Lake Area Residents:

After a beau­ti­ful sum­mer, it is now approach­ing the time that the annu­al draw down of the lake begins. The tim­ing of the draw down is man­dat­ed by a per­mit received from the Hop­kin­ton Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion and must begin no ear­li­er than Sep­tem­ber 15th and no lat­er than Octo­ber 1st. The exact date can vary from year to year based upon the lev­el of the lake com­ing out of the sum­mer. This year it is antic­i­pat­ed that the draw down will com­mence on or close to the Sep­tem­ber 15th date. A more exten­sive draw down of the lake will be con­duct­ed this year. Instead of the nor­mal 4–5 foot reduc­tion, the lake lev­el will be reduced by 7–8 feet in an effort to con­trol the inva­sive weeds. It is hoped that the full draw down lev­el will be reached approx­i­mate­ly Decem­ber 15th. The peri­od of time that the lake will be at the low­est lev­el will be as short as pos­si­ble. If the weath­er coop­er­ates, and we have suf­fi­cient freez­ing of the weed roots, the lake lev­el will be allowed to rise to the nor­mal win­ter draw down lev­els, which is the 4–5 foot reduc­tion. The lake will be allowed to begin return­ing to nor­mal win­ter draw down lev­els no lat­er than Jan­u­ary 15th. Re-fill of the lake to spring lev­els will begin with “ice out” or around March 1st as usual.