ClThursday, December 29, 2011
Greetings folks:
For some of you this is the first time you knew that you belonged to an Association. Others, may be wondering what the enclosed assessment is about. Still others may feel they should not pay or, wonder where does this money go?I would like to take a moment to chronologically reminisce this past year’s events and projects around Keech Pond, to illustrate what goes on “behind the scenes” which will hopefully explain, reason for the assessment.
December 27, 2010 a substantial snowstorm blanketed our area.
January, we began to embark on the long awaited task of surveying our “common areas”, namely, the
dam, our beaches and some small parcels of land dotting our area. This would give us a better handle of what the Association
owns.
February, we had a fund-raiser for one of our neighbors who needed legal assistance.
February, another snowstorm. Many homes around the lake suffered some damage from ice damming and power outages.
March, the law firm of Kiernan, Plunkett and Redihan actively working on our long overdue case of working out our differences
with folks, that have felt for many years that they should not pay their share of the much needed annual assessment as we
count on those funds for the day to day operation and maintenance, insurance, and taxes of our dam and roads.
April, one of our board members, Ken Loft, designed and installed “ Welcome to Keech Pond” signs around the geographic area
of our organization. To welcome friends and neighbors, but to also drive you to our web-site, WWW.Keechpond.com.
May, we hired a landscaping company to maintain the lawn and vegetation on the dam. This area has drawn a lot of attention
by D.E.M. and as time goes on more and more maintenance demands and dam monitoring will be required of us by D.E.M..
We are fortunate to have another board member John Holmes in an unpaid, voluntary capacity, document and log the ever
changing condition of the dam and more importantly, has become our spokesperson for Keech Pond to D.E.M. which
otherwise would cost significant money if we were to hire a consulting firm to do the same job.
May 16 general membership meeting was held, attendance was not as high as had been in the previous year. I would like to see
a better turnout this coming May. Eight new members purchased homes in the area and we could use new ideas and input
our board.
June surveying around the lake into full swing.
July, no real activity other than a nice summer so far.
August, let us not forget Tropical Storm? More like, Hurricane Irene especially when you drove around the lake and talked to
some of our neighbors who had tree limbs and or trees fall on their homes.
Power was lost around the lake for as much as a week. But, again, our neighbors rolled up their sleeves and helped each other
with the clean up. To this day you can still see some fallen trees off into the woods. A stark reminder how powerful mother
nature can be and yet Keech Dam was unscathed, again because of the maintenance and monitoring that has been devoted
to it.
The rest of this year seem to be on-going rain, in fact many people were asking when was the lake level going to go
down.
October, we had snow, more fallen limbs and power outages.
October, another board member, Tom Chadwick, a heavy equipment operator, under the supervision of John Holmes,
reconfigured a portion of the dam as mandated by D.E.M. This too, was done at considerably less cost than if we were to
hire a company.
November and December mild months.
Finally, we are embarking on a new project, where we will be soliciting local businesses, to offer Keech Pond members in good standing, their goods and services at a discount, for the coming year. And, as time goes on this list will grow. The vendors, at this time include Petro Oil, Coldwell Banker and a few others. The final details have yet to be complted. I strongly urge you to log on to our web-site WWW.Keechpond.com for more details with the hope and intent that this site becomes your source for information and a better understanding of YOUR organization. Your input and participation is crucial. I also want to take this opportunity to THANK the present Board of Directors who have participated, attended and contributed their time and opinions to make this, what I believe one of the most vibrant lake organizations in Northern Rhode Island.
A HAPPY, HEALTHY, 2012 to all of you. Thanks for your support and hope to see you around the lake.
Respectfully Yours,
