Paris, Maine — May 15, 2012 — A former New Hampshire fire chief who set a fire in a Porter [Maine] barn on Christmas Eve pleaded guilty to arson Monday in Oxford County Superior Court.

Bradley W. Eldridge, 51, of West Ossipee, N.H., was sentenced to three years with all but 90 days suspended for setting a fire in the barn of William Day Jr. on Porterfield Road in Porter. Day wasn’t home, but a family across the street called the fire in and was able to extinguish it before firefighters arrived, according to Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor. No one was injured and the animals in the barn survived.

O’Connor said Day was dating Eldridge’s ex-wife, and that Eldridge had made threats that he would “make Mr. Day suffer.” A camera caught a man pulling up in a car that looked like Eldridge’s car and entering the barn just before the fire was reported. When questioned, Eldridge admitted to setting the fire, and admitted he had been drinking heavily when he decided to start the fire, O’Connor said.

Eldridge must pay $1,000 restitution to Day for damage to his barn, and is not allowed contact with Day.

Eldridge was the fire chief in West Ossipee, N.H., until March 28, 2011, when the West Ossipee Fire Precinct Commission removed Eldridge “for cause” during an executive session, according to the Carroll County Independent.

Copyright 2012 – Sun Journal, Lewiston, Maine McClatchy-Tribune News Service

The airplane’s landing gear struck a log pile at Freedom Wood Yard. Then the airplane landed upside down near a small water body on the woodlot, said Brooks. Brooks said Cole was part of the way out of the airplane whe5-14-plane-crash-4n rescuers arrived. They were able to put Cole on a backboard without having to cut him out of the overturned wreckage. Cole was flown to Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Brooks said Cole was trying to make a landing in the woodlot. A pilot with a multi-engine, instrument ratings, it took skill for Cole to bring the airplane down as well as he did after the engine quit. Brooks said he could not get the engine to refire and the plane stalled on him. Cole had the presence of mind to turn the fuel off before he crashed — otherwise, Brooks said, the crash could have been “catastrophic.”

“He did quite a job to do what he did without dying,” said Brooks.

It’s unclear if Cole was trying to take off or land at a nearby airstrip when the accident occurred, said Brooks, adding the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

Cole owns Conway Eye Care in North Conway. He lives in Soaring Heights in West Ossipee, which is an aviation-themed development that shares an airstrip with a similar community called Windsock Village. The airplane was registered to Starfire Aviation of Conway, but Shackford believes the airplane ultimately belongs to Cole.

Cole’s accident is only the second airplane crash in Freedom in about 15 years, said Brooks and Shackford. The other crash happened a couple years ago.

The airplane landed in Verso Paper Corporation’s woodlot at 1332 Ossipee Lake Road. Paul Beck, who represents the wood lot’s owner, said he heard about the accident when he received a call from an employee who had to open the gate for the investigators. Since then, the scene has been cordoned off with yellow police tape.

“The plane hasn’t been touched and it won’t be touched until the insurance company has been notified,” said Beck on Monday.

There haven’t been other crashes or emergency landings on the woodlot before, said Beck.

The National Transportation Safety Board will determine the cause of the crash according to FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac. It will take months for the NTSB to come out with a full report but a preliminary report will be done in a week to 10 days, she said.

Cole has operated Conway Eye Care since 1969. He opened Coos Eye Care in Berlin in 1994.

Don Kent, Administrator of the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau, will chair the meeting and lead a discussion on the status of protecting historical resources at the unique site.

Other presentations will focus on the protection of natural resources and enforcement of state regulations. The property is under the management of the N.H. Department of Resources and Economic Development.

The Working Group is a unique coalition comprised of state agencies, lake property owner associations, the boating community, and local environmental groups, including Ossipee Lake Alliance. Formed in 2008, the Working Group is considered a success model for balancing the competing interests of recreation and preservation at state-owned properties with rare and threatened natural resources.

Refreshments will be served, and a period of public comment will be held at the end of the meeting. Volunteers interested in helping the clean up should dress accordingly and bring work gloves. Boat transportation will be provided.
For more information on the clean up, contact Dennis Gould at joseph.d.gould@ge.com.

“It’s better than regular school. We’re not just sitting in class — we’re doing something. And I like being outdoors,” said sophomore Bethany Keaten, of Denmark, Maine, as she and classmate Carissa Bumbucca,  also of Denmark, worked to plant scrub oaks Thursday morning in the day’s mist. “But my shoulders are killing me!” said Bumbucca.

Working 9 a.m. to noon since April 23, the high school students planted more than 2,000 pitch pine and 250 scrub oak trees in what was once a gravel pit off Ossipee Lake Road. Working under the tutelage of school director Dede Frost and assistant Andy Kearns along with Wink Lees of The Nature Conservancy, students learned about the ecology of the barrens, controlled burn practices, and the value of teamwork.

Lees — who is the Northern New Hampshire land steward for The Nature Conservancy — said he was very impressed with the work ethic of the students.

“To tell you the truth, I was afraid this might be a hassle, but they have been great. We’ve gotten a lot of work done, and they have been terrific,” said Lees, working alongside the students Thursday morning.

Materials for the community service project were funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Serving as local funding coordinator was Nels Liljedahl of Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Conway office.

Alternative Learning
Frost said the alternative school was founded 20 years ago to provide an option for Fryeburg Academy students who have troubles with more traditional education settings. The 15-pupil school is for grades 10 through 12, ages 15 through 19.

“The kids have a condensed schedule from 8 a.m. to noon every school day,” said Frost at the 35-acre former gravel pit Thursday morning, as the 12 students went at the root dipping, planting, mulching and watering work. “They have no study hall, or breaks for lunch — although we eliminate the extras, we follow all state of Maine education regulations, and it is very much a real Maine high school diploma that the students earn.”

Students, she said, leave school at noon, and then go on to full-time jobs, or in some cases, to care for their children.

“Some of them have been living on their own for years,” said Frost, who said community service projects such as the Pine Barrens planting work help educate young people on many levels. “The community service component is fulfilled in two ways,” said Frost. “We try and do a far-reaching community service project we raise funds for and usually travel some where every fall. It may be to help out after a disaster as far away as Florida. We were in Virginia, for example, last year.
“The second component is that it’s nice to  give back to the community,” said Frost. “These students are giving their all. They are a short skip away form being adults in our community, so these types of projects are very valuable.”

She said the Pine Barrens project joins a list of many other conservation projects over the past five years.

“The projects teach them a work ethic, team work, communication skills, how to accept criticism. So it’s all helpful,” said Frost.

As part of the project, she will provide an overview to both The Nature Conservancy and Natural Resources Conservation Service on the number of hours put in by students.

“Both the NRCS and The Nature Conservancy do a report. The kids through our school do an end-of-year project which recounts their experiences personally,” said Frost, who said the two-week planting was to slated to end May 4.

Participating students in addition to Keaten and Bumbucca included: David Gibley, junior; Tom Fuller, senior; Brandon Follett, senior; Richard Brett, senior; Hunter Calomb, sophomore; Jake Townsend, junior; Bradley Bartkey, sophomore; Nicole Condo-Jerome, junior; Gus Maillo, junior; and Cody Marceau, senior.

About the Pine Barrens
The pine barrens ecosystem of Ossipee, Madison, Freedom, and Tamworth is the last relatively large and intact example in New Hampshire, according to Lees. According to The Nature Conservancy’s website (www.nature.org), the Ossipee Pine Barrens were shaped more than 10,000 years ago, when retreating ice age glaciers left behind a broad, deep sandy outwash plain. Too dry and nutrient poor to support agriculture or many of the more typical forests of northern New England, areas with these sandy-gravelly soil types became known as “barrens.” Despite the tough growing conditions, the pitch pine and scrub oak thrive there, rejuvenated over the eons by lightning and human-sparked fires.
Lees said The Conservancy does prescribed burns in late summer.

The Ossipee Pine Barrens not only provide habitat for a diversity of unique and rare plants and animals in New Hampshire, but they also safeguard and recharge the largest stratified drift aquifer in the state, Lees said. The conservancy’s first land acquisition in the pine barrens occurred in 1988, when 341 acres in Madison were protected along what is known as the West Branch of the Ossipee River. Twenty years and 13 land conservation transactions later, the preserve now consists of nearly 4.5 square miles of pine barrens and supporting habitat in Freedom, Madision, Ossipee and Tamworth.

In addition, due to the efforts of the Trust for Public Land and local partners, the adjoining Freedom Town Forest was protected and is managed by the local community.
Nowadays, there are more than 6,000 contiguous acres of conservation land in and around the pine barrens. Thanks to the efforts of the Fryeburg students working with The Conservancy and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Ossipee Pine Barrens will be that much more vibrant.

Of greater interest to property owners may be the rise and fall of the water level starting in early March. The level was at the normal winter low of 404.5′ and all gates were open with a flow rate of 450 cfs. With no significant rain or snow predicted and a concern for having the level up to 407.5 by June 1st, the Dam Bureau decided to close some of the south side gates and capture some of the snow melt. North side stop logs remained in winter storage, so at 405′ the water began to flow over the north side dam.

Then our week of warm weather arrived with temperatures in the 70s most days and the snow began to melt and melt and melt. Lake level continued to rise even though all gates were open. By mid-March the lake level reached 407.3′ — almost all from winter snow melt. The weather turned cool but most of the snow was gone.

Water level began to go down at a steady rate of about 1.5″ per day. By noon yesterday (Monday) the level was back to HALF FULL at 405.6′, almost all of the snow is gone and no significant rain or snow in the forecast.

At 11 am Monday the Dam Authority had a crew prepare for summer. The steel stanchions are being lowered into place on top of the concrete spillway, 2 of the 4 strings of stop logs are going in, and 3 of the 5 gates are being shut this morning.   This resulted in the flow rate being reduced from 850 to 455 cfs.

Time to get the driftwood off the beach and finish dock repairs.

I expect we will have an official Ice Out report as of today — Friday 3/23/12. If so this will be the earliest in recorded history.

Water level has been on a constant rise for several weeks with a reported high of 407.28′ (just over summer level) late Thursday evening. Outflow is now three times greater than reported inflow from the Bearcamp. All gates are reported to be open as of Wednesday.

Some rain is predicted for this weekend but clear after that. My neighbor put his dock in last Wednesday. I expect to put ours in next week.

Bob Smart

There is now a 6′ – 8′ ring of water between shore and the ice cap. This should be a safety feature to keep people and vehicles off the ice. One woman and two dogs went into the water on Berry Bay last weekend.

We have had a warm winter and moderate snow. My driveway was plowed only four times. We had a couple of almost complete snowmelts. Most of the snow from last week and the build-up of ice on my driveway is gone. The road frost heaves are flattening out.

I was at the dam at noon yesterday. North side gates are open (but no water flow until the level reaches 405′) and two of the five south side gates are open. Looking at the NH Dam Authority charts on the web, there seem to be some changes in reported lake level and water flow that indicate opening and closing of the dam in the last two weeks.

I contacted the Dam Authority and received a response yesterday that indeed several adjustments had been made in south side dam opening/closing to assure the lake will be back to summer level of 407.5 by June 1st. They are using information on snow pack and water content at the Hemenway State Forest in Tamworth and weather predictions to determine when and how much to adjust the dam.

As for ice-out, we had open water on April 20, 2011 and March 25, 2010 (the earliest ever recorded). The ice was still thick enough to run a few small snowmobiles last week.

Conclusion: The State Dam Authority is watching the weather and snow melt. They are adjusting the dam with the intent of bringing the lake up to summer level by the end of May, and also trying to avoid spring floods when nature does something crazy as it does in most years.

In Freedom, voters retained Neal Boyle as Selectman for a new three-year term.

Select Board candidates in both towns faced multiple competitors.

Known as the “Ice Cream Man on the Lake,” Carney owned and operated Aqua Delight, selling ice cream from his boat on Ossipee Lake and Lake Winnipesaukee.

Carney was a retired school bus driver who lived in Alton Bay for more than 23 years. Memorial donations may be made in his memory to the American Diabetes Foundation, 1701 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, VA 22311. To express condolences, please visit www.peasleefuneralhome.com.

Acting Fire Chief Justin Brooks said they got a call that two dogs had fallen through the ice and were in the water in the Berry Bay area of the lake. Upon arrival of the crew, the caller, a woman, had gone through the ice, too.

Rescuers donned coldwater suits and pulled out the woman and the dogs. Brooks said the woman was checked at Huggins Hospital, adding that the dogs — a Labrador retriever and a mixed breed — appeared none the worse for the experience, though happy to be out of the cold water.

“They wanted to play,” Brooks remarked.

Brooks said the ice has not been good this year. The warm temperatures have further eroded the ice.