See you at Calumet Conference Center on Saturday? We'll show you how to spot and report invasive weeds while recreating on the lake this summer.
You can be on the lookout for invasive weeds while you're on the lake this summer. Being a Weed Watcher is easy to learn, and we're sponsoring a meeting on Saturday, June 10, at Calumet to show you what to look for. Coffee at 9 a.m. followed by the meeting. See you there.
Questions continue about site contamination, the potential to harm the aquifer, the impact on Route 16 traffic, and why the Planning Board rejected the argument that the development has regional impact, thereby denying abutting towns a voice in the matter.
The start of Summer Level Management arrived late on Wednesday, 5/24/17, with the installation of all stanchions and the first layer of stop logs on the north side. The lake level is now reported at 406.38'. Should be no problem reaching the scheduled summer level of 407.25' by June 1st.
Carroll County Independent editorial ponders Ossipee officials' public opposition to land use planning and land conservation, reminding readers that clean lakes and open spaces are among the reasons people are attracted to our state.
Freedom passed the hat for money to pay for its lawsuit in the Westward Shores matter. Ossipee wants to know who chipped in.
After last week's lengthy court-ordered public hearing, the Ossipee Zoning Board denied Freedom's request to reconsider the planning board's approval of the expansion of Westward Shores campground. But now Effingham is calling for that hearing to be reheld. Meanwhile, Freedom is consulting its lawyer on what to do next.
In advance of Tuesday's Ossipee Planning Board hearing, Dr. Robert Newton says near-by wells for homes and businesses are threatened because of the development's proximity to a recharge area of the Ossipee Aquifer. He says gas stations are major sources of groundwater contamination even when when they employ new "triple containment" tanks. Smith is familiar with the Ossipee Lake area from his work mapping the glacial geology of the Ossipee Ring Dike.
Consider this: If Westward Shores were undeveloped floodplain land and a new owner came to town with a plan to build a major business there, consisting of 519 sites for camping vehicles served by septic systems and ancillary buildings, would anyone think that was a reasonable idea and good for the lake? Even if a way could be found to make it legal? Sometimes a little common sense needs to temper legal issues.
A Superior Court judge has ordered Ossipee's ZBA to hear Freedom's appeal that the town violated its zoning ordinance when it ruled the campground's expansion plan meets all local regulations. The hearing will be on Tuesday, May 9.
A request by Tamworth to be given special abutter status in the Route 16 development gets shut down by Ossipee. The developer's engineering firm sees irony in the neighboring town's concerns because Tamworth has no zoning laws and lacks a groundwater protection ordinance.
State data shows Westward Shores Campground experienced floodwaters on at least 116 days between 2000 and the end of 2016, a much higher number of occurrences than previously reported. The revised number was computed from state data after pictures and videos last week showed extensive flooding while the lake level was approximately a foot lower than what was thought to be the flooding benchmark.
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