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LMPA What’s News — Winter 2023

It cer­tain­ly has been an inter­est­ing win­ter! An onslaught of rain over the last sev­er­al months off­set the drought sit­u­a­tion and, unfor­tu­nate­ly, com­bined with the unsea­son­ably warm tem­per­a­tures means that the extend­ed draw­down was unsuc­cess­ful. The dam was closed in mid-Jan­u­ary and as you can see, the lake lev­el is start­ing to rise. The town Weed Advi­so­ry board con­tin­ues to work with DPW with regard to con­cerns around exces­sive weed growth this sum­mer. They will be meet­ing with the Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion in March to rec­om­mend addi­tion­al tools from the tool­box to hope­ful­ly be imple­ment­ed in late spring/early sum­mer. We will share addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion as we receive it.
 
The LMPA exec­u­tive board takes advan­tage of the slow­er win­ter months to con­tin­ue to meet month­ly to dis­cuss ways to ful­fill our mis­sion of preser­va­tion, safe­ty, and com­mu­ni­ty. We have an excit­ing cal­en­dar of upcom­ing events, Sandy Beach employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and beach/boating pass­es, vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties as well as some help­ful tips on prepar­ing your yards for spring in a safe, lake-friend­ly way.  Also keep an eye out for the infor­ma­tion-packed State of the Lake let­ter from LMPA Pres­i­dent, Jaime Gonsalves.

~~ LMPA EVENTS ~~

Lake Cleanup

Spring means lake cleanup time! This is a kid-friend­ly event and every­one is wel­come to help! Meet us on Sandy Beach on April 1st! 
More details

Spring Fling 2023

Mark your cal­en­dars! Fri­day, April 28th at the Hop­kin­ton Coun­try Club. This is a fun, relaxed, adult-only evening where we min­gle and dance to cel­e­brate the start of our busy sea­son. Heavy appe­tiz­ers will be served. Cash bar.
Add To Your Calendar

General Meeting

The Annu­al LMPA Gen­er­al Meet­ing will be held on May 8th at Ko on Hay­ward Street. The agen­da and Exec­u­tive Board vot­ing and open seats will be avail­able on our web­site.
Add To Your Calendar

Family FUN Day

June 11th @ Sandy Beach. Bring your pic­nic lunch and get ready for a great time! Beach pass­es are also on sale! 
Add To Your Calendar

Vessel Safety Check

On June 17th, take ten min­utes from your day and get your boats, jet skis, kayaks, and even pad­dle­boards checked for the prop­er equip­ment to ensure you have a safe boat­ing sea­son by the USCG.10:00am — 2:00pm at the Logan’s dock at 30 Lakeshore.
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Light up the Lake & Boat Parade

Always a favorite! Light up the Lake is on July 3rd, 8:00 pm and the Boat Parade starts at 2:00 pm on the 4th in front of Sandy Beach. Please vis­it our Face­book page, clos­er to the event, for more infor­ma­tion.
LMPA Face­book Page

Cornhole Tournament

Who’s ready to take on the 2022 champs? That’s right, Corn­hole is back on! July 29th (rain date July 30th). Please con­tact us if you would like to be a spon­sor house or host the after-par­ty, or be on the com­mit­tee.  
Email the Committee

~~ Other Community Information ~~

Get Your Beach Pass

Parks and Rec man­ages Sandy Beach and the boat ramp. Pass­es are now avail­able on their web­site. Pre-sea­son pur­chase is high­ly encour­aged. If you pre­fer to pay at the entrance, cred­it cards are pre­ferred.
Order Here

Jobs @ Sandy Beach!

Parks & Rec are look­ing for sea­son­al employ­ees, Pro­gram Super­vi­sor, Park­ing Lot Atten­dant, and Life­guards.
Apply Now

Volunteer with Us

We are always look­ing for vol­un­teers for our events, board posi­tions, and edu­ca­tion­al pro­mo­tions sur­round­ing our mis­sion of preser­va­tion and safe­ty. If you would like to vol­un­teer in any capac­i­ty or have sug­ges­tions for events or edu­ca­tion­al com­po­nents, please com­plete the form, below. We would love to hear from you.
Com­plete this form. 

Please help minimize weed growth, it’s the little things that count

Min­i­mize Runoff
Pol­lu­tion is per­haps the most direct threat to a lake ecosys­tem. In the absence of indus­tri­al waste dis­charge, much of the pol­lu­tants come from rain­fall runoff. Per­haps the sin­gle most impor­tant step to pre­vent water pol­lu­tion is to con­trol the amount of pol­lu­tant that gets into the lake washed in by rain­fall. This can be accom­plished through sev­er­al approaches:

  • Main­tain­ing a grass lawn is often thought to mean the appli­ca­tion of fer­til­iz­ers and it is very dif­fi­cult to dose them pre­cise­ly. Rain will trans­port excess fer­til­iz­er into the lake, which will stim­u­late smelly, unsight­ly, and poten­tial­ly tox­ic algal blooms. Con­sid­er skip­ping the fer­til­iz­er, and learn to live with an imper­fect lawn. (or use phos­pho­rous-free fer­til­iz­ers and fol­low the man­u­fac­tur­er’s direc­tions for application)
  • Cap­ture runoff from imper­vi­ous sur­faces. Rooftops and dri­ve­ways are exam­ples of imper­vi­ous sur­faces, which do not allow water to per­co­late into the soil. Instead, rain­wa­ter col­lects pol­lu­tants and speeds off, con­tribut­ing to soil ero­sion. These soil par­ti­cles end up in lakes, cre­at­ing sed­i­men­ta­tion prob­lems. Roof runoff can be cap­tured with rain bar­rels, and lat­er used to water flower beds. Road runoff can be rout­ed into a rain gar­den made of water-lov­ing plants. The ener­gy of the mov­ing water will be absorbed, slow­ing down ero­sion, and the sus­pend­ed par­ti­cles will get deposit­ed in the gar­den, instead of in the lake. 

See you around the lake!!

We appre­ci­ate all the small things we can each do that have a big impact on pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing the qual­i­ty of our lake and its sur­round­ings. We hope you all enjoy what seems to be the lit­tle that is left of win­ter and we look for­ward to the busy sea­son ahead! 

LMPA Exec­u­tive Board