Feb. 8, 2021

To the Lake Kanasatka Watershed Association members and friends,

Some of you may know that Ted Hilton passed away recently. Ted owned the Deer Hill Camp on Red Hill Road and was instrumental in forming the Lake Kanasatka Watershed Association.

I knew Ted well and he was a good and honorable man.

His family is honoring Ted with a GoFundMe page for Lake Kanasatka, the lake he loved so much.

Ted started the Lake Kanasatka Watershed Association in the early 70’s in response to bad land use practices by those developing a large subdivision that abutted his property. The efforts paid off as the subdivision was trimmed back to be a more reasonable size and less harmful to Lake K.

Later in the early 2000’s, Ted was again called to defend Lake Kanasatka (Lake K) because the same subdivision was again asking for changes on their shorefront that would endanger the water quality. This time Ted formed a sub-group called “Keepers of the Lake” to raise money and stop the subdivision from implementing their plan. Ted’s efforts were successful through court mediation.

Now Ted is again fighting for Lake K. Donations to a GoFundMe site set up by his family will help enable LKWA to help fund a Watershed Management Plan (WMP) The Cyanobacteria Blooms this summer were a strong warning that the waters of Lake K were aging more rapidly than normal. Pollution from runoff is the major cause. The LKWA Advisory Board voted unanimously to form an exploratory committee and come back to the Board with recommendations which suggested a WMP was the way to go. The LKWA Board moved forward and hired FB Associates, an engineering firm with extensive experience in watershed management plans in NH and Maine. We allocated half of LKWA savings account and signed the contract for work to begin which it has.

LKWA also spearheaded an effort to request some funds from the Town of Moultonborough through a citizen’s petition which will be on this year’s Town Warrant. Over 60 Moultonborough residents and registered voters signed the petition, and we were successful to have Article 14 placed on the 2021 warrant. We have requested 60K from the town however we do not know how much (if any) the Town will support this. As of this writing the selectmen have not endorsed our plea.

The Hilton family agrees this a wonderful way to honor Ted. Through conversations they learned LKWA was about to start a fund drive to raise money to fund the WMP. Thus, the GoFundMe page was established to make it easier for people to donate. We also welcome any donation in Ted’s honor to be sent directly to LKWA. Either way it is honoring one of the founding fathers of LKWA and I am sure he is looking down upon us with a smile on his face. 

In closing I encourage all of you to reach out to the Town and express your concerns. The more they hear from property owners the better chance we have in securing funds. Lake K raises a substantial amount of tax revenue each year that goes into the town fund. 60K is a drop in the hat when you look at what Moultonborough spends annually in their budget. And Lake Kanasatka is a jewel to this town.

I thank you very much for your consideration.

Kirk Meloney

President, Lake Kanasatka Watershed Association

And thanks go to Vice President Jane Nash for allowing me to modify the letter she wrote to her neighbors about this.