Lake Maspenock Preser­va­tion Association

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

April 30, 2016

To: Lake Area Residents

As many of you know, Hopkinton’s Annu­al Town Meet­ing takes place Mon­day, May 2^nd at 7:00, in the Hop­kin­ton Mid­dle School audi­to­ri­um.  There will be an item con­cern­ing fund­ing for the con­trol of exces­sive aquat­ic weeds at Lake Maspenock in the bud­get.  The “Lake Maspenock Weed Man­age­ment and Con­trol Advi­so­ry Group”, formed at the direc­tion of the Hop­kin­ton Select­men, has been thor­ough­ly eval­u­at­ing this issue over the last 7 or 8 months.  A pro­fes­sion­al con­sul­tant, with exten­sive lake man­age­ment knowl­edge, was hired by the town to assist and advise the town com­mit­tee.  The pur­pose of the Town’s Advi­so­ry Group is to iden­ti­fy the type and scope of the prob­lem and eval­u­ate ALL avail­able meth­ods of con­trol­ling the exces­sive weed growth.  Each method of weed con­trol is being rat­ed in terms of safe­ty, effec­tive­ness, cost and fea­si­bil­i­ty.  The goal of the Group is to cre­ate a long-term plan for man­ag­ing the lake.  No rec­om­men­da­tions have been made yet, and it is antic­i­pat­ed that their eval­u­a­tion will not be ready until late sum­mer or ear­ly fall.  At that time the Group’s rec­om­men­da­tions will be pre­sent­ed to the pub­lic and Select­men.  The Select­men will make any deci­sions con­cern­ing the Group’s find­ings and they will con­trol if, when, and how any funds are spent.  The pub­lic will have oppor­tu­ni­ties to ask ques­tions and pro­vide input pri­or to any final deci­sions being made.  It is impor­tant that the request­ed funds, includ­ed in the bud­get for the com­ing year, be avail­able to imple­ment the weed con­trol method or meth­ods ulti­mate­ly approved by the Selectmen.

The Lake Maspenock Exec­u­tive Board sup­ports the Weed Con­trol Advi­so­ry Group and believes they are per­form­ing an exten­sive eval­u­a­tion of the prob­lem and the options avail­able to solve it.  It is clear that what­ev­er rec­om­men­da­tion is ulti­mate­ly made by the Group to the town will have been objec­tive­ly arrived at.  The LMPA Exec­u­tive Board urges all to attend Town Meet­ing to sup­port the fund­ing request­ed for the con­trol of the exces­sive aquat­ic weed growth.  If addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion is desired, please go to LMPA.org and select the link to the “Aquat­ic Veg­e­ta­tion Advi­so­ry Group”.

It is antic­i­pat­ed that the top­ic will come up ear­ly on in the meet­ing so please be on time.

Thank you,

The Offi­cers and Exec­u­tive Board

Lake Maspenock Preser­va­tion Association