Lake Maspenock Preser­va­tion Association

Web­site: www.lmpa.org         Email: lmpa.org@verizon.net

Dear LMPA Cur­rent, Past and Future Members,

As we progress through the year of 2018, it is a good time to reflect back on what the year 2017 meant for the Lake Maspenock Preser­va­tion Asso­ci­a­tion.  The year was cer­tain­ly busy and suc­cess­ful for the LMPA in regards to lake stew­ard­ship and social events, lead­ing to com­mu­ni­ty build­ing and increased membership. 

As has been the norm in the last sev­er­al years, much of our stew­ard­ship efforts have been focused on con­trol­ling the growth of aquat­ic veg­e­ta­tion in the lake.  We con­tin­ued to work close­ly with the Lake Maspenock Aquat­ic Veg­e­ta­tion Con­trol Man­age­ment Advi­so­ry Group (Advi­so­ry Group) which was appoint­ed by the Town of Hop­kin­ton Board of Select­men and reports to the Direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works.  As you may recall, this group was formed 2 years ago and tasked with work­ing hand-in-hand with a Cer­ti­fied Lake Man­ag­er (Con­sul­tant) as well as con­cerned cit­i­zens in order to cre­ate a com­pre­hen­sive man­age­ment, con­trol and mon­i­tor­ing plan for the lake. The plan can be found on our web­site at www.lmpa.org. It was approved by the Board of Select­man last year and the com­mit­tee has been oper­at­ing per this plan. Two com­pre­hen­sive weed sur­veys were con­duct­ed in the spring and fall by the com­mit­tee. These sur­veys found the weeds to be at an accept­able lev­el and con­tin­ued sur­veil­lance (no action) was rec­om­mend­ed for the Spring. The Town Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee, with vol­un­teers from the LMPA, will mon­i­tor again this sum­mer. Pro­vid­ed con­di­tions are met, an extend­ed draw­down will occur next win­ter and we’ll be sure to keep you informed.

The Social Com­mit­tee orga­nized sev­er­al events last year which brought the com­mu­ni­ty togeth­er, and has grown our mem­ber­ship tremen­dous­ly.  We kicked off the social cal­en­dar with our annu­al Win­ter Social at the Woodville Rod and Gun Club where we gath­ered with old and new friends and had a blast com­pet­ing at Music Bin­go.  We held our annu­al meet­ing at KO Restau­rant in the spring and had good atten­dance from the mem­ber­ship. This annu­al meet­ing is impor­tant, as it informs the LMPA mem­bers of hap­pen­ings in and around the lake, as well as vot­ing for impor­tant changes to LMPA doc­u­ments and new or return­ing Exec­u­tive Board Mem­bers.  To kick off our first of many out­door events, we com­bined Fam­i­ly Fun Day with the Fish­ing Der­by. It was great to see all the young fam­i­lies join us for Ani­mal Adven­tures and the crowd real­ly enjoyed watch­ing the weigh in at the con­clu­sion of the Fish­ing Der­by.  It was reas­sur­ing to see the amount of fish caught and the size of the fish, reflect­ing the health of our fish pop­u­la­tion. The annu­al 4th of July Boat Parade was our largest par­tic­i­pa­tion yet and there A LOT of cre­ativ­i­ty. Con­grat­u­la­tions to the Gedman’s and Crisci’s for win­ning the trav­el­ing prop tro­phy! Our sec­ond annu­al Corn­hole Tour­na­ment in late July was even big­ger and bet­ter than last year. We had more teams and more action at 6 hous­es around the lake. The games pro­gressed at dif­fer­ent hous­es and built to a crescen­do at the Sweeney’s for the finals and after par­ty. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Rens Hayes and Alan Con­nell, our repeat Corn­hole Champs for 2017. We closed the sum­mer with our sec­ond Tail­gate par­ty where we cheered on the Pats and had a Chili cookoff. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Ryan Jones for win­ning best chili. A big thanks to the Social Com­mit­tee and extend­ed vol­un­teers who put a lot of time and effort into these events. Pho­tos can be found on our web­site (www.LMPA.org) where we have also post­ed ten­ta­tive dates for 2018 events. Please check it out and mark your cal­en­dars.  Please feel free share these events with your friends from town who also enjoy the lake. Our com­mu­ni­ty reach­es well beyond just those that live on the lake, it real­ly encom­pass­es every­one and any­one with an inter­est in the lake and those that enjoy all it has to offer year round.

In addi­tion to our web­site, we have been uti­liz­ing Face­book more and would encour­age you to “like” our page to stay abreast of key updates. Our mem­ber­ship is healthy with approx­i­mate­ly 150 cur­rent mem­bers and we con­tin­ue to add new mem­bers from across Hop­kin­ton, Mil­ford and Upton. Dues are cur­rent­ly $35 annu­al­ly or $65 for a two-year mem­ber­ship. A check can be sent to: LMPA, 6 Downey St, Hop­kin­ton or via Pay­Pal on our web­site at www.LMPA.org under the Mem­ber­ship tab. We do con­tin­ue to use email, so if your email has changed, please send us an email at lmpa.org@verizon.net so we can be cur­rent. With regards to our finan­cials, the Exec­u­tive Board is work­ing to make more details avail­able to the mem­ber­ship. Stay tuned.

We think you will agree that 2017 was a great year around the lake and we are proud of the accom­plish­ments made by vol­un­teers in our orga­ni­za­tion. For 2018, we con­tin­ue to ask the fol­low­ing three things of our mem­bers: 1) ensure you are cur­rent with your paid mem­ber­ship 2) encour­age your friends and neigh­bors to join or renew…you don’t have to live on the lake to be a mem­ber! 3) par­tic­i­pate and get involved.

On that note, our next social gath­er­ing is the LMPA Spring Fling on Sat­ur­day, April 7 at the Hop­kin­ton Coun­try Club. This event is replac­ing the Win­ter Social this year. We are excit­ed to try some­thing new this year and it will be a great space to accom­mo­date our grow­ing mem­ber­ship. This event is not lim­it­ed to LMPA mem­bers so we are look­ing for you to not only attend, but also bring some friends who share your love of our lake. Check out the LMPA Face­book event page for details and updates on this event.

Final­ly, if you are inter­est­ed in join­ing a com­mit­tee or have an idea or skill that you would like to make avail­able, please let a board mem­ber know or send an email to lmpa.org@verizon.net. The fol­low­ing com­mit­tees have been formed:

• Social Com­mit­tee – to plan and exe­cute social activ­i­ties such as Win­ter Social, Corn­hole Tour­na­ment, Tail­gate, etc.
• Mem­ber­ship Com­mit­tee – to devel­op plans for dri­ving mem­ber­ship and man­ag­ing memberships.
• Lake Mon­i­tor­ing Com­mit­tee – to exe­cute the lake mon­i­tor­ing plan per the Lake Maspenock Aquat­ic Man­age­ment and Con­trol Plan.
• His­to­ry Com­mit­tee – to accu­mu­late rel­e­vant his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments relat­ed to the lake and devel­op strate­gies for reten­tion and sharing

Thank you for your sup­port of the LMPA and we look for­ward to see­ing you around the lake!

Sin­cere­ly,

The Exec­u­tive Board and Offi­cers of the LMPA