If you are plan­ning to attend the Corn­hole Tour­na­ment After Par­ty, please take a minute to sign up for food or cleanup!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0f4fa8a72faaff2-4thannual

Dear LMPA Members,

We hope you are enjoy­ing your sum­mer on the lake. We had great par­tic­i­pa­tion in our first “Light up the Night” event on the 3rd of July as well as the annu­al Boat Parade. Con­grat­u­la­tions to the Sweeney’s for win­ning the best boat for the sec­ond year in a row. This could be the start of a dynasty!

If you have spent any­time in the north basin you sure­ly have noticed the exten­sive weed growth, par­tic­u­lar­ly the large leaf pond weed which is grow­ing to the sur­face. As we dis­cussed at the LMPA Annu­al Meet­ing, the weed prob­lem was some­what expect­ed giv­en our inabil­i­ty to pro­ceed with the extend­ed draw­down of the lake last win­ter. We want to remind every­one that the mon­i­tor­ing and man­age­ment of weeds in Lake Maspenock are under the juris­dic­tion of the Town of Hop­kin­ton, specif­i­cal­ly the Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works (DPW) who also man­age our dam. For sev­er­al years, the DPW has been advised on weed sta­tus by a cit­i­zens advi­so­ry com­mit­tee in which sev­er­al lake res­i­dents and LMPA members/officers par­tic­i­pate. The advi­so­ry group cre­at­ed an oper­at­ing plan approved by the Town of Hop­kin­ton, for weed mon­i­tor­ing and man­age­ment. A copy of this can be found on the LMPA Web­site (go to the Town Advi­so­ry Tab on the home page).

The DPW, Town Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee and LMPA con­tin­ue to work togeth­er to ensure we can resume the extend­ed draw­downs. As we have pre­vi­ous­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ed, there is one home­own­er on the lake that has expressed con­cern about impact to their water sup­ply which pro­hibits us from the doing the deep­er draw­down per the agree­ment with the Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion. We are work­ing to resolve this issue.

Although the oper­at­ing plan includes sev­er­al options for weed man­age­ment, the extend­ed draw­down is the pre­ferred method. Due to tim­ing, oth­er options will not be pur­sued for treat­ment this summer.

Many of you have asked who you can con­tact at the Town of Hop­kin­ton to express your con­cerns or pref­er­ence for a spe­cif­ic treat­ment approach for the weeds. The best con­tacts are:

• John West­er­ling, Direc­tor of Hop­kin­ton Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works Email: jwesterling@hopkintonma.gov
• Nor­man Khu­ma­lo, Town Man­ag­er
  Email: nkhumalo@hopkintonma.gov
• Lake Maspenock Weed Man­age­ment & Con­trol Advi­so­ry Group
  Email: maspenockchair@hopkintonma.gov

For the remain­der of the sea­son, please be care­ful boat­ing in the north basin as we have had reports of issues with clogged water intakes and pro­pellers. If you have a boat with a pro­peller we sug­gest putting your engine in reverse reg­u­lar­ly which many times will clear any weeds that may be wrapped around the prop. Clean and clear your water intakes reg­u­lar­ly after boat­ing through the weeds. Please also be care­ful swim­ming in the areas affect­ed by the weeds such that you do not risk entanglement.

This is a frus­trat­ing sit­u­a­tion for all of us who enjoy our lake and we are work­ing dili­gent­ly to be in an improved sit­u­a­tion for the next sum­mer season.

Regards,

The Offi­cers and Board Mem­bers of the Lake Maspenock Preser­va­tion Association

We would like to send a BIG THANK YOU! to Dan McAu­li­ff and Jane Richard­son, from the US Coast Guard, who vol­un­teered their time on Sun­day, July 7th, to con­duct free boat inspec­tions for any boats/kayaks. View the Pho­to Gallery for more pictures!!!

The win­ner of the 2019 Boat Parade is Under the Sea! Congratulations!

Vis­it the Pho­to Gallery Tab for all Boats who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 2019 Boat Parade!!

Daniel McAu­li­ffe, a cer­ti­fied Ves­sel Exam­in­er and mem­ber of the US Coast Guard Aux­il­iary. has offered to hold a Safe Boat­ing Day in which CG Aux­il­iary mem­bers would per­form safe­ty ves­sel checks on your power­boats, per­son­al water craft, kayaks and canoes to insure they have all the safe­ty equip­ment to com­ply with state and fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions. Ves­sel checks take about 10 mins and those who pass receive a year­ly decal. For those who fail there is no penal­ty. They sim­ply inform them what they need to pass. There is no fee or cost for this ser­vice, the CG Aux­il­iary con­sists of all volunteers. 

Inspec­tions will be held on Sun­day, July 7th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at 30 Lakeshore Dri­ve. Lake­side, it is on the same side as Sandy Beach, towards Mil­ford side. Let’s ALL get out there and get our boats inspected!!!

Below, please find a let­ter from Kel­ly Mac­don­ald, a very con­cerned mem­ber of the LMPA. She needs your support .….

ATTENTION!!! ALL Lake Maspenock Res­i­dents and Friends of Hop­kin­ton, Mil­ford, and Upton:
Dear Friends,

It is with heavy heart and deep con­cern that I write to you today, but it must be done. 
I NEED YOUR HELP!

Dur­ing Labor Day week­end, on Sat­ur­day, Sept. 1st, 2018, my twelve year old son and I accom­pa­nied sev­er­al lake neigh­bors in an attempt­ed res­cue of the sev­en­teen year old boy that drowned that day.
What start­ed out as a large par­ty of joy­ous yelling and cheer­ing, end­ed with cry­ing and the shrill screams of pan­ic. Sad­ly, there was a lan­guage bar­ri­er, but lake neigh­bors rushed to the scene to inves­ti­gate, react­ing to the screams and pan­ic, my son and I included.

Words can­not describe the hor­ror in wit­ness­ing this tragedy unfold. Nine months have passed and I am still haunt­ed by the sounds of cry­ing and scream­ing, and the sight of the fam­i­ly run­ning about in pan­ic on the dam. It was obvi­ous they didn’t know how to swim and no one could jump in after the boy.

911 was called. How­ev­er, get­ting to the scene was chaos. The boy was on a neighbor’s pon­toon boat docked at the bot­tom of North Pond Ter­race, that ends at the water, at the Mil­ford end of the dam. Upton EMT’s arrived via Crock­et Road on the Upton end of the dam, and sev­er­al of them ran the whole length of the dam to get to the oth­er side. Mil­ford and Hop­kin­ton EMT’s arrived on the Mil­ford side but they were unable to come down North Pond Ter­race because the road is no longer acces­si­ble. This is unacceptable.

Could those EMT’s have got­ten to that boy any soon­er? We will nev­er know. I do know that this ques­tion should nev­er arise again! We should do every­thing pos­si­ble to know that every­thing was done to ensure the safe­ty of life!

Years ago, when Mil­ford owned the dam, North Pond Ter­race is/was the access road begin­ning at Pine Island Road, extend­ing to the water at the dam. There is also a small por­tion of land at the base of the dam labeled as “Mil­ford Town Park”. This access road served util­i­ty vehi­cles, emer­gency vehi­cles to the dam and lake and also as a boat access to the water. For many years, the town’s peo­ple have come to the dam for out­ings – as it should be.

When you’re stand­ing on the dam and look out into the water, it is shal­low for about 30 feet and then the water shad­ows (and is mis­lead­ing) – and that’s where the bot­tom drops off.

Lake Maspenock is a beau­ti­ful lit­tle lake. It’s clean and great for fish­ing, swim­ming, and boat­ing. Peo­ple will always hang out on the dam. It can’t be policed con­stant­ly, and it shouldn’t be. It’s a great local spot for peo­ple to gather.

Now, just recent­ly, on Sun­day, June 2nd, anoth­er boy lost his life in our lake.

The bot­tom line is, now TWO PEOPLE HAVE DIED!!!

So, what can we do to help pre­vent such a tragedy?

There MUST be Emer­gency Access, RESCUE plans/ pro­ce­dures and RESCUE TEAM put in place from all three towns col­lec­tive­ly! This should be shared respon­si­bil­i­ty from all three towns!

I have spo­ken with oth­er locals and pro­pose a few ideas:
1. POST some type of warn­ing sign(s) that there is a drop-off. This could be writ­ten in Eng­lish and Span­ish, with a sim­ple stick fig­ure stand­ing in the water and the ground drops off. I have drawn an exam­ple.
2. REOPEN/UNBLOCK the access road of North Pond Ter­race begin­ning at Pine Island Road extend­ing to the water, as it was pri­or to Jan­u­ary, 2014. (This road has always been an access road of 10ft wide min­i­mum; now it is mere­ly a path. See pho­tos.)
3. ADD a small dock at the dam on the Upton side AND one near the beach for access in emer­gency sit­u­a­tions.
4. INSTALL Emer­gency Call Box at the dam and at the beach.
5. ADD Emer­gency Life Rings at the dam and at the beach.
6. ADD a “shal­low” swim rope and/or sep­a­rate shal­low area at the beach for younger chil­dren.
7. Emer­gency row boat stored at the beach.
8. AED shed at the beach and at the dam.
9. SHARED water­craft between Hop­kin­ton, Upton, Mil­ford, manned with someone(s) who can assist a res­cue IN THE WATER – as opposed to wait­ing on the beach/land.

Lake res­i­dents dis­cussed Pre­ven­ta­tive action, such as:
Safe Swim pro­gram for all chil­dren
CPR class­es
Store extra gog­gles on board your boat
Life ring on your boat and/or your dock
AED sheds on pri­vate property

PLEASE! I IMPLORE YOU! — Send me your sup­port, encour­age­ment, and/or sug­ges­tions in writ­ing, even just a few lines, so we, with the sup­port of LMPA, may present our con­cerns to our town offi­cials, as a com­mu­ni­ty, to rec­ti­fy the sit­u­a­tion by putting sol­id Emer­gency Access Pro­ce­dures in place!
Any and all con­cerns and sug­ges­tions should be pre­sent­ed to all three towns sur­round­ing the lake. This would include Town Offi­cials such as Select­men, Fire Dept, Police Dept, Attny Gen­er­al, etc. 
Any and all sug­ges­tions should be con­sid­ered to ensure such a tragedy does not hap­pen again.

PLEASE! Send your sup­port in writ­ing to lakesideliving85@gmail.com .

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME, ATTENTION, AND CONSIDERATION IN THIS IMPORTANT MATTER!

If you would like to be placed on a wait list, please email lmpa.org@verizon.net.

You will be noti­fied if a team becomes available.

Thanks!

Long await­ed details for JULY 3rd!!!!

If you live ON the lake:
*get cre­ative and LIGHT UP your WATERFRONT! 
*sug­ges­tions- tiki torch­es, string lights, spot lights, Christ­mas light, rope lights, con­trolled bon­fire!!!
*BE SAFE!!! 
*”FLIP THE SWITCH” AT 8:30 for all to see!!

GET out on the lake and cruise around to enjoy the lights:
*BE SAFE
*LIGHTS ON for safe­ty- maybe even light up your boat!!! 
*Nav­i­gate SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY!!!! 
*HITCH a ride if you don’t live ON the water or have a safe water craft !

PLEASE share ideas!
*****We are excit­ed to see what every­one comes up with and hope to get ALL involved whether you live direct­ly on the lake or not!