I sincerely hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday and will enjoy a great New Year. 2008 was a historical year in many ways, but the economic recession that began in 2008 is quite devastating - everyone has been affected, some worse than others. We will probably not know how catastrophic this recession is in reality until we can look back from an historical perspective sometime in the future. In the meantime, we can only hope our political leadership - federal, state and local - will make effective decisions to improve the economy.

The HLWA is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2009, starting off with the Golden Gala Dinner/Dance on January 24. We are planning some special events this year and hope many of our readers who have not been involved with the HLWA in the past will join us in our role to protect Highland Lake. We have a wonderful group of volunteers but would welcome anyone who would like to become involved. If you are interested, please give me a call. We have a number of different committees you might find interesting.

Shirley Allshouse is writing a series of four articles on the history of the HLWA. The first installment was in the Fall 2008 issue of Highland Lake News. I hope you will enjoy reading about the past efforts of the many volunteers who have worked so hard to assure Highland Lake continues to be the wonderful lake it is today. Shirley’s second installment is on page 8 of this issue.

The 50th year of the HLWA is a time to honor past volunteers, but the economic crisis we face in 2009 also affects HLWA plans. In these tough economic times and zero-increase budgets, we need to find different methods to continue to work to preserve the Highland Lake watershed. One way to accomplish our goals is to solicit possible grants. Our Grant Committee (Clare Stevens and Jackie Mulvey) has worked hard on these solicitations during the last few months. Following are some of the grant requests the committee has worked on, as well as other projects we are currently engaged in.

1. The HLWA received a grant from the Howmet Corporation in Winchester for $2,000 to help pay for new water-testing equipment.
2. We have worked with Town Manager Keith Robbins to solicit a grant from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the funds needed for the Diquat application in 2009 to reduce the spread of the invasive Eurasian Milfoil plants.
3. In November 2008 we wrote a letter to our local State Senator, Andrew Roraback, requesting his support of a Highland Lake project if federal economic stimulus funds become available. This project involves infrastructure construction properties and modification construction work on Sucker Brook Dam. The DEP has completed plans for dam modifications that also include the construction of sediment redemption measures for reducing the volume of sediment leaving the Sucker Brook site into Highland Lake. Since these plans are completed, the construction project is “shovel ready” and fits the criteria for Governor Rell’s recent request to Connecticut’s Town Managers for a list of “shovel ready” projects to be available for the infusion of Federal funds. Senator Roraback and Town Manager Robbins have agreed to support the project.
4. We have written DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy to consider funding a proposal from Dr. George Knoecklein of Aquatic Research for an increased testing program and consultation for an analysis of oxygen levels and weed growth in Highland Lake. The HLWA is very concerned with the apparent rapid depletion of oxygen levels and has asked the DEP for support of nearly $17,000 for the program.