Freedom—December 29, 2024—The proposal to convert Wabanaki Campground to cooperative ownership was the lake news story of the year. If approved, the business will transition from a largely transient clientele to shareholder ownership of 77 “units” on the 11-acre big lake site. Trailers, RVs, Park Models and boats owned by shareholders will become permanent fixtures.

The legal and environmental issues raised by the conversion should have been enough to prompt Freedom’s Select Board to coordinate a joint review of the plan by the town’s planning, zoning and conservation leaders when the state application was filed in January.

A year later, however, the boards are still working in silos, trying to understand the implications of the plan’s complex, often contradictory data, some of it decades old. The owner’s brazen decision to start construction on the “hutnik” structures while approval was (and is) still pending with the Planning Board has added to the spectacle.

The Select Board’s lack of leadership in the Wabanaki matter was a surprise and a disappointment, and it is a large part of why the proposed conversion is the lake news story of the year.

Ossipee Lake Camping Area
In another campground story, DES notified Effingham’s Ossipee Lake Camping Area that it received a complaint that the business replenished its beach with fill from the Meena LLC gas station site, and dumped a truckload of stone into the water at the boat ramp to reduce the lake’s natural drop-off.

The complaint was made in October 2023 but not acted on by the state until July 29 of this year. DES said it could not find a permit for the work and asked the campground owners to provide one or else dispute the allegation. The business has never responded.

A whistleblower complaint about the campground was filed last year stating that electrical work was performed by unlicensed individuals, including the whistleblower himself. The complaint was investigated by the N.H. Department of Justice and remains active with the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification.

Loon Island
A plan to build five 40-foot docks on Leavitt Bay’s tiny Loon Island received a thumbs-down from Ossipee’s Conservation Commission in February, and the noisy town hearing that followed confirmed that Leavitt Bay residents were in the same camp.

After DES rubber stamped the island owner’s dock application without a site visit or a public hearing, Broad-Leavitt Bay Association enlisted help from Executive Counselor Joe Kenney, who convened his own hearing and ensured that DES leaders showed up.

A subsequent negotiation between the owner and Ossipee officials resulted in the town purchasing the island as conservation land, using funds from a bequest by the late Long Sands resident George Eisener. The island is a documented loon nesting site.

Politics, As Usual
The hope that 2024 would be the “Year of the Lake” fizzled, as key legislation, especially on wake surfing, flamed out. That meant it was lake politics as usual in Concord, albeit with an extra measure of political performance art.

Representative Joe Sweeney set the pace by calling a bill to prevent shoreline erosion from wake surfing “awful,” and fuming that it “would destroy the culture of countless New Hampshire lakes.”

Senator Denise Ricciardi talked down to lake property owners by chiding them to “get along” with wake surfers, and Senator Tim Lang helpfully noted that wake surfing bills keep getting watered down because the sport is “a fairly significant industry” in the state.

Lest we forget, the year also saw Executive Counselor Joe Kenney propose that NH LAKES be stripped of its Lake Host funding because it “wants to eliminate motorized boating,” and Governor John Sununu publicly excoriate DES for making too big a deal of cyanobacteria’s health threat.

On a positive note, Effingham native and current Berry Bay resident Brian Taylor was elected to be our area’s new State Representative. His volunteer work and service on the boards of conservation organizations, including ours, speaks of his commitment to the environment. This was his first run for state office.

People, Places
Our friend Bob Smart, who is retired from writing his Smart Reports on lake life, was named Grand Marshal of this year’s Freedom Old Home Week, and was lauded for his years of volunteer service to the town.

The Friends of Schoolhouse Hill rallied Freedom voters to support making improvements to the historic building that houses the Town Office instead of constructing a new building outside the village. The tally was five votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to start work right away, but it provided “clarity” for what comes next, said a town official.

Long-time Danforth Pond resident Jim McElroy died in June at age 79. Jim served on our board and the board of NH LAKES, and was Chairman of the Freedom Aquatic Invasive Species Committee, among other volunteer activities.

 Protecting Ossipee Lake Natural Area from trespassers is frustrating work for the state, and this year won’t be easier. We chronicled the property’s history in an eight-part series in June. The series has now been aggregated and may be read at this link.

 We hope you had a good year and wish you a Happy New Year. See you on the lake in 2025.

DLS