Several area contractors have signed on with ALIC as participating vendors for the upcoming Septic Seminar to be held Friday evening, July 23, at the Ladd Center in Wayne.    The goal of the program is to inform folks in the lake community on how best to use and care for their septic systems in order to obtain maximum longevity and also have minimum impact on lake water quality.   To encourage action by Androscoggin Lake property owners whose septic systems may be in need of significant attention, ALIC is offering three prizes of $700 each towards system replacement or major upgrade.  In addition, several area contractors have signed on as participating vendors, contributing vouchers for major discounts on services including site evaluation and system design, perc tests, and installation of a chambers system.    All prizes will be awarded through a drawing held at the July 23 event.

For more information about becoming a participating vendor or qualifying for a prize, click on Contact Us on the website homepage and send ALIC an e-mail.      

The Board of ALIC is excited about offering two informative seminars to our lake community this summer.    Both will be held on Friday evenings, July 23 and Aug. 13, beginning at 7:00, at the Ladd Center  in Wayne.   The events are free of charge and will include refreshments.    The focus for July 23rd. will be on septic systems and how to best maintain them for maximum longevity and minimum impact on the lake.   There will be a speaker from the State Dept. of Environmental Health and at least one local plumbing inspector on hand to answer questions.   In addition, ALIC will be offering some incentive drawings, both cash and in-kind services, to property owners around Androscoggin lake whose septic systems are in need of significant attention.    Watch for more details in this blog and in a flyer to be distributed around the lake.      The Aug. 13 seminar will bring Maine Audubon’s multi-media presentation on LOONS, which depicts a year in the life of a Maine loon and includes photos that will both awe and inspire you.     

We hope you’ll attend these seminars whose intent is to inform the lake community of pertinent issues and encourage good stewardship.    We look forward to seeing you at these gatherings!  

Mark your calendars for Saturday, July 10 for the ALIC annual meeting at the Androscoggin Yacht Club in Wayne.   We’ll have our always-delicious potluck brunch beginning at 8:30 a.m. followed by our business meeting.     Come greet your lake neighbors and learn what ALIC has planned for this summer season!

ALIC has created a new online Yahoo! Group to allow us to better communicate with the entire membership throughout the year.   If you have an e-mail address, you no longer need to keep checking www.androscogginlake.org or to wait for the annual newsletter for ALIC news!

We know that you probably already get a lot of e-mail, so in order to keep a cap on e-mail traffic from this group, we have set it up as a moderated group.  This means that messages can only be posted to the group by members of the ALIC board of directors.

When you sign up, you have two easy options to choose from.

• You can sign up to just get e-mail postings from the group without actually joining the group.

• Or, you can become a full member of the group itself.  Members of the group are able to browse through past postings, but Yahoo! does require that you create a Yahoo! account for yourself, if you do not already have one.

To sign up, just send an e-mail to AndroscogginLake-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.  Please include your full name and, optionally, your address, in the body of your e-mail, so that we know who are are.   Or, if you prefer, just give us your e-mail address when you sign in at the upcoming annual meeting, and we’ll handle the details for you.

Once you have indicated to us that you want to sign up, you will receive an e-mail with further instructions for either joining the group or just receiving e-mail posted to the group site.  If you want to have complete member access to the group, you will need to either supply your existing Yahoo! account information or to create a new Yahoo! account.  Alternatively, to opt for e-mail updates only, without creating a Yahoo! account;  just click on “join the mailing list instead” snuggled away near the bottom of the message.

If you have further questions or experience any problems, please send e-mail  to info@androscogginlake.org.

This photo from Frenchman’s Cove was taken by Debbie late last Spring.  Now, late April 2009, the boulder shown is almost completely submerged by the high water level.