Editorial

DES’s Deputy Commissioner and staff will be in Ossipee’s Town Hall this Friday at 10 a.m. to hear what they would have heard had they held a public hearing before approving the controversial Loon Island dock plan in May.

This unlikely turn of events is thanks to District 1 Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, who accepted an invitation to attend Broad-Leavitt Bay Association’s annual meeting last month. What Kenney heard was enough for him to conclude that DES had “missed the boat.”

Kenny promised the lake community it would be heard, and now it will be.

Will Friday’s meeting change the outcome of the dock decision? That’s up to the Governor and Executive Council, who have the final say in the matter.

Will it make a difference in how the state views the Ossipee Lake Community? Only if the lake community turns out to be seen and be heard.

As we argued in a Conway Daily Sun editorial last month, we need to make this the Year of the Lake. The year in which lake communities like ours pool our strengths and let our elected leaders and state officials know that we expect better.

Loon Island may not be in your part of the lake, but the unreasonable way that DES handled the dock application this year could be the way it approves something else on your part of the lake next year. That makes Friday’s meeting important to everyone, not just to Leavitt Bay property owners.

We have captured the interest and attention of an Executive Councilor, and on Friday we will have the ear of DES’s number two official. Lake organizations around the state are watching what is happening here. So is the press.

There may never be a better opportunity to make a lasting point.

Mark your calendar. Take the time to attend. Friday at 10. Ossipee Town Hall.