Spring ‘26 Newsletter
Crystal Lake Improvement Association
Spring News Letter
Congratulations we made it to spring and summer is right around the corner!
Those of us who “winter” here at the lake will tell you… it was a real New England
winter! Great skiing, ice fishing, snowmobiling and time by the fire. And now we
turn our attention to all the summer activities lake life on Crystal has to offer.
A Spring News Letter is something that Glyn had done for many years, and it
seems like a great tradition to continue. While it’s long, I hope you will find the
information contained in here useful as you plan for the summer. Enjoy…
Let’s start with some fun stuff. Here are some key dates and upcoming events:
Spring is here and it is time to spruce up the roads around our beautiful lake. The
Crystal Lake Area Cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, May 16 th .
In past years many volunteers from the Crystal Lake watershed area have turned
out and we have been able to clean many of the roads around Crystal Lake. We
normally pick up trash along Algonquin Road, Boys Camp Road, Crystal Lake Road
(from Shaker Hill Road to Lockehaven Road), and Lockehaven Road (from Shaker
Hill Road to Oak Hill Road). If you would like to pick up trash on a section of one
of these roads, please contact Shirley Green at (603)632-5392 or by email at
shirley.a.green@comcast.net Please let us know as soon as possible if you plan to
join the cleanup crew, so we will know how many roads we can cover.
Thanks to the generosity of Tom and Ann Claus, their garage at 19 Hawley Drive
will be our meet and greet headquarters. We will gather at 9:00 am to enjoy
coffee cakes, pastries, etc. along with coffee, tea, and water. Refreshments will
be available throughout the morning. We will disperse to our cleanup locations at
approximately 9:30. Trash bags will be provided. We suggest that you bring
gloves and a “grabber tool” if you have one. When your bag is full, just leave it
beside the road and it will be picked up, or if you are able to bring them to the
dam site yourself, that would be great. The DPW will be picking them up at the
dam on Monday. There will be a prize for the most interesting or unique piece of
trash “Pic of the Litter”. If you find something you wish to enter, please bring it
back to Claus’ garage by 12:00 noon. Mark the item with your name and phone
number and you will be contacted if you are the winner.
This is a wonderful time for the whole family to get out and see neighbors we
haven’t seen all winter and clean up our Crystal Lake area roads. Looking forward
to seeing you on May 16 th (rain date Sunday, May 17 th at 1:00 pm). To RSVP or if
you have questions, please call (603)632-5392 or email
LakeSmart Property Tours
NH LAKES LakeSmart is a free, voluntary, non-regulatory program that helps
property owners protect their lake from pollution and erosion. It provides
education, on-site evaluations, and recognition for adopting “lake friendly” habits,
such as maintaining septic systems, managing stormwater runoff, and preserving
shoreline buffers. Last summer 23 properties on Crystal Lake received their
LakeSmart Award (VERY impressive!).
Two days have been scheduled for LakeSmart Property Tours this summer –
Tuesday, June 16th and Tuesday, August 4 th . Please let me know as soon as
possible if you would like to be added to the list or have any questions.
The annual NH LAKES Congress will take place at the Grappone Conference Center
in Concord on June 5th. For anyone who loves New Hampshire’s lakes, the
congress is a meaningful opportunity to learn, connect, and play an active role in
preserving these treasured natural resources for future generations. There will be
dedicated “lake-people” like us there from 100+ NH lakes and topics will include:
Turning Apathy into Action, a cyanobacteria and algal identification workshop,
climate change and our lakes, managing healthy shoreland vegetation, smart salt
solutions, finding funding through grant programs, management of aquatic
invasive species, and much more! It would be wonderful to have a whole
contingent of Crystal Lake folks there! Go to the NH LAKES website to register
https://nhlakes.org/lakes-congress/
Water Quality Presentation
A water quality presentation and discussion entitled “Crystal Lake and the Value
of Supplemental Oxygen Measurements” will take place at the Enfield Community
Center on June 6 th at 5pm. Bob Craycraft, from the UNH Lakes Lay Monitoring
Program, will be our guest and lead the discussion. Bob is a good friend of Crystal
Lake who has spoken at our annual meeting and always delivers an interesting
presentation! If you have any questions, please reach out to Audrey Hartman at:
The Boat Parade will take place on July 4 th at 3:00 pm. This year is a very special
Independence Day Parade! It is America’s 250 th Celebration (Semiquincentennial)
of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Enfield, along with towns and
cities from states across America, is planning events throughout the year to
celebrate this milestone event in our history. So, let’s make this the biggest and
best parade ever! Email shirley.a.green@comcast.net for a boat number if you
would like to have your decorated boat in the contest for decorations.
Sunapee Dinner Cruise
We will once again rent out the MV Kearsarge dinner cruise boat on Saturday, July
11 th at 7:30 – 10:30 pm. The same night as the Town of Newberry fireworks! We
are so fortunate to have the fireworks to enjoy again! The cost per person is
$86.50. Gratuity and tax are included in this price. Please let Shirley know as soon
as possible if you would like to go on the dinner cruise. Feel free to invite friends
and extended family. The more the merrier! shirley.a.green@comcast.net
Annual Meeting
Our annual CLIA meeting will take place at 9am on August 2nd. We look forward
to seeing everyone and sharing all thing Crystal Lake! If you have any topics you’d
like to see on the agenda, please do not hesitate to reach out...
We’ve probably all heard enough at this point about the boat launch. I’ll just add
that so far, so good… equipment and materials are scheduled to arrive on the
boat launch this week! Fingers crossed that everything now stays on track and
that the contractor/State hits their timeline. NH F&G has now told us that the
contractor has a target completion date of May 29 th . We will keep everyone
update throughout the process, but as always please feel to reach out if you have
questions.
What’s up with Crystal Lake Road and the Speeding Issues?
The short answer is that speeding on Crystal Lake Rd, and other roads, has been
an issue for years. In an effort to quantify the issues the town will be completing
two speed studies this spring/early summer… one on CLR and one on Algonquin.
In the meantime, the town has already place two new flashing speed signs on
CLR.
When the turtle idea was investigated a bit further, it turned out that the regs
don’t allow for it… so no turtles.
There was a State Senate bill (SB559) making its way through the legislative
process. This bill would have provided options for seasonally reducing speed
limits by local police chiefs. Unfortunately, this bill did not make it through the
process and was officially put to rest on April 23 rd .
Volunteer
Are you looking for a way to help out? We have plenty of volunteer
opportunities! These include being a Lake Host (email Bill Griffin at
Griffinwe920@gmail.com for more info.) This is where we need the greatest
numbers and arguably has the greatest impact. It’s a low stress job and a great
way to meet neighbors and folks from the greater community! Training will be
provided.
How about being a Weed Watcher? (email Ed Rippe at kruzered@comcast.net)
This is also low stress and involves kayaking around a small section of the lake
once or twice a month to watch for invasive species. Training will be provided.
We could use a few more people here.
Any interest in our water? How about becoming a Water Quality Monitor? We
are looking for just a few dedicated individuals to compliment the outstanding
team we already have in place. (email Phil Bartels at phil.bartels@gmail.com)
Any one of these fine gentlemen can provide you with a background of what the
roles entail.
Donations
We have some money in the kiddie, but I’ll be honest… We are not in the financial
shape that will be required if we need to fight an extended/frequent
cyanobacteria bloom, an invasive species, or some other catastrophic event. Our
“dues” are ridiculously low, our fund raising is modest, and we are very frugal in
our spending.
In the short-term, we are in need of an upgrade of the water quality testing
equipment. As you know, Glyn is a frugal New Englander and has been working
with some of the same stuff for many years. As our water quality issues become
more acute, we need to stay in front of the situation with new equipment and
additional testing.
If you are able, please consider any additional financial support you can provide
to the CLIA. Your contributions are used for preventative measure, paying our
weekend Lake Hosts, new equipment and testing, as well as solidifying our
reserve fund for that dreaded rainy day. Any and all incremental contributions
are greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Septic Rule Implementation
If you have not turned in you pumping and inspection receipts to the town, be
sure to do that ASAP. They need to go to Vinny Tursi (Health Officer) at the DPW
building.
Merch
Get your new summer swag! Shirley has a fresh supply of merchandise available
including Crystal Lake t-shirts, hoodies, baby bibs, and everything in between.
Make sure your family is outfitted with the latest in Crystal Lake fashion! Get in
touch with the Merchandise Momma at: shirley.a.green@comcast.net
Lastly… Stay tuned for the inaugural launch of the Crystal Lake web-site! Many
people have been hard at work putting together our inaugural web-site. We are
very excited to bring this to you and plan to have it out in advance of the summer
season. More info to follow and coming to a laptop near you!!
Yahoo… it that time of year!
See you on the lake!
Dan