Contributed by Peg Wheeler, Vice President
The Board of Directors, Committee members and other volunteers of the Chocorua Lake Conservancy have been busy since the merger of the Chocorua Lake Association (CLA) and the Chocorua Lake Conservation Foundation (CLCF) on August 16, 2014. The Board has met five times, and the various Committees have met over 20 times.
Over the past eight months, Board members, with the help of consultant Stephen Johnson of Sage Advisors and the law firm of Ransmeier and Spellman, have spent countless hours preparing for and implementing the transfer of CLCF’s real estate interests to Conservancy.
The team’s first task was to review the titles of all 74 properties in the Chocorua Lake Basin that are subject to covenants and easements held by CLCF, in order to identify accurately the current owners of those properties, and to cross-check with town tax records to find mailing addresses for those owners. The process was complicated by the many subdivisions, sales, and family successions which have occurred over the past 46 years.
In January 2015, all owners were notified by letter of the intended transfer of covenants and easements.
Meanwhile, Ransmeier and Spellman prepared a master deed to implement the transfer, including a description of each property subject to a conservation covenant or easement. At the same time, a second master deed was prepared, transferring to the Conservancy the 18 properties owned by CLCF in fee title. Both master deeds have now been recorded. These tasks would literally not have been possible without the institutional memories of CLCF President John Watkins and former CLCF President Neely Lanou, and the oversight of Treasurer Bob Seston.
Led by Treasurer Bob Seston, the Board has successfully merged the financial interests of the two former organizations. Following Board approval, Bob consolidated the bank and brokerage accounts, reinvested the Conservancy’s long-term assets in a balanced mix of index funds, and set up a new financial record keeping and accounting system.
Soon after the close of the new Conservancy’s fiscal year on December 31st, Bob Seston began work on preparation of the Form 990 tax return, due to be filed May 15, 2015. This voluminous return required a great deal of detailed information about Conservancy’s land holdings, which were transferred from CLCF, which created an opportunity to review and update that data.
While all of this was taking place, John Watkins was overseeing the drafting of property management plans, including NRCS-sanctioned forest management plans, for each of the 18 properties in the Chocorua Lake Basin owned by Conservancy.
In December, the Conservancy was awarded an $88,050 grant from the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) for a land conservation project currently under negotiation with a landowner in the Chocorua Lake Basin.