Carry Ponds
Association, Inc.
Annual Meeting
Saturday, August 7,
2021
WCP Outlet Dam
Present: Leo Beane, Paul & Kaye Belanger, Steven &
Lisa Blanchard, Matthew Bowman,
Elizabeth Bridges, Peter Bryant, Brent Daigle, John & Trish DiPierro, Paula
& Bruce Ferguson, Lawrence Furbish,
Stanley & Ashley Giguere, David & Ted Gradie, David Grimm, Wayne
& Barbara Howard, Audrey Kalloch, Jim MacLeod, Gary Mosher, George &
Karen Motta, Stephen & Nancy Pooler, Walter & Marianne Purda, Dave
Robinson, Paul & Michele Saccoccia, Jim Saccoccia, Bayne Smith, Bob Smith,
Steve Sperry, Larry & Regina Stowell, Barbara Sutcliffe.
Also attending: Katie & Dylan Abbott, Sam & Oliver
Thompson
CPA President Walter Purda called the meeting to order at
12:36 p.m.
Acknowledgment and thanks for all of the delicious food for
the lunch preceding the meeting (especially Peter Bryant’s baked beans!)
Thanks to Steve Sperry for the beautiful, rain-preventing
tent and to all those who helped set up for lunch and to Leo & Carrie Beane
for access to the boat launch site.
Walter asked those in attendance to introduce themselves and
identify which pond they were on. There was a special welcome for new members.
Treasurer’s Report - Paula Ferguson
Only 1 CPA
road assessment has not been paid $15,600.00
West 59
owners @ $150 (57%) $ 8,850.00
East 45
owners @ $150 (43%) $ 6,750.00
Contingency funds approved for 2021 $ 5,000.00
Admin $ 500.00
2021 West road maintenance budget $ 5,715.00
2021 East road maintenance budget $ 4,385.00
2021 Road Maintenance Costs (YTD)
West -
Roadwork $4,673.00
Remainder $1,042.00
East -
Bridge $5,400.00
Remainder $ 0
CPA account balances as of 8/4/21
Savings $4,335.89
Checking $ 278.50
Total $4,614.30
(Treasurer’s Report also included a detail of Contingency
Fund expenditures for 2020/2021.)
Condition of CPA Roads
Stan Giguere, East Road Commissioner reported that the roads
were not too bad. Walter described the Mountain Road washout that occurred in
December and the great work that Dave Robinson and Stan did to respond to the
emergency and make immediate repairs that kept the road passable. Walter asked
all of us to keep Stan and Retta in our thoughts as they are facing a difficult
situation right now.
Walter reported on the condition of the West Carry roads
which included significant water damage by the Purda and Myrdal camps.
Middle Carry Bridge was damaged this spring by a dump truck
which cost $5,400 to repair. Dirigo donated materials, beams and gravel to
rebuild the bridge which should be good for many years.
West Carry Outlet bridge was rebuilt by Peter Bryant and a
crew of volunteers including his son, Jeremy, grandson, Colby, daughter-in-law,
Abby, Jody Strout, Kevin McGowan, David Gradie, David Clock, Wayne Howard and
grandson, Colin with Leo Beane supervising. Great volunteer effort.
New gates installed on Spring and North Gate Roads. Ted
Gradie has done loads of work on Dickson Road, and it is holding up. Peter
Bryant made a special acknowledgement to Ted for all of his work over the
years.
Keeper of the Keys Report - John DiPierro
CPA’s 9 locked gates restrict access to the ponds and
enhance security for the 104 property owners. Currently, there are 570 keys
issued. Each owner is given 2 free keys and are allowed to purchase extras.
John strongly recommends changing locks in the near future since over the
years, many keys are no longer accounted for. Lock replacement will cost
between $2,000 and $4,500, most of the cost is due to mailing keys out to
owners. Many keys are “lost” when properties are sold, and the sellers do not
turn in their keys either to the realtors (to pass on to the new owners) or to
CPA. John mentioned that he is looking for a new Keeper of the Keys since he
has served in this position for 7 years. If someone has a problem with a key or
lock, the following people have spare keys/locks and can be contacted for help
-
Norm Kalloch, David Clock, Walter Purda, Stan Giguere, Gerry
Child. CPA locks are on all gates,
including the Otter Pond gravel pit gate.
Board, Officers & Nominations
Paul Saccoccia and Gerry Child were nominated to serve
another 3-year term as Directors. Bruce Ferguson made the motion to accept them
as Directors and Marianne Purda seconded. The motion was approved unanimously.
Walter noted that there was one open Directorship.* He is looking for a volunteer perhaps from
Middle Carry or a new member. Directors only need to attend 2 meetings per
year. George Motta asked a question about how decisions were made about the
emergency repairs that were needed this year. Walter responded that because of
the nature of the emergencies and immediate response needed, he, as President,
with consultation with Stan Giguere, Dave Robinson, Ted Gradie and others made
the decisions.
*George Motta has been appointed interim WCP director.
Walter explained that Barbara Sutcliffe had offered to be
the new CPA Secretary this spring in response to an email that he had sent out
and that she has been acting as Secretary since then. Marianne Purda made a
motion to accept her as CPA Secretary which was seconded by Trish DiPierro and
voted unanimously.
Lawrence Furbish made a motion to have Treasurer Paula
Ferguson and President Walter Purda continue in their positions for another
year. There were multiple seconds, and the motion was voted and passed
unanimously.
Walter mentioned that 2022 would be his last year as President
after having served for 5 years. He also talked about the need for new road
commissioners, both East and West. He described the job as not requiring a lot
of time but would require driving the roads to check conditions and problems.
Matt Bowman offered to be the East Road commissioner, but not until next year.
Old Business
Everyone should have received magnetized cards for their
refrigerators that have CPA emergency information and procedures. The West
Carry LifeFlight helicopter site is marked and cleared; however, we are waiting
for a new sign and brush clearing for the East Carry site. Walter has inspected
both sites.
West Carry Dam may need work in the near future - it would
be good to set aside some funds for this.
East Carry Pond Dam is holding up for now.
Dirigo update - no new lumbering is planned for our area.
The company is moving into a development phase. 2-3 new roads have been built
in the Middle Carry area and Dirigo has begun to sell lots. CPA will have
access to the new roads and buyers will become members of CPA. There were
questions about the size of the lots and a development plan on file with
Somerset County.
New Business
CPA Welcome package has been updated and contains the
following new language, “We strongly discourage the use of skis, water skiing,
water tubing and other speed-related watercraft to ensure the tranquility of
our ponds and protection of our nesting waterfowl.” The new packages will be
made available to local realtors and sent to new owners. Although we cannot restrict
these activities from our (public) waters, we hope that the word will get out
that the Carry Ponds community is a place to enjoy nature at its best. There
was discussion about East Carry Pond’s ordinance limiting horsepower on boat
motors, noise levels of jet skis vs. 2-stroke motors, watercraft and motors
already in use and the process to begin a campaign to get an ordinance for West
Carry Pond that would prohibit waterskiing and jet skis. Bruce Ferguson
volunteered to head up a drive for a petition among WCP owners. Ted Gradie made
a motion to accept the new wording in our Welcome package. George Motta
seconded, and the motion passed with a majority in favor.
Walter informed the group of a recent transaction by the
Arnold Expedition Historical Society and Dirigo. Dirigo purchased excess land from Tom Dickson
including the MCP lot that had a boat launch used by all CPA members. It was
never legally conveyed to CPA by Dickson, so it became part of Dirigo’s land
purchase. They intend to sell it. Dirigo
and Arnold did a separate land swap where Dirigo agreed to put in some parking
spaces across from Arnold’s lot on MCP so people could still have carry-in
access to MCP. Dirigo has cleared a space opposite the lot for parking and
there is a path to the water for putting in canoes/kayaks. There was discussion
about the loss of the boat launch which has been available to CPA members for
years. Walter will contact Blaine from Dirigo about finding a replacement boat
launch site on Middle Carry.
Dues Increase
Walter quickly reviewed the items in his Annual Meeting
letter which described all the emergency and unforeseen repairs that have
occurred in the last year. It is obvious that CPA is not properly funded with
regard to emergency repairs and the anticipated increase in the cost of
roadwork, etc. Our last dues increase was in 2009 which brought us to our
current dues amount of $150 per year. There was quite a bit of discussion from
many of the members. Highlights of discussion follow -
Ted Gradie explained how difficult or nearly impossible it
is to maintain CPA roads with inadequate funding, too few road commissioners
and a shrinking corps of volunteers.
Regina Stowell asked if special assessments (beyond dues)
could be made.
Several members felt a $150.00 increase was needed - not
just the proposed $50.00.
Other members felt that $300.00 in dues was too much,
unaffordable and did not take into consideration the amount of gratis work
certain CPA member do and have done over the years.
The idea of a work ticket program for members doing
significant volunteer work on behalf of CPA was suggested.
Other members favored a $50.00 increase for 2022 followed by
other increases as needed over time.
There was a discussion about having funds put aside for the
anticipated West Carry dam replacement in the future. Elizabeth Bridges
explained that the current dam was not considered “road work” and was funded by
contributions from West Carry owners, not from dues.
Paula Ferguson gave additional information about the history
of dues increases.
1989 $50.00
1993 $60.00
2002 $100.00
2009 $150.00
In addition, she also presented the following “bottom line”
net figures.
2014 $-4,000.00
2015-2017 $ positive balances
2018 $-500.00
2019 $-7,000.00
2020 $-2,000.00
She pointed out that for many years, we have been spending
all of our “contingency” funds just to make ends meet. Based on these
historical figures, she proposed a $100.00 dues increase.
Peter Bryant made a motion to increase annual dues by
$150.00. Several members asked that a work ticket program be added. Peter then
amended his motion to “$150.00 annual dues increase and a work ticket program
for members not to exceed the dues amount.” The motion was seconded by Dave
Grady. The motion passed with a majority in favor, 22 yea to 7 nay votes
including proxies (see list below.)
Ted Gradie graciously offered to do mowing this year and to
crown Spring Road. Ashley Giguere remarked that items had been left out of CPA
meeting minutes in the past and urged the officers and directors to be sure
that minutes were complete and accurate.
Lawrence Furbish made a motion to adjourn which was seconded
by many and voted unanimously in favor. Meeting adjourned at 2:33 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara Sutcliffe, Secretary
Proxy votes received -
Susan & Brian Goss
Jody Strout
Kevin & Wendy McGowan
David Maxwell
David Lumb
Lena & C. Clinton Knapp
John Witherspoon
