There is a lot going on these next few weeks. On top of weed man­age­ment dis­cus­sions, the ZAC meet­ing below is an impor­tant one to attend as well.

On 3/11, ZAC will be dis­cussing Mar­guerite Con­crete and their con­tin­ued efforts to rezone the cor­ner of South Street and Hay­ward (across from KO Restau­rant) for an office building. 

Click on the QR code below for the agenda.

Dear LMPA Members, 

2022 was a year of change for our lake com­mu­ni­ty. The econ­o­my was front and cen­ter in many of our lives. Gas prices sky­rock­et­ed result­ing in many of us opt­ing for more slow cruis­es ver­sus high speed runs down the lake. The weath­er was beau­ti­ful all sum­mer long and with it came a  drought. Thank­ful­ly, the fall brought sig­nif­i­cant rain­fall to end the drought, how­ev­er it unfor­tu­nate­ly ham­pered the attempt at an extend­ed draw down — more on that lat­er. We also saw many new hous­es built around the lake this year, which inspired us to re-launch our Wel­come Pails in an effort to wel­come all those new to the lake area and hope they become mem­bers of the LMPA! Please con­sid­er reach­ing out to those new to the lake com­mu­ni­ty and help them learn about the won­der­ful facets of the lake and  how we can pro­tect its beauty.

Weeds, weeds, and more weeds

The exces­sive weed growth con­tin­ued to be a prob­lem through­out the lake, espe­cial­ly in the North basin. Many lake res­i­dents have told us that this past year was some of the worst they’ve ever seen. The LMPA con­tin­ues  to work close­ly with the Town of Hop­kin­ton Lake Maspenock Aquat­ic Veg­e­ta­tion Con­trol Cit­i­zens Input Group (CIG).  They report direct­ly to the Direc­tor of the Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works (DPW).  The CIG has devel­oped a two prong approach to the weed sit­u­a­tion. First, they have imple­ment­ed an extend­ed draw­down in an effort to expose the weed roots to freez­ing tem­per­a­tures. This involves drop­ping the water lev­el to approx­i­mate­ly 8’ below the nor­mal lev­el and expos­ing the lake bot­tom to suf­fi­cient­ly cold tem­per­a­tures that the weed beds freeze.  Sec­ond, they have pro­posed that her­bi­cides be used in cer­tain areas that con­tin­ue to have an inor­di­nate amount of weeds. If approved, the her­bi­cides would like­ly be applied in late May or ear­ly June.  The actu­al loca­tions, dates and times of appli­ca­tion is depen­dent on the annu­al spring sur­vey con­duct­ed by the CIG and town con­sul­tant lim­nol­o­gist. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it appears that the mild win­ter tem­per­a­tures and high water lev­el will not be suf­fi­cient to retard the expect­ed weed growth this spring. We are hope­ful that the her­bi­cide appli­ca­tion will be approved so we can mit­i­gate the over­abun­dance of weeds and move in the direc­tion of restor­ing bal­ance to the lake. For more infor­ma­tion on the weed sit­u­a­tion and the exten­sive research and plan­ning that the vol­un­teers on the CIG have worked tire­less­ly on over the last sev­er­al years, we encour­age you to review the doc­u­ments and infor­ma­tion on the town of Hopkinton’s website. 

Anoth­er sum­mer of fun on the water

As you would expect with the beau­ti­ful weath­er, the lake saw a high vol­ume of boat and jet ski traf­fic, par­tic­u­lar­ly on week­ends. In an effort to keep every­one safe, the LMPA con­tin­ued to pro­vide edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for safe boat­ing. Per usu­al, we pro­mot­ed the boater safe­ty class­es put on by the Mass­a­chu­setts Envi­ron­men­tal Police and will do so again in 2023. We also brought in the US Coast Guard Aux­il­iary (USCGA) again to pro­vide free cour­tesy boat safe­ty inspec­tions. These inspec­tions are com­plete­ly vol­un­tary and there are no reper­cus­sions if you do not have all that is required to pass. These inspec­tions are designed to ensure that all the nec­es­sary safe­ty equip­ment required is on board and ready to go and if you are miss­ing any­thing then you know what you need to get. All types of ves­sels were checked – every­thing from power­boats to kayaks! The inspec­tions only take about 10 min­utes and each pass­ing ves­sel was issued a stick­er for the year. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, high winds that day kept many boats at their dock, but every­one will get anoth­er oppor­tu­ni­ty to get that cov­et­ed USCGA stick­er this sum­mer. Keep an eye on our web­site for the dates and times for boater safe­ty class­es and boat inspec­tions for 2023. The LMPA did receive a num­ber of com­ments and com­plaints about unsafe boat­ing through­out the sum­mer. While we appre­ci­ate peo­ple let­ting us know what’s hap­pen­ing on the lake, if you observe some­one oper­at­ing in an unsafe man­ner, please con­tact the Hop­kin­ton Police (508–497-3401) and the Mass­a­chu­setts Envi­ron­men­tal Police (800–632-8075). 

Just play­ing in the sand

With approx­i­mate­ly 540 beach pass­es pur­chased from Parks and Rec, Sandy Beach con­tin­ued to see large crowds on week­ends com­ing out to enjoy the sun, sand, and cool water. The LMPA con­tin­ues to work with the town of Hop­kin­ton Parks and Recre­ation Depart­ment (P&R) on the use and upkeep of Sandy Beach, the park­ing lot and the boat ramp. The Ad-Hoc com­mit­tee (a sub­com­mit­tee of P&R), also pro­vides input and assis­tance to P&R for main­tain­ing the beach and all its sur­round­ing facil­i­ties.  Safe­ty is a num­ber 1 pri­or­i­ty for all involved. Cur­rent projects in the works are an entrance and exit gate sys­tem, as well as a poten­tial dock installed near the boat ramp.  This would allow boaters to safe­ly and effi­cient­ly launch and retrieve their ves­sels. Future plans involve a com­plete makeover of the park­ing lot and boat ramp. As always, we will pro­vide updates to the mem­ber­ship regard­ing the planned improve­ments. If any­one is inter­est­ed in par­tic­i­pat­ing on the Sandy Beach Ad-Hoc Com­mit­tee, it is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to have input into these improve­ments and to help move them forward. 

Water qual­i­ty maintenance 

The water qual­i­ty of our lake con­tin­ues to be excel­lent. Mark Sex­ton (LMPA Exec. Board mem­ber) con­ducts the water qual­i­ty checks three times a year in mul­ti­ple loca­tions around the lake.  The results, which are updat­ed on a reg­u­lar basis on our web­site, demon­strate con­sis­ten­cy with the num­bers and as res­i­dents of the lake, we play a major role in main­tain­ing the qual­i­ty of our water. Please take the time to read the enclosed fly­er with some help­ful reminders on Lake Friend­ly Prac­tices. Whether you are water­front, off a side street, and/or launch and pull your boat/canoe/kayak on a reg­u­lar basis, all the lit­tle things on this fly­er add up to make a big dif­fer­ence. We appre­ci­ate your efforts. 

Part of hav­ing clean water is keep­ing trash out of the lake. We had our annu­al lake cleanup this past spring and returned to our reg­u­lar for­mat of meet­ing at the beach park­ing lot.  We col­lect­ed a full dump­ster load of trash and debris for dis­pos­al.  We will be hold­ing anoth­er lake area cleanup this com­ing April.  Take a look at the cal­en­dar on our web­site for the date and time. 

Fun times

The LMPA held many enjoy­able social events this past year, thanks to the efforts of our Com­mu­ni­ty Build­ing Com­mit­tee. All of our events are such an amaz­ing way to bring our com­mu­ni­ty togeth­er and we couldn’t do it with­out our fab­u­lous vol­un­teers. We kicked off the sea­son with one of our biggest events, our annu­al Spring Fling.  The Hop­kin­ton Coun­try Club staff did an excel­lent job as always pro­vid­ing fine food and drink and a great time was had by all! Our sec­ond big event was Fam­i­ly Fun Day at Sandy Beach. It was a won­der­ful June day of fam­i­ly-friend­ly activ­i­ties like sand cas­tle build­ing and swim­ming but the high­light was most def­i­nite­ly the vis­it from Ani­mal Adven­tures. They pro­vid­ed enter­tain­ment and edu­ca­tion with some adorable rep­tiles. Next came Light Up The Lake on July 3rd.  Many lake­front res­i­dents dec­o­rat­ed their water­fronts — and even boats. It was amaz­ing to see all the dif­fer­ent lights and dec­o­ra­tions! This was a great pre­am­ble to the 4th of July Boat Parade.  We had over 40 boats par­tic­i­pate with cre­ative themes and cos­tumes. Con­grat­u­la­tions to Colleen Mar­tin and Don Doucette for win­ning the cov­et­ed Prop Tro­phy with their Ronald McDon­ald themed boat! The high­light of the sum­mer was the 5th annu­al Corn­hole Tour­na­ment. Corn­hole Budz, Steve Ken­ney and Bri­an Delisle beat out the rest of the field to win the big prize — brag­ging rights on the lake!  A big shoutout to all those who vol­un­teered and made the day a suc­cess! Final­ly, we fin­ished out the sea­son with a fun Chili Cookoff as we watched the Patri­ots lose to Green Bay. While the Patri­ots didn’t win, Ryan Jones won with a great tast­ing “grilled” chili. 

Annu­al gen­er­al meeting

We had a full agen­da for our annu­al meet­ing on June 6th this past year with about 30 mem­bers in atten­dance at Ko out of the 152 house­holds with a cur­rent mem­ber­ship. Typ­i­cal­ly at our gen­er­al meet­ings, the board reports on the past year’s finances, cur­rent projects, reviews past and future events, as well as con­ducts  elec­tions for open board posi­tions. At this par­tic­u­lar meet­ing, the board pro­posed two amend­ments to the bylaws which were vot­ed in. The first amend­ment allows the gen­er­al meet­ing to be held ear­li­er in the year, which will be May 8th, one month ear­li­er than in the past. The sec­ond bylaw amend­ment allows the removal of an Exec­u­tive Board mem­ber from the board fol­low­ing an affir­ma­tive vote by a major­i­ty of the Exec­u­tive Board. These amend­ments were pro­posed after receiv­ing feed­back from asso­ci­a­tion mem­bers and as part of our year­ly review of the bylaws by mem­bers of the Exec­u­tive Board. The annu­al gen­er­al meet­ing is a great way for you and your fam­i­ly to learn more about the asso­ci­a­tion and as well as pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for mem­bers like you to share feed­back and ideas that help sup­port the mis­sion of the association. 

Stay updat­ed and get involved (*see below  for updat­ing your con­tact information)

We work hard to keep our mem­bers informed via our web­site (www.lmpa.org), FB page and email. If you are a cur­rent mem­ber and are not receiv­ing our emails, please send us an email at info@lmpa.org with your pre­ferred email address. We are also hap­py to answer any ques­tions you may have as well.

We hope you come on out and help us cel­e­brate the kick­off of the spring/summer sea­son around the lake at the Spring Fling. We can promise deli­cious food, groovy tunes and over­all a good time. It real­ly is a nice way to recon­nect with the lake com­mu­ni­ty after a long win­ter. We sin­cere­ly hope you come out to enjoy and even learn about ways you get involved in the association! 

We thank you for your con­tin­ued sup­port of the LMPA and look for­ward to a great 2023! Please stay safe, respect the envi­ron­ment and we’ll see you around the lake. 

The Exec­u­tive Board and Offi­cers of the LMPA 

2023 Cal­en­dar of EVENTS

4/1 Lake Clean-Up, Sandy Beach

4/28 Spring Fling, Hop­kin­ton Coun­try Club

5/8  Annu­al Meet­ing, Ko Restaurant

6/11 Fam­i­ly Fun Day, Sandy Beach 

6/17 Coast Guard Ves­sel “Inspec­tions”

7/3 Light Up the Lake (and boats)

7/4 Boat Parade

7/29 Corn­hole 

For res­i­dents who can­not make it to the Plan­ning Board Zoom meet­ing on March 6th, but would like to voice their opin­ion on the Rezon­ing pro­pos­al for the Hayward/South Street prop­er­ties, please email your com­ments BY SUNDAY March 5th, with your name and address, to:

1. Gary Tren­del — planningboardchair@hopkintonma.gov

2. John Gel­ci­ch — jgelcich@hopkintonma.gov

3. Con­nor Degan — cdegan@hopkintonma.gov

FYI- Arti­cle from 2008 on the first attempt to rezone the same area:

Hop­kin­ton devel­op­er still seek­ing zon­ing change (metrowestdailynews.com)

On April 26^th, the Hop­kin­ton Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion approved the Notice of Intent sub­mit­ted by the Hop­kin­ton DPW and the Cit­i­zens Input Group (CIG) to man­age the exces­sive inva­sive weeds in Lake Maspenock.  The next step is for the Com­mis­sion to pre­pare the Order of Con­di­tions for each treat­ment option. They will review and final­ize this doc­u­ment at their next meet­ing sched­uled for May 10^th.

Each sea­son, the DPW along with the CIG will deter­mine if a treat­ment is nec­es­sary and select an option among the “tools in the tool­box”.  Once an option is select­ed, the DPW will return to the Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion to present their rea­sons for choos­ing that tool and show that they have or will meet all of the Orders of Con­di­tions set for that option.  The Com­mis­sion will then need to reach a con­sen­sus if that tool will offi­cial­ly be used. 

Dear LMPA members,

The next meet­ing of the Town of Hop­kin­ton Weed Advi­so­ry Group is sched­uled for Sept 12 at 6:00 pm at the Hop­kin­ton Library.

We strong­ly encour­age you to attend this meet­ing as the results of the most recent weed sur­vey as well as treat­ment options for next year will be discussed 

Thank you.

Lake Maspenock Weed Management and Control Advisory Group