Ossipee — August 24, 2006 — The beach at Long Sands is safe, said selectman’s chair Harry Merrow. Merrow had asked the N.H. Department of Environmental Services to test the water for E. coli, a marker for potential disease-causing germs in water.

He said he was recently contacted with the results of the testing, which was done Aug. 11. He said the state took samples of the water at both ends of the beach and in the middle. If the counts were higher than 88, the beach would have been considered unsafe.

What they got was a result of 10 and 14 at the ends and 22 in the middle. Merrow said he was a little surprised by the results, “I thought it might be higher,” he said, but added “There’s a big turnover in that lake.”

Merrow had hoped to site a new town beach at Long Sands, which is owned by the state and is now almost exclusively by boaters. He presented plans for the beach last year, but withdrew them this past winter.

Use of Constitution Park
George Eisner presented a letter to the selectmen regarding the use of Long Sands Road. He said there have been many people with boat trailers driving down to the end of that road looking for a boat ramp from which to enter the lake.

He asked for suggestion on how to keep people from going down there and parking in front of the lake access as it still has to be handicap accessible. He suggested putting up signs on Route 25 that say “no boat launch.”

County Commissioner and Water and Sewer Precinct Commissioner L. Randy Lyman suggested the town put large boulders down, spaced so that people can walk between them, and people in wheelchairs can still get down there, but cars cannot drive down there. The board liked that idea and recorded the name of the company she suggested.