The Tale of Two Campgrounds, the boat thief who got away, and all the rest. Ossipee Lake 2017 in review.
David George Haskell wrote a superb article in the autumn issue of Northern Woodlands entitled "Song of the Balsam Fir," and while he evolved eventually into that subject, he also ruminated about the chickadees he encounters every year. It is good environmental reporting, so I thought I would reproduce his writing about chickadees instead of discussing how intelligent balsam firs are.
People of a certain age can remember when Mount Whittier was a thriving ski area with a cross-highway gondola. The neglected West Ossipee property has a new owner, and he's looking for ideas on what to do with it.
Ossipee officials will recount the votes from the November 28 special town meeting at which voters narrowly turned down the purchase of Camp Sokokis on Ossipee Lake. Meanwhile, a hearing on a state judge's temporary restraining order preventing the campground's owner from selling to another buyer has been continued to January 4. The town's complaint to the state is that the seller, Dianne Sheehan, violated the terms of the sales agreement by urging residents to vote against the purchase.
A Superior Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Camp Sokokis owner Dianne Sheehan to prevent her from selling the property to another buyer. The Ossipee Select Board accuses her of breach of contract and fraud, alleging she waged a war of words against the town in order to defeat the Nov. 28 special town meeting vote on the town's purchase of the property. The board wants Sheehan to repay the money the town has spent on pursuing the purchase and wants a new town meeting vote without Sheehan's interference.
The new members reflect the organization's goal of expanding its expertise and seeking ways for Freedom, Ossipee, and Effingham to work more closely on important lake issues.
Newspaper apologizes, saying it erred in publishing a statement that members of Broad-Leavitt Bay Association's Executive Committee had questioned the authority of its chairman to publicly support the Ossipee beach purchase. The complaints were from members of the Association, not the Executive Committee. The committee was unanimous in its support.
A majority of Ossipee voters favored the town's plan to purchase Camp Sokokis for recreation. But the vote failed to muster the required two-thirds majority.
Proponents and opponents square off in the final week. In public letters, Select Board members call opponents "cowardly" and "arrogant," and signal that non-resident taxpayers won't be permitted to speak at the town meeting. Members of Broad-Leavitt Bay Association question its chairman's endorsement of the purchase.
Almost a decade after it was created, the management plan for Ossipee Lake Natural Area is paying off, with damaged plant communities on the rebound, and boaters largely staying away from posted areas. New maps at the reconstructed Route 25 public boat ramp are in the works for 2018.
In a public letter, the Executive Committee of Broad-Leavitt Bay Association, one of the lake's largest such organizations, calls Ossipee's proposed purchase of Camp Sokokis "an excellent asset acquisition" and a "once in a lifetime opportunity" for a town beach. Ossipee Lake Alliance came out in favor of the plan on November 7. Voters will have the final say on Tuesday, November 28.
It's up to Ossipee voters to determine whether buying Camp Sokokis is the right financial decision. But from an environmental perspective, we like the plan and support it.
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