September 4, 2024 Breakfast Meeting Notes
Tony opened with his famous NH Trivia: A collection of miscellany.
The 50/50 was won by Ken Evans.
Lora drew for the card game but chose the queen of hearts. The game continues.
Mike gave an update on the food truck festival. It will be be held Sunday, October 20, on Green Street and is sponsored by Local Foods Plymouth. There may be as many as 40 small farmers as well as food trucks and music. We are hoping to have a table at the event where we can sell tickets. We are also looking at some sort of interactive event that day (perhaps the purple pinkie event for polio?)
The following week, on October 26, is our district regional training event in North Conway as well as the Rotary Leadership Institute at St Johnsbury Academy. These events will be announced in the district newsletter.
We are still looking for a single $1000 sponsor for the Penny Sale and one sponsor for the Hometown Holiday Celebration.
Our loyal breakfast cook, Tom Thomson, has been nominated for an award from NH Lodging and Restaurant Association for employee of the year. He will need our help in the form of votes. If you would like to support Tom, please go to https://www.NHLRA/stars-voting. He is in the restaurant employee category and his title is breakfast bartender/waiter/cook.
Our speaker today was Larry Spencer, our Citizen of the Year, who spoke to us about the Oxbow project. The oxbow is 250 acres just south of the PSU ice skating rink. Access is via Holderness Road, between the two gas stations. The other access is at Pemi Riverside Park on River Street. There is also an access from Ashland.
This area is a diverse set of habitats, from fields, to cliffs, to shoreline and meadow. Waterfowl, field, and forest birds are seen there, as are bald eagles, bear, and deer, along with a wide variety of amphibians and insects. Much damage has occurred via motorized vehicles going in between the gas stations; gates and barriers now prevent vehicles from accessing the area via that road. People can walk there or go mountain biking in the summer and ski or snowmobile in the winter.
About 5 years ago, Lisa Doner received an email from the executive director of White Mountain Trail Collective about the possibility of a grant. The organization wanted to purchase 5 properties, one each in Plymouth and Holderness, two in Ashland, as well as the Oxbow itself. The owner of the the Ashland properties, Phil Freel, was willing to donate one of the Ashland locations as a match, but the federal government rejected the application as they wanted money, rather than land, being used match the grant. Then Covid hit and the project was put aside. After Covid, the officials in Concord were suddenly opposed to the project. They then applied for a grant through the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP).
A deal was arranged in which the Squam Lakes Conservation Committee owns the primary conservation easements, with Plymouth owning a second easement, while the town of Holderness owns the actual properties. Environmental assessment showed no major contamination and all titles were properly searched. The deal was finalized on August 27 the Pemi, Phil Freel was paid off, and it was all done except for the bell ringing!
The Pemi Oxbow Preserve (POP) will now protect 250 acres of the floodplain. The property is being held by Holderness, under the oversight of the Holderness Conservation Commission, which will put together a committee of interested persons like snowmobile clubs to help manage it. They are putting together the Chris Buckley Conservation Fund to provide for upkeep of the property. So far they have raised $24,000 our of a planned $30,000. If you are interested in contributing, send money to the Squam Lakes Conservation Committee.
Erica will be doing a project called Century Ride in which she will help create murals on every continent!
Happy dollars were shared by Denise, Mike, Phil, Erica, and Alicia.
Respectfully submitted,
Lora Miller, secretary