Shep Browns Ramp Very Shallow

[rick35]

Had to run over to Bear Island today and launched my 18 footer at Sheps. I was worried I was going to need to paddle out from the launch because the water is so shallow. I trimmed the motor way up and just made it out without bottoming out the lower unit. Another week and the ramp may be too shallow for all but the smallest boats. There's enough water to float off the trailer but it gets really shallow just out from there probably from people powering onto trailers.

[radioman]

Spent 6 hours at the ramp today (Oct 8) The Lake is lower than I have seen it in the past 15 years!! Today we had 3 boats who experienced damage from hitting rocks upon approach to trailers. One boat sustained damage to his trailer and caused damage to the ramp to the point where we found it necessary to close one side. Not a good situation and it is getting worse.
Parking of cars and trailers today was impossible!! This is not Sheps fault at all.

[kawishiwi]

Originally Posted by radioman

Spent 6 hours at the ramp today (Oct 8) The Lake is lower than I have seen it in the past 15 years!! Today we had 3 boats who experienced damage from hitting rocks upon approach to trailers. One boat sustained damage to his trailer and caused damage to the ramp to the point where we found it necessary to close one side. Not a good situation and it is getting worse.
Parking of cars and trailers today was impossible!! This is not Sheps fault at all.

Sorry to hear. Curious about the parking of cars and trailers being a problem. Whats going on with that?

[rick35]

I'm not surprised that parking was difficult as I'm sure this was close up weekend for a lot of people. Two things I'm sure contibuted to the parking problem: the town decided to redo the drainage before the end of the season and Sheps put shrinkwrapped boats in the upper gravel lot and next to the stone wall in the lower lot. Both reduced the available parking significantly. I'm glad I went up on Friday before the crowd. I need to make another quick trip over to Bear in a couple of weeks and i'm thinking about going by kayak from the Cattle Landing.

[radioman]

Parking at Browns has always been a problem simply because there simply not enough spaces to accommodate those who are Island dwellers who pay big bucks in taxes to the town of Meredith. Add to that the problem of Three Mile Island people who despite having a private parking lot, prefer to take up spaces in the lower public parking area. This weekend was a typical example; 80 people were scheduled to be on the island for close-up weekend. I counted exactly 11 cars this AM in their lot! (you do the math)

Yes, Browns has placed a good number of boats in the trailer lot by mutual agreement with the town.

[rick35]

That's a really good observation about the TMI people.

[secondcurve]

Originally Posted by radioman

Parking at Browns has always been a problem simply because there simply not enough spaces to accommodate those who are Island dwellers who pay big bucks in taxes to the town of Meredith. Add to that the problem of Three Mile Island people who despite having a private parking lot, prefer to take up spaces in the lower public parking area. This weekend was a typical example; 80 people were scheduled to be on the island for close-up weekend. I counted exactly 11 cars this AM in their lot! (you do the math)

Yes, Browns has placed a good number of boats in the trailer lot by mutual agreement with the town.

I don't doubt you but I'm curious how you know that 80 people were scheduled to be on TMI this weekend?

[radioman]

Dinty the launch driver shared that with me.

[rick35]

Last name Moore?

[upthesaukee]

He has a brother "Stew" .😆 Sorry, couldn't help myself. Back to the shallow ramp at Shep's.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Tapatalk

[P-3 Guy]

Originally Posted by radioman

Parking at Browns has always been a problem simply because there simply not enough spaces to accommodate those who are Island dwellers who pay big bucks in taxes to the town of Meredith. Add to that the problem of Three Mile Island people who despite having a private parking lot, prefer to take up spaces in the lower public parking area.

FYI, Three Mile Island Camp also pays "big bucks in taxes to the town of Meredith." Any parking problems in the public lot at Shep's have been exacerbated by more users who are going to destinations other than Three Mile Island. Three Mile's population of summer campers, and volunteers on off-season work weekends, has been remarkably consistent over the years, and the camp has been using the public facilities at Shep's for 60+ years, with the knowledge and permission of the Town of Meredith.

Yes, it would be nice for more Three Mile people to park in the camp parking lot, and you probably know that in the summer that lot is usually close to full, which frees up many spaces in the public lot by the docks (you're welcome). My guess is that after Labor Day, when the camp gets mostly weekend use, the folks heading out to Three Mile arrive on Friday afternoon/evening and find many empty spaces in the public lot (which is much closer to the docks). So they park there, not realizing that on Saturday and Sunday their island neighbors may have trouble finding a spot in the public lot. Add to that the boats that are being stored in the town trailer lot starting in the fall, and things get crowded.

The camp already asks campers, volunteers and other guests to park in the Three Mile Island lot, and perhaps a better job could be done in reinforcing that. However, whether folks choose to park up the road in the camp lot, or much closer in the public lot if space is available, is an individual decision that the camp ultimately has no control over.

[radioman]

TMI Guy, Thank you for your recent post. Everything you said is correct and it was well said.
We both agree that on busy weekends there are congestion issues and if I inferred that the blame was all a TMI issue then I apologize. Over the past 15 years I have come to know and admire people like Dinty, Will, Tom, Ginger and so many others, all very special people and I am certain that every effort has been made to explain the issue to campers as well as staff. No one could ask for anything more, Stay warm this winter.

[fatlazyless]

Originally Posted by TMI Guy

FYI, Three Mile Island Camp also pays "big bucks in taxes to the town of Meredith."

That is debatable ....... with 43-acres and one mile of waterfront ....3 Mile Island supposedly pays $20,000/year in annual payment in lieu of property taxes.

Myself and three neighbors occupy just over one acre total on the waterfront, about 1.1-acre, with 240' waterfront, divided up by four owners, and we pay about $37,000/year total.

3-Mile Island is getting a super duper, steal of a deal!

[bilproject]

A few years ago I ran a poll asking if an island resident parking restriction would be favored by island residents of the Meredith islands. Gilford has such a system. TMI Guy will remember this as we exchanged PMs about this. I wrote a letter to the town supervisor asking the Selectmen to consider selling boat stickers similar to the dump stickers and making Cattle Landing Island resident parking only along with one finger of the docks at Shep Browns.
You see most of the people who were against the idea were located on Mark or Mink Island and use Shep Browns or Cattle Landing to park their cars and boats when they go to town along with guests that visit them as it is much closer than the town docks in Gilford OF WHICH THEY ARE PROPERTY OWNERS.
Unfortunately the Selectmen took the attitude that the docks were for all residents of Meredith a fact which I agree with. However, a rough estimate of taxes paid by Bear Island only is north of $700,000 per year and the only town services we receive are the two public parking lots, 3 town docks, and a fire boat stationed at Y-Landing. That does not include taxes generated by the Beavers, Pine, 3 mile, 5 mile, 6 mile, little 6 mile, Pitchwood, ozone or Dolly Island. I leave off the part if Black Cat as it is a bridged island.
Seasonal residents have been treated a second class property owners by the Town governing body for as long as anyone can remember. It took 30 years of talk to get a new dock at Cattle Landing only to get a new dock that cut the parking places down to 5 due to the design selected without any island resident input.. The docks at Sheps are getting more dangerous each year due to neglect. Many trip hazards exist and the towns solution was to paint the uneven joints florescent orange. ( See how that works out for them when someone from a state where they sue for the smallest thing trips over the highlighted known hazard they took no action to correct) I guess it doesn't matter to them because they can always raise the Island taxes to pay for the 5 Million dollar settlement. Maybe I should not bring this up as the corrective action will be to close the docks at Sheps and we can wait for new docks 30 years from now.

[P-3 Guy]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

That is debatable ....... with 43-acres and one mile of waterfront ....3 Mile Island supposedly pays $20,000/year in annual payment in lieu of property taxes.

Myself and three neighbors occupy just over one acre total on the waterfront, about 1.1-acre, with 240' waterfront, divided up by four owners, and we pay about $37,000/year total.

3-Mile Island is getting a super duper, steal of a deal!

It's not a payment in lieu of property taxes. It's a property tax payment. And if you had enough land to qualify for the state's current use property tax reduction, you might also get the same super duper, steal of a deal.

[P-3 Guy]

Originally Posted by radioman

TMI Guy, Thank you for your recent post. Everything you said is correct and it was well said.
We both agree that on busy weekends there are congestion issues and if I inferred that the blame was all a TMI issue then I apologize. Over the past 15 years I have come to know and admire people like Dinty, Will, Tom, Ginger and so many others, all very special people and I am certain that every effort has been made to explain the issue to campers as well as staff. No one could ask for anything more, Stay warm this winter.

Thank you, radioman, for your kind words. I know that there have been issues in the past with parking. The best thing that neighbors can do is communicate and work towards a resolution that hopefully works for everyone. Certainly camp management can try to encourage more use of the private lot and explain why a half-empty public lot on a fall Friday might not necessarily be the best place to park, from a neighborly standpoint, given the competition for spaces over the next two days.

The camp spent a lot of money five years ago to buy real estate and build a gravel parking area. Of course, the prime consideration was making sure that camp guests, volunteers and staff could have a place to park their cars, but an added benefit was being able to free up quite a few spaces in the public lot for use by the camp's island neighbors. I've seen the dramatic increase in use of the public facilities at Lovejoy Landing over the past 45 years. I was amazed on a weekend last August to see cars parked on the north side of Lovejoy Sands Road, almost all the way up to the Neck Road and between all the "No Parking" signs. I don't know if anyone noticed a difference when the camp lot went into use, but that probably took 30 to 40 cars out of the mix trying to find a spot in the public lot during the summer season.

[P-3 Guy]

Originally Posted by kawishiwi

Curious about the parking of cars and trailers being a problem. Whats going on with that?

The public trailer parking area was made available to the town by Shep's ownership with the provisions that A) the loss of previously unused real estate would not count against the business's lot coverage factor (a zoning requirement), B) the town would pay to construct a public trailer parking area, and C) the business could use the property as a boat storage area in the off-season.

I don't know if the dates for the beginning and end of the off-season are explicitly stated, but apparently boat storage is taking place in the public trailer parking area when members of the public are still wanting to park their trailers there.

[rick35]

I was at the Meredith PD getting a week pass for my boat trailer for Shep's dirt lot this summer and the dispatcher said something about changes coming. I can't imagine that the town will close the lots to non-residents. Meredith, unlike Gilford, depends on lake access for its businesses. But something has to happen. Island residents need to be given priority for parking.

We should probably start a new thread to talk about parking ideas because its important to a lot of us and we might be able to give the town some new ideas.

I started this as a ramp thread back on 10/7 as the water level at the ramp was almost at an impossible level for trailering. Was the ramp usable this past weekend?

[P-3 Guy]

Originally Posted by rick35

I was at the Meredith PD getting a week pass for my boat trailer for Shep's dirt lot this summer and the dispatcher said something about changes coming.

Do they charge money for a week pass for a boat trailer, and if so how much is it?

[rick35]

There's no charge for the pass. I'm a property owner so there wouldn't be one but I don't know if you can get a pass if you are a renter or visitor.

[MAXUM]

Originally Posted by rick35

I started this as a ramp thread back on 10/7 as the water level at the ramp was almost at an impossible level for trailering. Was the ramp usable this past weekend?

I did with my little boat, the ramp is fine but where the bottom comes up beyond the big hole caused by all the power loading was showing 1.7 feet according to my fish finder. If you put in a bigger boat like a stern drive be very careful. Also noticed the MP pulled all the flashers off the markers that have them. Guess it's that time of the year.

[rick35]

I checked the DES water levels and it looks like there's only been about an inch difference in the past week. They also reduced the outflow from around 300 CFS (cubic feet per second?) to 44.