Camp owners eye Long Lake projects

MADAWASKA – A recently formed camp owners association is working to recruit members from the 250 camp owners along the Madawaska shore of Long Lake to take up a myriad of projects.

Maurice Collin, a Michigan resident who purchased a camp at Long Lake four years ago, said the Long Lake Campowners Association is considering several projects that would benefit the area in the future.

Association members are meeting Tuesday night to discuss possible projects.

One idea is to build a perennial boat landing on the Madawaska side of the lake. There are two landings on the lake, but both are in St. Agatha.

Collin said the fledgling group has met with town officials and Commissioner Roland D. Martin of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“The town has agreed to a place, and Mr. Martin said there is money available, Collin said Friday. “We are looking to work with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection on approval.”

He said the group also is looking to have 1,000 feet of Green Point Road paved and possibly extended to Birch Point.

Birch Point is a municipally owned recreation area, and the group would like that to be expanded, too. The town owns 24 acres there, according to Collin.

“The area needs more equipment, more recreation program,” he said. “We would like to see Birch Point as a destination, as opposed to a recreation place.”

He said the group is also working to develop a lake monitoring program to study water clarity and phosphorous and oxygen levels.

They also would like to see streetlights on both Beaulieu Road and Lakeshore Drive.

Collin said about 80 percent of camp and homeowners along the lake are interested in developing the association.

The group is meeting Tuesday, Aug. 16, at St. Michael’s Chapel at Birch Point.