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View Poll Results: Would you favor the Formation of a Meredith Island Association
Yes 5 100.00%
No 0 0%
Pay $25./year 4 80.00%
Be willing to help get it going 1 20.00%
Resident of New Hampsire 3 60.00%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 5. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-02-2017, 07:40 PM   #1
bilproject
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Default Meredith Island Association

Please do not respond to this poll unless you are a property owner on an unbridged island in the Town of Meredith. PM me if you are willing to help getting this off the ground.
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Old 08-03-2017, 06:04 PM   #2
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Default Why a Meredith Island Association

The last few years we have seen a shortage of parking at both Cattle Landing and Shep Browns. The towns response is to write parking tickets. The docks at Shep Browns need repair, the town's response was to put florescent paint at all the heaved trip hazards. The town designed and built a new dock at Cattle Landing that cut the available boat parking. The dock was built without even asking the users what they thought of the design selected. The unbridged islands in Meredith pay almost 1.2 million dollars in taxes with almost 900,000 going to Meredith and the local school districts (I have a breakdown by island).
A request for some 12 hour dedicated dock parking for island residents was dismissed by the selectmen with no "island residents knew what they were getting when they purchased. Slip space is extremely little compared to the number of properties on the islands.
Gilford has an association that works with the town to address island issues. GIA gets a quick response from the town when docks need repair. Gilford's DPW comes with manpower and trucks to remove debris residents bring to the town docks on "Island Clean UP Day". They have a spot to install a mail box and dumpsters for garbage at the town docks. They have 12 hour island only parking.
A Meredith Island Association could address these issues and speak for all it's members. Dues for GIA are $25. per year. If you are tired of taxation without representation and think the existence of a MIA is a good or bad idea then take the poll (if you own property on a Meredith Island). If you are willing to help and put some time into this idea send me a private message.
I know we bought property that is inaccessible for most services. However, I and others would like to see an attitude change in Meredith and at least have the town address our few problems.
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Old 08-03-2017, 06:19 PM   #3
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Isn't the tourist population exponentially higher in Meredith than it is in Gilford? To remove parking and dock space from public use to make it "reserved" doesn't make a lot of sense.
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Old 08-04-2017, 05:05 AM   #4
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Meredith is in the process (go to their web site and take a look at Town Dock Proposal) of potentially spending millions to replace the tourist docks in town along with the parking lot and changes to the cross walks. These docks are used by all. Not a dime to expand car parking at cattle or Sheps. 12 hour docking is not a high priority. It was the attitude that needs to change, or maybe the Meredith Islands should join Gilford and pay our tax money to them. Or just become our own town and put our 800K a year toward parking and dock space.
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Old 08-04-2017, 07:10 PM   #5
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.... Or just become our own town and put our 800K a year toward parking and dock space.
I am relatively certain that Weirs Beach explored something similar many years ago. It did not benefit the residents of "Weirs" to succeed from the City of Laconia so the idea never happened.

If I recall correctly it was centered around "services provided" such as having their own Police/Fire/Municipality etc.

800K does not buy much these days when you consider paying people year round for services provided for a seasonal community. Finding people to work seasonal for these same services and still be readily available might be equally tough.
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Old 08-04-2017, 11:11 PM   #6
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More parking at Shep Browns is a tough one as space is limited. As much as we Bear Islanders will argue that we should have priority over non-residents, Meredith's visitor friendly position will make that difficult if not impossible. I'd love to evict the Mink and Mark people since they have their own docks and parking across the lake in Glendale. But how do you differentiate them from visitors and fishermen?

Issuing permits to visitors and enforcement would be difficult and would require additional town staffing and that's probably a tough sell. But something needs to be done even if it fails to change anything. As an islander I only need a place to park my car and to drop my trash the weeks I'm there on vacation.
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Old 08-05-2017, 05:15 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by Outdoorsman View Post
I am relatively certain that Weirs Beach explored something similar many years ago. It did not benefit the residents of "Weirs" to succeed from the City of Laconia so the idea never happened.

If I recall correctly it was centered around "services provided" such as having their own Police/Fire/Municipality etc.

800K does not buy much these days when you consider paying people year round for services provided for a seasonal community. Finding people to work seasonal for these same services and still be readily available might be equally tough.
True for Weirs Beach. We islanders have NO school children, roads, fire protection(one un-maned fire boat to keep fire from spreading), local police protection or other services since most are not Meredith residents. 800K a year would buy us a lot of parking lot dumpsters and docks.
I have been told that Littlefields offered the town some land on Lovejoy Sands road for additional parking and the town turned it down. There may have been some strings attached.
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Old 08-05-2017, 06:46 AM   #8
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Default .... a 60" opening

Wet paint warning signs are present today at the entry way to the Cattle Landing town dock. Meredith DPW just repainted the wood fence and stairs' entry railings with medium blue to keep it look'n good...... good job ..... Meredith DPW!

60" wide is what the opening in the blue fence there has for a gateway entry to some premium Lake Winnipesaukee paddling, rowing, sailing; a medium big water area..... a totally super-duper spot to unload your kayak, paddle board, 10' dory, 11' jon boat, 12' vee hull, 17' canoe, 12-14' sailboat, snowmobile, atv or bob house....and park your car...no boat trailers allowed in the Cattle Landing Road parking lot.....all for free....all for everyone....no resident only restrictions! Temporarily park your vehicle, half on the pavement, half on the grass, and unload, very close to the water.....just through the 60" fence entry close to the road, and down the sandy, grassy embankment and into the very shallow water with a smooth sandy bottom...... very helpful for launching a small, hand carried boat.

http://www.meredithnh.org/police-dep...ch-information

And, be sure to close the gate so's the cattle do not wander loose ..... ha-ha ...... mooooo! ...... just kidding .... the cattle have been gone for maybe 100-years or some unknown time? ..... and there is no gate.... just a 60" opening.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jLjgPGci_28 ..... how to get there in the 'tweener season....... paddling an inflatable sup .....weight, just 20-lbs ....determined to get back to your island ...get back ....get back!
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Old 08-05-2017, 07:51 AM   #9
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Maybe an island association can find a piece of un-buildable property for their own docks and dumpsters, might be easier than trying to fight the town.
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Old 08-05-2017, 10:42 AM   #10
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Maybe an island association can find a piece of un-buildable property for their own docks and dumpsters, might be easier than trying to fight the town.
You must be reading our minds. There is a piece of land that may become available that would allow for a 10 acre parking lot and with reconfiguring of existing docks which cover 1548sq feet of lake bottom, 7 docks 55 feet long could be constructed. In order to make such a large project work 15 acres and the dock area would belong to MIA and balance would have to be sold for residential development. The remaining acreage would still have 2200 feet of water front and is worth about 7 million retail. The other possibility is to work with the town to develop the docks and parking and make the remaining 85 acres a town park with beach. Would probably require a 6 million dollar bond payable over 30 years to complete the whole project.
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Old 08-05-2017, 11:15 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by bilproject View Post
You must be reading our minds. There is a piece of land that may become available that would allow for a 10 acre parking lot and with reconfiguring of existing docks which cover 1548sq feet of lake bottom, 7 docks 55 feet long could be constructed. In order to make such a large project work 15 acres and the dock area would belong to MIA and balance would have to be sold for residential development. The remaining acreage would still have 2200 feet of water front and is worth about 7 million retail. The other possibility is to work with the town to develop the docks and parking and make the remaining 85 acres a town park with beach. Would probably require a 6 million dollar bond payable over 30 years to complete the whole project.
Camp Menotomy has 95-acres, maybe 2500' (?) of heavily wooded Lake Winnipesaukee waterfront, a very beautiful, natural sandy beach area with a permanent dock, is located across the water way from Bear Island, and supposedly, is either owned outright, or is leased with a 100-year lease at $1/year(?), by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts. It is located about a six mile drive from the big intersection in Meredith, way down towards the end of meredith neck, on Meredith Neck Rd.

So, are you talking about the Camp Menotomy property? Inquiring minds want to know ........well......at least one inquiring mind wants to know?
.
The last year that Camp Menotomy was operated as an 8-week summer camp complete with campers and counselors and the full summer camp regimen, was in about 2001. Now, it is all posted 'no hunting-no trespassing', and it looks like an ancient primeval forest with huge, old, mature trees, a large wetlands-swampy area and is the happy home for the deer, fox, bobcat, wild turkeys, and at least one black bear.... and no people.....mostly.

Yes, lets cut down some of those big old trees, and build a parking lot, and boat docks for the islanders!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwUJH70ubM .... 'They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot' by Joni Mitchell


www.lwhs.us/camps/menotomy/menotomy.htm ... old camp photographs
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Last edited by fatlazyless; 08-10-2017 at 08:25 AM.
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