Posted: August 31
Updated: Today at 10:34 PM
Grand opening for lakes center Friday
By Mechele Coopermcooper@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
BELGRADE LAKES -- Construction of the Maine Lakes Resource Center is complete and a grand opening will be held Friday.
Staff photo by Andy Molloy
The newly erected Maine Lakes Resource Center in Belgrade will hold its grand opening on Friday.
Construction on the barn-like building began last fall. Recent finishing touches include a parking area with interlocking paver stones, a landscaped yard rimmed with bushes and trees and and a sign out front with removable letters.
Located in the heart of the village at 137 Main St., the resource center is an initiative of Docks to Doorways -- a coalition of Colby College, the Belgrade Lakes Association and the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance.
The group raised $2.5 million with a $450,000 challenge grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation to acquire the property and build the center.
Kathi Wall, executive director of the Lakes Resource Center, said the open house from 1-4 p.m. is for the entire community.
"It's for people who have participated in this project, no matter how," Wall said Tuesday. "People have brought everything from flowers to ideas to money to materials and we want to open it up to the community and let them know it's their space to be used as they wish."
She said the center's focus is to make lake conservation a tradition. She's hoping the center will help increase awareness so decisions made throughout the watershed, no matter if it's land development or road work, will take into consideration the effect on lakes.
"It should be a center for knowledge and fun because knowledge should be fun," she said.
Sue Gawler of Belgrade will be honored with the Eddie Mayer Conservation Award, which is given to an individual who consistently demonstrates a high degree of involvement and dedication to the environment.
State representatives have been invited and the Stone Fox Farm Mobile Cone will be on hand with environmentally friendly ice cream, she said. Local artisans Rhonda Barnes Adlem, who hand-paints camp signs, and Loretta Giacamazzo, who makes porcelain plates with blueberry patterns, will display their work.
The Gawler Family will provide music, she said. At 7 p.m. people are invited to the film "Finding Belgrade."
"It's a documentary about a young man who went around to the different places named Belgrade and did this documentary," she said. "There's some local stars in it."
Wall said the building and property withstood the hurricane test when Tropical Storm Irene passed through the lakes region Sunday.
"Everything did so well," she said. "The building remained dry. There was no water in the basement whatsoever, and the rain garden did exactly what it was supposed to do, no pooling of water anyplace."
Polly Beatie, president of the Belgrade Lakes Association, said her group will move into the building within the next three weeks. Beatie said she is glad to be in the same space with other organizations the association works with on a regular basis.
"The ability to meet with everybody we ordinarily like to stay in contact with is going to be excellent," Beatie said. "And the fact that we'll support each other and work together on programs and events is amazing."
Other awards will be handed out by Peter Kallin, executive director of the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance. The Bob Joly Conservation Award will be given to two youth conservation corps members, Levi Mason of Hallowell and Jimmy Cumming of Manchester.
He said Joly was one of the founders of the youth corps when it started in 1996. Recipients are chosen for their devotion to conservation.
Kallin said the open house will be a welcoming event for the community.
"We've had a few events so far that have been well received and attended," Kallin said.
The center's full basement will be used by Colby College researchers and the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance's Youth Conservation Corps.
Offices upstairs will belong to lake organizations, including the conservation alliance, lakes association and the Congress of Lake Associations. Wall also will have her own office.
Mechele Cooper -- 621-5663 mcooper@centralmaine.com
4th of July
Due to your support, the Docks are now open at the Belgrade Lakes Village Post Office site!
A special thanks to Adam Gardiner and his crew at G & L Contracting for their diligence in getting the docks ready for the 4th of July!
July 5, 2011
June 26, 2011
June 25, 2011
June 23, 2011
Removal of the existing PO docks and boathouse to make way for installation June 27th of our new docks!
Compliments of your Docks to Doorways Campaign and the Maine Lakes Resource Center
January 30, 2011
October 13, 2010
Tom Klingenstein, left, chairman of the Docks to Doorway steering committee, greets John
Witherspoon, president of Skowhegan Savings Bank, and other contributors at the future site of the Maine Lakes Resource Center in Belgrade Lakes on Tuesday. Staff photo by David Leaming
Lakes center nears fundraising goal
By Mechele Cooper mcooper@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
BELGRADE LAKES — Major and not-so-major contributors were honored Tuesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Maine Lakes Resource Center.
Construction of the 3,500-square-foot project in the village of Belgrade Lakes will be the first phase of a project that includes plans for a new community park adjacent to the post office; and restoration of public docks and a boathouse for the historic mail boat made famous by the movie “On Golden Pond.”
Tom Klingenstein, chairman of the Docks to committee, commended Addy Seeman, a 12-year-old Belgrade fourth-grader, for raising $700 for the project. “There were so many gifts, it’s hard to label one gift extraordinary,” Klingenstein said. “The one I called out is a fourth-generation summer resident, Addy Seeman. She baked cookies every week this summer and sold them at the farmers market.”
About 50 people attended Tuesday’s ceremony on Main Street. Construction on the resource center will begin this month. Klingenstein thanked several businesses that made significant contributions: Hammond Lumber, Kennebec Savings Bank, Gagne & Son, Skowhegan Savings Bank, CO Beck & Sons Roofing, Thayer Engineering and Summertime in the Belgrades.
He said the “overwhelming” community response has brought the campaign 98 percent of the way toward the $2.5 million fundraising goal, he said.
Since the campaign was launched three months ago, Klingenstein said there were 461 new donors and $481,176 in new gifts. In all, a total of $2,446,105 has been raised from 696 donors. Klingenstein also thanked the Harold Alfond Foundation for its $450,000 challenge grant to inspire other people to contribute.
“We think the resource center will do wonderful things for the economy of the village,” he said. “We want to make this the center of the town. “The major issue is conservation. What we’re trying to do, at the end of the day, is preserve the lakes.
And get homeowners to adopt best conservation practices. To do that, they need to be informed.” Polly Beatie, president of the Belgrade Lakes Association, said joining with Colby College and other lake and conservation associations is a collaboration far beyond anything anyone could imagine. “I’m so excited about this day ...” Beatie said. “We today are striving to educate members (of the community) about the care of the lakes.”
Colby College President “Bro” Adams said the project will amplify and extend the work Colby students and staff have been doing on the lakes for the past decade. “We need to educate people in the ways we need to conserve this incredible resource,” Adams said. “Education is the fundamental aspect of this project.”
Shops and restaurants also will benefit from the increased business from the new public docks. Diane Oliver, owner of Day’s Store, said, “This is good for the town. It’s good for the village. And good for the lake community.” Kelly Frost of CCS Consulting, a firm that provides fundraising consulting services, said the project on paper seemed overwhelming to some. “But when you see people who care about it and are devoted to achieving the goal, the collaboration, the working together for that shared vision, and then see them achieving it together, that’s something that happens in our state time and time again,” Frost said.
October 5, 2010
August 8, 2010
Posted: August 8
Updated: Today at 7:25 PM
DOCKS TO DOORWAYS New project calls for public access, green space and a resource center
BY MECHELE COOPER Staff Writer
BELGRADE -- "Oh yea!" Whitney King exclaimed. "We got it this time!"
The Colby College chemistry professor had been anxiously waiting for Josie Thiele, a 20-year-old chemistry major, to pull in a metal contraption with jaws that scooped up muck 60 feet below the surface at an official sampling site on Great Pond.
King and his three student assistants were out on the lake earlier this month to conduct a sediment analysis.
They want to know how much phosphorus is contained in the material that settled on the bottom of the lake. He said sediments can be a significant source of phosphorus in a lake. Phosphorus is essential for plant growth and can trigger algae blooms, he said.
Meanwhile, another student research assistant at the helm of the 24-foot pontoon boat, Katherine Murray, of Birmingham, Ala., struggled to keep the floating laboratory from drifting away from the sampling site.
The boat was equipped with measuring instruments, a GPS sensor, sampling gear, computer, a small crane, and a hole in the floor, which can be clamped shut when not in use, for collecting water and sediment samples.
It took Thiele several attempts to retrieve the smelly, dark gray bottom sediment.
"A day of sampling will generate a week-and-a-half to two weeks of lab work," King said.
King and his students have been monitoring temperature, oxygen and phosphorus levels in Belgrade-area lakes for the past 10 years.
This year, he said the thermocline was at 23 feet in Great Pond, which is fairly typical thermocline depth for the lake.
A thermocline is the transition layer between the mixed layer at the surface and the deep-water layer. The mixing is caused by wave action on the surface. He said each lake has a different thermocline depth because big lakes have bigger waves, allowing mixing at greater depths.
His team also found the oxygen concentration of the deep water had decreased 60 percent since spring turnover.
"What does it mean?" King said. "The thermocline serves as a barrier for water mass mixing. Warm water floats on top of cold water. Oxygen is consumed in the deep water and can't be replenished until mixing occurs in the fall. The decrease in oxygen has a significant impact on fish like lake trout that need cold, well-oxygenated water as a habitat. The low oxygen conditions also release nutrients from the sediments."
King said there are a number of research teams out on the lakes this summer participating in the Belgrade Lakes Watershed Sustainability Project.
He said the Belgrade Lakes region is being used as a model because it provides a unique laboratory to understand the complex dynamics between environmental, bio-geochemical and socioeconomic systems.
The project is a collaborative effort between the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance, Colby College, the University of Maine, the Maine Congress of Lake Associations, the Belgrade Lakes Association and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The consortium is funded by a multiyear grant from the National Science Foundation, which last year granted Colby College and the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance $99,964 for such research.
Other projects include a group headed by Herbert Wilson Jr., a professor of biosciences at Colby. His team is identifying the presence or absence of damsel flies on all seven lakes, which can serve as indicators of lake health and provide a baseline for environmental changes that can be judged in the future.
Indicator species are organisms that -- by their presence, abundance or chemical composition -- demonstrate some distinctive aspect of the character or quality of the environment.
"This is the first year. I hope to do at least three years altogether," Wilson said. "We're setting up a baseline right now. This has never been done in the Belgrade lakes in an organized fashion. We have already found two species of concern, which is a species that is rare or unusual enough in Maine to be worth watching. It's not made it to the endangered species list or threatened list, but is a species that is really notable and could make it on those lists."
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is in its fourth year of removing white perch from East Pond to shift the biological balances in the lake and reduce summer algae levels.
The state has removed nearly 20 tons of fish, according to Melissa Evers of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
She said the effectiveness of this project will be measured by sustained lake clarity.
A preliminary review of past algae blooms on East Pond found the average bloom date was Aug. 16. In 2009, it was Sept. 15.
She said delayed onset of blooms is a measure of success that DEP will continue to monitor.
All these studies are pretty exciting, but Pete Kallin, executive director of the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance, said property owners must come on board and adopt best conservation practices to make a real difference.
Phosphorus from a fertilized lawns and faulty septic systems are leaching into the water. Cleared shore lots disrupt natural filtration of runoff.
Human activity in the watershed adds more phosphorus than the lake system can handle, he said.
Kallin said the watershed sustainability project is tied in with a community effort to provide homeowners with the know-how and needed resources.
The effort started a year ago with a small group of concerned citizens and community leaders. Now, as part of the effort, the Belgrade Lakes Association's Docks to Doorways campaign is in the process of raising $2.5 million to restore public docks in the Belgrade Lakes village; provide green space on Mill Stream, which runs between Great and Long ponds; and build a new conservation resource center.
"We want to create a center to help people learn more about the lakes and better understand how their actions affect the lakes," Kallin said. "More importantly, learn how to modify their behavior and the way they live along the lake so the water quality stays the same or even improves."
At the center, people would learn how to plant rain gardens that filter runoff from roofs, streets and driveways and the importance of buffer strips and porous paving materials that let water infiltrate down through the soil instead of running off.
He said homeowners also will learn how their actions -- the way they cut grass and apply fertilizer and pesticides to their lawns, for example -- adds up to poor water quality.
"The kind of technologies demonstrated at the center will not only be for the Belgrade lakes," he said. "We want to build on our model so lake associations throughout the state can benefit from what we develop here in partnership with Colby and DEP and others participating in our center."
The Maine Congress of Lakes Association would have offices in the 3,500-square-foot center, along with the Belgrade Lakes Association and the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance. There also will be research space for environmental scientists.
Polly Parkhill Beatie, president of the Belgrade Lakes Association, an organization founded in 1908, said Maine lakes are faced with many challenges.
The Docks to Doorways initiative is designed to help all lakes, not just the seven Belgrade Lakes.
With the support of the Maine Congress of Lakes Association and other statewide environmental groups, it will reach many more people than a small lake association is able to and should have positive political ramifications as well.
"Lake lovers will become educated stewards, not destroyers, of the lakes that generate so much of Maine's economy," Parkhill Beatie said. "Together with other resources, environmental scientists can collaborate to find ways to restore our lakes. In addition the entire watershed community, and indeed the state, will benefit from the shared activities and educational opportunities that are to be part of the Maine Lakes Resource Center. Conservation best practices will be on display."
The Belgrade chain consists of seven very large, interconnected bodies of water: North, East, Salmon, McGrath, Great and Long ponds; and Messalonskee Lake.
For water to flow from East Pond through Messalonskee Lake, he said, takes about seven years.
"What that means is, the lakes are dependent on each other," he said. "Any incremental improvements we make will take a long time for the lake water quality to change."
Great Pond has recently been placed on the Department of Environmental Protection's list of "impaired" water bodies -- meaning that, during the past 30 years, water clarity on Great Pond has declined. Long Pond and East Pond also are on that list.
Water clarity is measured by a small disk attached to a chain that is lowered down into the lake. Trained volunteers watch until it disappears. The depth at which the disk is no longer visible is considered the "Secchi depth," and is taken as a measure of the transparency of the water.
"We've been doing this since the 1970s," Kallin said. "That's one of the reasons we're able to document the fact that the water quality is declining.
"In the 1970s, you could see seven to nine meters down below the water. Now, you can only see five to six. It's still pretty good, but no where nears to seven or nine (meters)."
Teaching people environmentally sound practices will be difficult, according to Scott Finlay, finance chairman for Belgrade Lakes Association and Docks to Doorways campaign.
Reorienting people won't be free and will take everyone, not just a concerned few, to make a difference.
He said the lakes and surrounding watershed are the economic engine that drive real estate sales, construction, the trades, boating, fishing, restaurants and general stores.
"Each, in some way, is connected to the vibrancy and health of our lakes," Finlay said. "Revenue to the town is highly dependent upon property values. Everything in interconnected.
"But the lakes are under attack. We are literally loving them to death."
Finlay said the benefits of these initiatives are not limited to Great Pond and Long Pond, but include the entire lake region from North Pond and East Pond to Messalonskee Lake.
"We are all part of the same watershed," he said. "Our goal is to make the Belgrade lakes the shining example of best conservation practices for the entire state of Maine and perhaps all of New England.
"We want it to become socially unacceptable to be anything else. Like throwing trash out the window of your car, change happens, but it takes a concerted effort. We owe it to our children, and we owe it to the community."
Information about the watershed sustainability project and Docks to Doorways campaign can be found at
http://web.colby.edu/epscor/about/ and at www.dockstodoorways.com.
DEADLINE - TO QUALIFY for a $450,000 matching fund from the Harold matching fund from the Harold Alfond Foundation, the Docks to Doorways campaign must raise $450,000 by Oct. 14.
Mechele Cooper -- 623-3811, ext. 408
mcooper@centralmaine.com
July 13, 2010
Posted: 12:00 AM
Ron Bancroft:
A golden moment for Belgrade's ponds and a model for all
Farsighted community leaders act on an opportunity to reopen a water route to the village.
By RON BANCROFT
When I first heard about this project last year, I was much impressed with its scope and audacity. The plan has the power to greatly enhance the character of the village and also to transform the lakes themselves, potentially reversing the long slide in water quality over the last 100 years. I am sitting on our deck at camp looking out over Long Pond in the Belgrades with a gentle breeze from the south making it a lovely morning. This post-July 4th week has turned out to be a good week to be at camp. Shade from our big pines and the nearly constant breeze up the lake have made even the hottest days quite livable, even pleasant. And this has been a big week in Belgrade Lakes. There was the 4th of July parade, of course, bringing everyone out to share in the community spirit of this lovely village. However, the real news was the official kickoff of the Docks to Doorways Conservation Initiative that was announced just before the parade.
Docks to Doorways began more than a year ago when a small group of far-sighted community leaders realized that there was an opportunity to reopen water access to the village from Great Pond by purchasing two significant parcels of land in the center of town.
This was the kind of opportunity that might never come again, and a group quickly formed, led by the Belgrade Lakes Association, the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance and Colby College, to better define the project and determine how much money would need to be raised to make it happen.
The plan that was developed is both exciting and ambitious. The project will retain the current Post Office building in the center of town and restore the public docks behind it, along with the historic mail boathouse that served Great Pond for generations. There will also be retail space and even a small park.
The centerpiece of the campaign, located on the second property just uptown, will be the Maine Lakes Resource Center, a 3,500-square-foot building that will provide field research space for Colby environmental scientists and offices for the BLA and BRCA. The Center will provide practical information on how to improve the water quality of the lakes.
When I first heard about this project last year, I was much impressed with its scope and audacity. The plan has the power to greatly enhance the character of the village and also to transform the lakes themselves, potentially reversing the long slide in water quality over the last 100 years.
And yet the $2.5 million price tag struck me as unrealistic for such a small community.
Diane Day Oliver, owner of Day's Store and a member of Docks to Doorways steering committee, reassured me that such fundraising support was indeed realistic -- suggesting last week that I be sure to come to the July 4th Kick Off.
Sure enough, at the ceremony fundraising committee co-chair Gail Rizzo announced that the campaign had already received pledges for $1.5 million from lead donors and a $450,000 challenge grant from the Harold Alfond Foundation.
The Alfond challenge grant will match the balance of the fundraising required dollar for dollar, but the total must be raised by October of this year.
What is exciting about the Docks to Doorways initiative is that it is a partnership of the many. This is the kind of community effort that could serve as a model for others in the state.
Moreover, the work that will be done at the Maine Lakes Resource Center could have impact not only in improving water quality in the Belgrades but also in practices that could improve lakes all across Maine.
The week of celebration in the Belgrades ended with a nostalgic dinner at the Village Inn -- turning the clocks back 70 years to, as the special menu said, "fine dining on the Real Golden Pond."
Masterfully restored wooden boats lined the banks behind the Inn. We were treated to a keynote by "Golden Pond" author Ernest Thompson. Thompson has summered on Great Pond for more than 60 years. It was those youthful summers that inspired his book and the subsequent movie (shot, unfortunately, in New Hampshire).
Thompson warmed our hearts with reminisces of early days on Great Pond, most particularly about the two legendary girls' camps, Runoia and Abena, that featured prominently in his canoe adventures. Those camps may be gone, but their spirit lives on.
Thompson concluded his remarks with a plea for all of us to pull together to ensure that the wonderful traditions of life on these Maine lakes not fall victim to environmental degradation. We all left feeling something of his passion and commitment -- and better for it.
This Docks to Doorways Initiative may indeed succeed. How fortunate we are to be able to kindle this kind of commitment in Belgrade Lakes.
Ron Bancroft is an independent strategy consultant located in Portland. He can be contacted at: ron@bancroftandcompany.com
June 26, 2010
BELGRADE
June 26, 2010
Kickoff celebration at 1:30 p.m. on July 4
By Mechele Cooper mcooper@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer
BELGRADE -- For decades, boaters on Great Pond could hop on docks behind a former marina, which now houses the post office, to pick up a gallon of milk at Day's Store or visit Main Street shops and restaurants.
That all ended in 2004, when a pine fence was built blocking off what was, for more than 70 years, open access to and from Great Pond.
The owner of the building where the post office is located put the property up for sale and built the fence to blunt potential liability from public use of the docks.
The Belgrade Lakes Association stepped in last year and purchased two properties on Mill Stream between Great Pond and Long Pond: the former marina that now houses the post office, and the former Damren property down the street.
The association has since partnered with the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance and Colby College in the effort, which has grown in to a community conservation project to preserve Maine lakes.
On July 4, the three groups will host a kickoff celebration at 1:30 p.m. at the Damren property on Main Street to formally announce the public phase of a $2.5 million campaign. They also will officially open the first public dock on Mill Stream.
"We'll be dedicating and opening the first new dock on the Mill Stream," said Diane Oliver, who owns of Day's Store with her husband, Kerry.
Oliver, who co-chairs the Doors to Doorways Community Committee along with Sue Gawler, said this will help all the businesses downtown and allow people a unique wayto come to the village.
Loren Wright, a volunteer for the Docks to Doorways campaign, said people are invited to come to the celebration July 4 to view building plans; enjoy refreshments, music and conservation displays; and ride on Colby's research pontoon boat, Melinda Ann.
"This will bring back something that made this community special, coming by boat down the stream to the village on Mill Stream," Wright said. "We're hoping people will join us on July 4 so they can get an update on the campaign and see where we're headed."
With Colby College and the Conservation Alliance on board, Gail Rizzo, who serves on the lake association Board of Directors, said the project is much stronger.
"We have a broader reach, more community involvement and two additional, leading partners," Rizzo said.
Since last fall, the Steering Committee has been expanded to include elected officials, business owners, year-round residents and the presidents of Colby College and Kennebec Savings Bank.
Colby President William "Bro" Adams said the college is pleased to be a lead partner in the Docks to Doorways project.
He said the project aligns perfectly with Colby's past and future research and community service initiatives in the Belgrade Lakes watershed. He said it also will directly advance college's interest in fostering community-based research in the area.
Maggie Shannon, executive director of the Maine Congress of Lake Associations, a member of the steering committee, said the project is about making the Belgrade Lakes a model for conservation in Maine.
"We view the evolution of this project as a major advancement for everyone," Shannon said. "The project is no longer just about docks or about Great and Long ponds. It's about preserving lakes in the region and beyond."
Docks to Doorways has 27 volunteers on the Steering Committee and four working committees -- Building, Community, Education and Fundraising.
Tom Klingenstein, chairman of the Steering Committee, said the old boathouse on the stream, behind the post office, will be restored as originally planned. But the project now also has a conservation focus, with new designs for a "green" 3,500-square-foot conservation resource center on the vacant Damren lot.
He said the building will be modeled after an old barn and showcase conservation initiatives.
"A building in the center of town will allow us to promote our activities and programs in ways unavailable to us in the past," Klingenstein said. "The center will also be used for the farmers' market, education programs, music, lectures and other entertainment."
Plans for the post office site also have changed, he said. The plan now is to tear down two-thirds of the building and replace it with a small park where people can hang out and enjoy the stream.
"The plan is to make that little park a community space where people can get a view of the water," he said. "It's amazing. We're surrounded by water, but there isn't a great sense of water when you drive through town because it's so built up. We're hoping tohave something behind the post office where we can take out food and have someone to rent paddle boats and canoes.
"But at the end of the day, this project is about conservation, getting people living in the watershed to adopt best conservation practices," he added.
Wright said more information about the project can be found at www.dockstodoorways.com. People can make donations on site or send them to P.O. Box 551, Belgrade Lakes, ME 04918.
February 26, 2010
