Friends of Lake Pocotopaug is proud to announce the winner of our major 2008 raffle. Susan Broadhurst of Norwalk, CT drove home the new 2008 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet convertible. The drawing was held Saturday August 16th at Angelioc's lakehouse as part of the groups Princess of the Lake Pageant event.

The Smart ForTwo was purchased from the East Hartford Smart Center, a division of Hoffman Motor Group. Without the support and cooperation of its owner, Jeff Hoffman, this raffle would not have been possible. We'd like to thank all those that purchased tickets and the volunteers that sold them for making this raffle such a success. The raffle raised over $16,000 for the Friends lake improvement projects.

While Susan lives in Norwalk, she spends her summers in East Hampton at Nelson's Campground. She is pictured above with family and representatives from the Friends of the Lake.

  2008 4th Annual Boat Parade

Once again the Friends of Lake Pocotopaug (FLP) held their 4th Annual Princess of the Lake Boat Pageant. The parade began at Angelico’s Lakehouse on Saturday, August 16th at 2:00. 17 decorated boats were lead by Captain Grizzy in his Mighty Tug Boat. Crowds along the shore and afloat were entertained by the creatively decorated boats as the parade ventured around the perimeter of the lake. Master of Ceremonies, Red McKinney, narrated the parade from the O’Neill's lakefront home.

Following the parade, spectators and participants gathered at Angelico’s eagerly awaiting the pageant results. Red McKinney introduced the winners at Angelico's and lead the raffle & auction that followed. The event raised over $4200 for FLP lake improvement projects. It was a spectacular day and the Friends of Lake Pocotopaug want to thank all those that were involved.

 Winning Boats:

1st - Belltown Hillbillies  - Steve Peterson & Steve Nowakowski
2nd - Phantom of the Opera - Andrew Simonow
3rd - Noah's Ark - Joe Michaud & Paul Barbour & Tim Andregg

Honorable Mentions:

It's My Party - Gail Cavanaugh
Up, Up and Away in Our Beautiful Balloon 1967 - Mark &  Shelly Cibula
Margaritaville - Bob Kilpatrick

Children's Award:

Brookhaven Park Kids 2012 Future Olympians - John Bozzi

Ultrasound Unit Status Report - 2008

There was no significant improvement in the transparency this year as compared to recent years. Our goal was to reach a transparency of -2.0 m throughout the summer.

During the summer there were several instances when the ultrasound units were disturbed by winds and waves. At times more than a third of the units were not properly placed. (We have now developed a mounting method which should eliminate this problem). Algae growth is cumulative i.e. if the growth occurs and there is still a positive growth factor it will continue to add on. During the periods when the ultrasound units were not operating properly the algae growth would have been higher than expected and putting the units back on would have slowed the growth but not reversed it.

Another measure of water quality is by it’s suitability for use. We have had feedback from many people, that the water was suitable for swimming throughout the summer. They would have liked an increased transparency but found the water satisfactory for swimming. The low transparency would have limited the suitability of the lake for fishing since the fish could not see the bait.

In summary, FLP is disappointed with the low transparency and will continue to work to improve the lake. We intend to install 23 ultrasound units next year and expect to keep them operating properly the whole summer.

As Gladys Yeager has said, “ The Lake took a long while to get this way, we can wish, but should not expect, it to get better rapidly.”

FLP will be working hard to make a cleaner Lake for all of us.

Dr. Jack Solomon