DEMONSTRATION PROJECT: FULL SPEED AHEAD

We’re off and running. The follow-up plans for technical assistance arrived a little late, but once received folks started immediately. Loam, mulch, bushes, plants, rocks, boulders, landscape timbers, diversion ditches, dry wells, crushed rock and many other buffering techniques were used to help reduce runoff from reaching our lake. Thirty site visits were made in ’98-99. Representatives from Androscoggin Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, Land & Water Resource Management Associates and DEP all pulled together, brainstorming, for the best possible solutions to a variety of landscaping/road problems.

The Steering Committee had agreed to subsidize 6-7 sites at $500 each and one larger area, Fernald Road, at $1500. All must match our funding with cash and in-kind services.

The Poland Town Beach was one of our largest volunteer projects. Representatives from AVSWCD, LWRMA, DEP presented to the TLIA Steering Committee a design which included a new, safer parking area and fencing. However, it was decided that the Town should handle parking and we’ll help however we can. Instead of fencing, over 20 large boulders were donated and placed parallel to the beach by the Town of Poland. However, the buffering was enthusiastically embraced by our group. On Saturday morning, August 28, twenty-six TLIA members armed with rakes, shovels and lots of grit,arrived to spread mulch, build terraced walkways, and plant over 50 varieties of bushes, small trees and perennials.

These folks deserve our heartiest thanks for they have helped preserve and protect a valuable resource.

They are Ron and Claudie Getchell, Bill Henderson, Nancy and Charlie Rodway, Penny and Bob Erickson, Marilyn and Rich Sidle, Betty Harvie, Paula Smith, Jack Quinn, Ellie and George Kelley and their grandsons Christopher and Brendan, Wendy Webber and her children Charlotte and Ben, Jamie Rothfus and her children Anna, Talia and Drew, Scott Shapiro and his fiance Lindy Gutknecht, Alison Kuhns and Babs Shapiro. In addition, our Project leaders Cynthia Kuhns, Phoebe Hardesty, Jane Heikkinen and Kay Nichol brought truckloads of mulch, loam and plants, then dug and planted alongside us. It was a wonderful, rewarding experience and as an organization, we can be very proud!