7968-R2_LSLA_2022_SummerNewsletter_Web

2022 Spring / Summer Hopkins Dam Report

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security fencing; perform some light maintenance on the earthen dam and add some safety features. It is a time and material contract that is still in progress. Bancroft Contracting will be reinstalling the superstructure and the new gate the week of April 4 th . Despite the many issues that have come up during the project, we’re in hopes that we will come in at or under the $76,000 we budgeted for their work and the repointing. After the dam is closed on April 15 th , we’ll be able to complete the final part of underwater repointing on the North side of the sluiceway and a small section on the Western portion of the Mill Pond side of the dam. We will be hiring BMC Diving out of Rangeley for this project. This is a time and material project that’s estimated to cost about $8,000. We have also been performing our regular maintenance of the 132 year old Hopkins Dam. We have started to look at the riprap on the northern side of the dam. There is no immediate need, but we envision that we will have to perform some maintenance riprap work in the next few years. Justine Beaudoin has continued to lead our communication efforts with information postings on Facebook. She will post water levels on Facebook on a weekly basis this spring as we bring the lake level up. Our current Dam Committee consists of Gary Kenny and Justine. Gary has been pivotal throughout the current dam project. Many thanks to Dave Vance and the Dam Committee members for all of their volunteer efforts and to the Directors and members of the Little Sebago Lake Association for all of their support. We’ll be providing a full Hopkins Dam report during our Annual Meeting. I hope to see you there. Rod Bernier Hopkins Dam DamKeeper

LSLA Centennial Tease

Believe it or not, the Little Sebago Lake Association will celebrate its 100 th birthday in 2024! We are planning an array of fun and educational activities to celebrate and say thank you to you, our wonderful lake association members. The first annual meeting of the Little Sebago Lake Association was held at Aimhi on September 6, 1924. Some issues discussed at that meeting were the Ice Committee’s profits, the Road Committee’s east shore road repairs and a reported 1,000 small mouth bass stocked in the lake. The Hopkins Dam was purchased by the lake association around 1952, which gave the lake association responsibility for its maintenance and operation. Today, our issues are very different than they were in 1924. While dam maintenance is still at the forefront, we continue to deal with water quality, lake use safety, the ongoing battle against invasive plants like milfoil and others too numerous to list here. Many things have changed since that first meeting in 1924, but our love for this lake has remained steadfast. We would not be where we are today without your support. We want to take the occasion of our 100 th anniversary as an opportunity to say thank you- and have some fun, too! How can we say thank you? LSLA has formed a Centennial Committee to plan activities for all to enjoy that will take place over the course of the summer in 2024. There are a few spots left- if you have an idea and would like to work on the committee please let me know. In other news, LSLA has a new logo to share with you! As the winner of our new logo contest, lake resident Emily Benedict designed the beautiful Centennial logo you see above. Emily graciously declined the $250 cash prize and donated it right back to the lake. We are excited to use this logo for the Little Sebago Lake Association going forward and we want to thank Emily for all of her time spent on the development and design of our wonderful new logo.

Little Sebago Lake started April of 2022 with a lake level 14” below summer high. The winter drawdown began on the State mandated date of October 15 th when Hopkins Dam was partially opened. As reported in the Fall newsletter, the operating gears that enable the gate to be opened and closed by turning our customized hand wheel failed. I called Dave Vance and he came over immediately and spent an afternoon cutting open the steel box that enclosed the gear operating system. We were then able to use pipe wrenches and breaker bars to manually turn the operating system and lift the 11.5’ steel gate without the benefit of the gear reduction from the hand wheel. Drawdown was very slow because of the operating mechanism failure and weather. The lake achieved it’s winter low water level of 21” below summer high on February 2 nd . Hopkins Dam will be closed on the State mandated date of April 15 th . Our goal is to have a full lake by Memorial Weekend. Needless to say, it’s been a very busy Fall/Winter/ Spring for the Dam Committee. We contracted with Bancroft Contracting out of South Paris to fabricate a new gate to replace the rusted gate in the sluiceway. We also contracted with them to repair the gate operating system; remove, sandblast and repaint the gate superstructure; add a maintenance work platform on the North side of the sluiceway; repair, replace and extend

Stay tuned for more updates on the Centennial Celebration!

Cheryl Alterman LSLA, 2024 Centennial Committee calterman@littlesebagolake.com

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