Volume 20, Number 29
Serving Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall
www.TownTimes.com
MORNING HAS BROKEN
Friday, November 1, 2013
Lake Beseck drained for dam repair By Mark Dionne Town Times
Indian Springs Golf Course during a recent sunrise | (Submitted by Chuck Stengel)
Three vie for Middlefield first selectman Nov. 5 By Mark Dionne Town Times
There will be a third line on Middlefield’s Nov. 5 ballot. In addition to the lines for the Democratic and Republican parties, Marianne Corona will be listed as a petitioning candidate and the third option for First Selectman. Current First Selectman Jon Brayshaw is on the ballot as the Republican candidate and current Board of Finance chair Lucy Petrella is the Democratic candidate. In August, Corona filed the paperwork to become a petitioning candidate. According to Middlefield Town Clerk Donna Golub, third party options used to appear on ballots in Middlefield in the late 80’s
and early 90’s when the First Middlefield Party fielded candidates. Current Selectmen Ed Bailey and David Burgess are also on the ballot, as selectman candidates. According to Golub, the first selectman will be the highest vote-getter among Brayshaw, Petrella, and Corona. The other two Board of Selectman seats will be filled by the next two highest vote-getters, whether they are on the ballot for first selectman or selectman. “The next two [selectman] could be any one of those four people,” said Golub, referring to the two eventual unsuccessful candidates for First Selectman, along with Bailey and Burgess. Winners of the selectman
contests will serve two year terms. There are two candidates for the Town Clerk position, current Town Clerk Golub and Kathleen Kokoszka. Two candidates are also running for the Town Treasurer position, current Treasurer Ellen Waff and Mary Ann Zieminski. The Board of Finance has five candidates running for three seats. On the Republican line: David Lowry, Joel Nick, and Robert Yamartino are running. Laura Williams and Susan Heuberger are running as Democrats. Yamartino is currently serving on the BOF. Although state minority representation laws can cap the number of seats filled by See Selectman / Page 10
On Oct. 4, the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection opened a single pipe at the bottom of the dam on the southern end of Middlefield’s Lake Beseck and began a draw down of the lake. Aided by a lack of rain, the draw down has quickly and dramatically changed the lake, leaving acres of mud, rocks and scattered trash where there once was water. Docks sit hundreds of yards away from the shallow, remaining pools of lake water. It appears that someone may have stolen the Lake Beseck sign and some local schoolchildren say the sign went missing because it’s supposed to say “Puddle Beseck.” The draw down is the start of a DEEP dam re-
pair project. According to Middlefield First Selectman Jon Brayshaw, “The damn has a leak and it’s getting bigger and bigger.” The state, which owns the lake, is bearing the cost of the repair and also has the authority to make the decisions about the project, such as the water level. Brayshaw said he expects DEEP to keep some water running through the dam into Ellen Doyle Brook for the health of the brook. The project is estimated to take 300 calendar days from the start of construction, which is expected to happen after Thanksgiving. The project will end, Brayshaw said, “September, maybe October.” Brayshaw plans to ask DEEP representatives to a “community get together” about the project. “People See Beseck / Page 23
The draw down at Lake Beseck has revealed unusual items on the lake bed. | (Mark Dionne\Town Times.)