh offered an analogy in his letter:

“Now that the town has an opportunity to obtain such a parcel what do we/they do with it? I liken it to the dog who constantly chases a car. The thrill is in the chase, but what does the dog do with the car once he catches it? So, if we complete the chase for the beach, what is the long-range plan for it?”

In an online post, Ossipee resident Ted Hoyt, whose family owns a campground on the lake in Freedom, posed a list of basic questions the town has not yet answered:

“Who will be the campground manager? Pay the bills? Collect the rent? Do the maintenance? Clean toilets? Haul the trash? Arrange for insurance? When the water system or septic system fails does the town pay for new systems? Who answers a late night call to respond to a late night complaint of a loud out of control party?”

“Running a campground is not an easy job,” he wrote. “Yes, there are 24 hour a day responsibilities.”

Financial Impact Sought
In addition to questions about the operating plan, Hoyt and others have expressed financial concerns about the purchase, including the possibility that a switch from a private family-run campground to a public facility managed by a municipality might send long-time campers packing, taking the property’s revenue source with them.

“Towns do not need to nor should they ever consider purchasing property with rentals along with typical issues surrounding such properties,” posted Ossipee’s Steve Foley online. “A better plan would be to have a private sale of this property and public access a contingency for 100 years.”

Tax impact is also on the public’s mind, but Selectman Morgan has dismissed such concerns, telling the Independent that there is a lot of misinformation circulating.

“It is simply untrue,” he said, “that the purchase will send taxes through the roof.”

Yet the Select Board has not released financials for the venture other than to say that Ossipee is in “phenomenal” financial shape and has a $1.47 million surplus fund for emergencies. Morgan also fueled skepticism with his comment that the cost of bonding the purchase of the campground would be “minimal—about the cost of a cheese pizza.”

“Let’s see the numbers so we can start making an educated decision,” replied an online poster using the pen name “Ossipee.”

The Select Board says it will hold at least one public hearing to present its plans and answer questions, although it turned down a request to schedule a hearing on a weekend to accommodate non-resident Ossipee taxpayers.

While a vote on the matter could take place as soon as November, the state must first approve the town’s request to hold a special town meeting for that purpose. The state will consider that request on October 13.

4 Comments

  1. Dennis Smith 6 years ago October 10, 2017

    Thirty four years I lived on Newman Drew road, river front. Paid a lot of taxes for that place. Ossipee town tax me twice in 10 years for empty lots or other people property. What happens to the taxes that this campground pays?
    Who will pay for upkeep of beach and campground?
    Who pays the electric bill? Plowing the p4ivate roads in this park?
    I think we need answers before spending this kind of money?

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  2. atony 6 years ago October 11, 2017

    “Ossipee is in “phenomenal” financial shape and has a $1.47 million surplus fund for emergencies” I remember all too well the former town selectman and assessor over assessing and taxing the shore-front property owners to the point of an attempted class action against the town. Eventually the town settled but only after many years of disproportionate taxation among the local residents and shore-front property owners. That is how the town ended up in “phenomenal” financial shape. Before we even get to the ongoing maintenance and cleanup costs the issue of spending $1.2 million of the taxpayers money should be debated openly. No closed door meetings, no special meetings when most residents are “not around” and certainly more that one open meeting. The town needs to make every effort to accommodate the residents so that open meetings can take place and this proposal thoroughly vetted.
    In my opinion the pride shown in the statement of the town being in ” phenomenal financial shape”, given the unfair way in which the money was generated, reveals the arrogance that is becoming more pervasive in all forms of our government today.

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  3. keith 6 years ago October 11, 2017

    what great points . i hope there is more than one meeting to give us ans and hopefully all the people against this stick together and vote NO . since they are pulling a fast one by holding the vote when most people are gone. there are way to many questions we need answered. I am all for a beach but not a campground and we could have had the beach for free…….

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  4. Louise 6 years ago October 12, 2017

    The town is having their petition hearing this Friday the 13th requesting a voting date of November 29th according to the petition they submitted to the court. If this is such an emergency, why didn’t they start their 10 day mandatory posting prior to being able to petition the court for this “special election” in August right after the P & S was signed? Why did they wait a month to start this process? And why are they wanting to wait another month after this petition to have the vote?

    Also according to the petition submitted to the court, this beach would be open to Residents AND NON-Residents. Mr. Morgan mentioned during one of the Selectmen’s meetings the town wants to use Gretchen Rd as the primary road to access the beach, but surely Hodsdon Shore Rd, will also be used quite a bit. That will generate a lot of extra traffic on Gretchen Rd, which is currently a private road for the campers. It would become a public road, and there is talk of widening it. What will happen when it’s open to the public? I’ve driven down that road, and have seen a lot of children playing. What about the safety of those children that ride their bikes and play in that campground? What happens when they’re running out onto Gretchen Rd or Riding their bikes and what about the safety of the residents on Hodsdon Shore Rd that walk up and down that road, with a driver that has no regard for the speed limit?

    It mentions in the petition to the court that having the beach available to both residents AND non-residents, it would generate extra revenue to the nearby establishments. Chances are if people are going to use the beach for the day, they will pack their own food. From what I understand the campers bring in a lot of revenue to the small local businesses in that area, Valueland, Indian Mound Golf Course, Indian Mound Pizza, The Hardware Store, etc… They will stand to lose several thousand dollars collectively annually in revenue with the loss of at least those 15 campsites, and potentially more. Has any type of impact study been made to see how this will impact those businesses?

    Mr. Morgan has already indicated there could be a “slight” increase to property taxes. As slight as it might be, a lot of towns people CANNOT afford it. 66% of the elementary school children are on the free lunch program in Ossipee. Even if they rent, if property taxes go up, so won’t their rent. So for the few that might use this beach, everyone has to suffer? Because this has been Mr. Morgan’s life long dream/mission to have ANOTHER town beach, everyone will have to pay the price?

    Mr. Morgan says the town can afford the bond that’s great, but what about all the other expenses that will be involved? Road maintenance, Security, Managing the beach, Managing the Campground, Grounds upkeep, just to name a few. How are all of these going to be paid?

    It’s amazing that the town can afford to purchase something for 1.2 million, have operating costs, site improvements, maintenance etc… and to say that taxes will not increase or only increase slightly? One has to ask oneself, are our taxes to high as it is? Even if taxes don’t increase this year, at some point, these expenses will catch up with the towns budget, and what will happen then? ANOTHER massive increase to the property owners on the waterfront such as what happened a few years ago?

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