North Pond: Great Things Going On!

Meeting in the dining hall.

"My members are coming through," announces Cheryl Murdock, pointing out that the towns of Smithfield, Mercer and Rome are coming through, too. "We're moving."

Cheryl, who is President of the North Pond Association, sent out a challenge to all members this spring to contribute time or money to the monitoring of the North Pond Boat Landing for invasive aquatic plants.

North Pond has traditionally been the low-key link in the Belgrade lakes chain. "A different drummer . . . the road less taken . . ." have been among the terms bantered around at association discussions concerning a proactive water quality stance. Meetings were mostly members only; publicity was minimized.

"It's because of the milfoil," Cheryl explains. "[The response] is good news for the lake and for everybody." All three towns have contributed grants to the boat inspection program. Members have donated generously.

"The more hours, the less likely an invasive," states Cheryl. But the interest in helping the lake doesn't stop there.

"You need more than one person who knows how to do everything. It's called cross-training," she explains. "It's time that the association does more." There are now four members trained to test water quality. Cheryl's husband, Charles, puts in, takes out, and checks on the buoys that the association has purchased. Cheryl represents North Pond in the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance (BRCA).

Buffer plants as door prizes.

The annual meeting this summer at Pine Tree Camp in Rome has been moved up to July 9, an earlier-then-usual date selected to get more of the summer seasonal residents and vacationers involved. Instead of the traditional lobster, the noon menu will be hamburgers and hot dogs. Instead of having a closed and vacant camp to themselves, meeting-goers will join the campers through the lunch line. The campers that week will be children with mental and some physical handicaps.

Two weeks later, on July 23, Pine Tree Camp will be holding Open House to celebrate its 60^th Anniversary, a success story of providing a true lakeside summer camp experience to children and adults with all types of major mental and physical disabilities.

To contribute to that celebration, the North Pond Association will hold its Annual Boat Parade. Hopefully it will include more new members, more young people, more non members who appreciate the camp and the work of the association.

"There's another generation that's coming up," Cheryl points out, hoping to attract them to the organization. "We're just now retired and it's our turn," she states. The Murdocks started summering on North Pond in the mid-'80's.

Being an officer in a lake association is a major time commitment. But all she's asking members for is two hours once a month to monitor the boat landing. There's a good reason for that.

North Pond, one of the smaller lakes in the chain, had the second highest percentage of boat landing business (boats put in the water) in the Belgrades — a count of 502 boats based on only 257 hours of monitoring for the entire season.

Pine Tree Campers practice archery.

With this season's support by the towns and the lake association members, a lot more monitoring will be possible. As Cheryl says, it's good news for the lake. It's also good news for the chain and the watershed.

Right on North Pond!

For more information call 362-5338.

Summertime in the Belgrades

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North Pond: Great Things Going On!