Con­grat­u­la­tions to Amer­i­can Corn Starts for the win (Ron Haley and Cory Macdonald).

Anoth­er great day and fun was had by all!!! Thanks to all who par­tic­i­pat­ed and those who helped run the event, it takes a vil­lage and we have one of the best!!!

There will be an open meeting of the Lake Maspenock Weed Management and Control Advisory Group on Thursday, July 25 from 6–7pm, 83 Wood Street, Hopkinton. Please attend if possible. 

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!