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Health & Fitness

The "Crown Jewel" of the town

The Crown Jewel of the Town

We have been blessed to have a very unique landscape here in Town. Beautiful hills to the West and East and dead center the Crown Jewel, Lake Massapoag.  It too has the unique characteristic of being predominantly spring fed with no river or stream inlets other than a few small runoff tributary brooks. 450 acres of clean pristine waters to enjoy year round, even when frozen. To the “Townie” this “Town Jewel” is always treated as such. The rules and regulations governing its sanctity are extreme and obeyed (or should be) without question no matter how ridiculous they may seem. Whether it be the height of a fence or the width of it’s pickets along her banks, to needing permission to remove or even add vegetation around it, even if it is on your own property, to adhering to the residential sanitation codes for houses on her shoreline. We also have to make the effort to keep the evasive species of plants and aquatic life not native to our lake, OUT of it! People emptying their aquariums into the lake, non indigenous plant and aquatic life brought in from boats launched into the lake has to be closely monitored as not to upset the delicate balance that keeps our lakes environment stable. All of the aforementioned are watched diligently to insure the prolonged life of our Crown Jewel and everyone should be concerned each and every day in this preservation.

Even the little things that you can’t control are bothersome, specifically in nature.

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It wasn’t too long ago in the late 1980’s and early 90’s that our lake wasn’t too healthy. High bacteria counts closing the beaches many times a summer, major fish kills stinking up the beaches and properties around the lake, major algae blooms also contributing to the stench and literally green water. I can remember walking out on the frozen over lake, looking down and seeing the ice, green and brown. Ice fishermen chopping their holes would be leaving chunks of green and yellow ice. The fish were off colored with glossed over eyes and covered in unnatural growths all over their bodies. It was disgusting.

Alas, we have come a very long way since those days in the late 80’s. A special committee of environmentally literate townsfolk was formed to insure the lake was taken care of in the proper way and it has without a question of a doubt worked!  Our lake is no longer ranked in the bottom tenth percentile of cleanliness in the Commonwealth. In fact, our lake is now ranked in the top 3 for cleanliness! Fish kills like we had back then are few and far between. Algae blooms are kept to a minimum, we have the usual spawning kill, but that’s all part of the cycle. Beach closings are kept to a minimum as well and usually only show high bacteria counts after a rainstorm caused by runoff into the lake from shoreline contaminants.

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   What is however bothersome to this day is the human factor. One can walk the beach in the morning and see all sorts of litter spewed all over the place. Shame on you! For goodness sakes, the trash barrels are every 50 feet, is it that difficult to use it. Why are people bringing their dogs on the beach totally ignoring the regulations and adding insult to injury, allowing the dogs to defecate on the pathways and in the sand! “Well I pick up after my dog”…SO WHAT? GROSS.  Our children are walking through the contamination even after “You pick it up!!” What can we do about the geese, A problem we’ve had for years and years. They too contaminate the beach and shoreline, but no one seems to be taking any serious measures to contain the geese from pooping where we walk!

   One has to wonder why any of the departments in town would say it’s this department’s responsibility to do this, or this departments responsibility to do that. Hogwash! There should never be a debate when it comes to keeping our crown jewel clean internally or externally. Everyone, every department every private citizen should jump at the opportunity to help out. From hauling away the trash, to the citizen’s picking up after themselves and utilizing the receptacles provided, NO questions asked.

   When it comes to the waters cleanliness, we should never be questioning anything when the waters of our lake are as clean as they have been in years. “If it ain’t broke, don’t mess with it.” Shame on anyone for wanting to do something outside the established norm. Like I said before, there seems to always be someone of stature  in this town over the years who feels the need to play “King of the Mountain,” Don’t mess with success!

Yes, to the townie, Lake Massapoag IS the crown jewel of our town, and the heartfelt pride felt when we look out over it and the way we go about keeping it in the top percentiles of Lakes in the Commonwealth is paramount. No Townie, Newbie or Outsider has the right to do anything but respect what it’s all about and nothing is more important than doing what it takes to keep our crown jewel sparkling , pristine and tarnish free! 

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