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From the
desk of George Yerrall, President, OPCT
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May 2, 2012
Dear
Ocean Pointer:
April
means trees are blooming, the Red Sox are already torturing
me and it is time for me to write the annual “Spring”
letter. I hope this message finds you well and excited, as
I am, to return to Ocean Point. We had a very mild winter
in the Northeast and so I hope all of your cottages had an
easy time weathering the off-season. If you are receiving
this letter via email, you will not be receiving it via US
mail. For those of you who would prefer to receive
communication via email please send me your email address at
g.yerrall@riveroakic.com.
Your email address will not be shared with any other
organization and will be used only for Ocean Point Colony
Trust mailings.
Board
member Jim Duncklee led the AD Hiring committee effort ably
assisted by Maryellen Bertrand, Susan Anderson, and Ginna
Yerrall. After reviewing dozens of resumes and conducting
numerous interviews, we are pleased to announce that Ginny
Kern has accepted the job as AD this summer at Ocean Point.
Many of you know Ginny, but for those of you who don’t,
Ginny grew up summers in the Boothbay Region and has been at
Ocean Point for many years after marrying Ted Kern. Ginny’s
resume includes time as both a pre-school teacher and a
Special Education technician. Ginny singularly impressed
the hiring committee with her organizational skills, her
ideas and her enthusiasm. Ginny and her daughter Jennifer
will be taking up residence in the AD cottage in late June.
Please welcome them when you see them.
Membership fees have not increased in a long, long time,
holding steady at $75 per person. Last fall, in light of
what we know will be an increased need to deal with some of
our physical assets, the OPCT Board of Trustees voted to
increase the membership fee per person from $75 to $100. We
did not make this decision lightly, but rather felt that it
was a responsible decision that the Trustees needed to make
in the face of the forward challenges we face. Please see
the entire fee schedule attached to this letter for
information about tennis fees, which have not been raised.
Also, the tireless Maryellen Bertrand has been at it again
lining up a full summer of activities. The tentative
schedule is also attached to this letter.
The
Board has brought the issue of the condition of both the
Casino and the tennis courts to your attention over the past
two years. To summarize, the tennis courts are in an
increasingly deteriorating condition and will have to be
completely rebuilt in the relatively near term future.
$4,400 will be spent this spring to repair cracks and set
posts just to keep the courts in “playable” condition. The
Casino was hurriedly conceived after the old Casino burned
and while not “falling down”, it is only in fair condition
and is in many ways functionally obsolete. These two
deteriorating assets give us a once-in-a-generation
opportunity to assess the desirability to rebuild the Casino
and the tennis courts and fully integrate the site. Before
it burned in the 1970’s, the Casino was a grand structure
that inured to the benefit of all Ocean Pointers through its
versatility of use and its iconic status. Even if one never
used the old Casino, it increased the value of your cottage
by its very presence. Ocean Pointers Link Brown and Mark
Wyman have graciously volunteered their time and their money
and their talent to build a block replica of the old Casino,
which will be on display this summer. I am looking for
volunteers to join me in a Steering Committee to explore the
viability and ramifications of building a new Casino in the
spirit of the old Casino when we inevitably have to tear up
and rebuild the tennis courts. Please let me know if you
are interested. I would look to schedule a first meeting
sometime in the first two weeks of July where we would map
out a process whereby we would solicit the input of all
Ocean Pointers.
Personally, I think restoring the Casino of Ocean Point to
something much more in Ocean Point’s character is a
completely worthy and worthwhile project, both functionally
and financially, and I hope you will join me in this effort.
I want
to update you on our on-going discussion with the Town of
Boothbay over the commercial use of the Grimes Cove boat
ramp. As many of you know, barges began using the ramp to
service both their off-shore clients and their up-the-coast
schedules in the past year or so with increasing frequency.
The Colony Trust researched the ownership of the ramp and
found that although the ramp was installed around 1960,
there has never been a recorded owner of the ramp. The
Colony Trust owns virtually all of the land at Grimes Cove
including the land under the ramp. There have been a number
of conversations with both the Town and some of the
commercial users and early this year, the Colony Trust asked
the Town to consider a compromise whereby commercial use
would be allowed throughout the year with the exception of
the months of July and August. The Town referred the
request to the Port Committee who voted unanimously, with
one abstention, to recommend that the Selectmen reject the
offer on the grounds that the Town owns the ramp, which the
Selectman did. There are still remedies available to us,
but we may have exhausted any solution that won’t involve
cost. For those of you who are interested, there will be an
informal meeting to discuss the issue and the possible
remedies with Colony Trust Members on July 5th, which is the
Thursday before the Parade which occurs this year on July 7th.
I’m
looking forward to seeing you all this summer at Ocean
Point. There are challenges to be faced and opportunities
for us to consider at Ocean Point. As our lives are sped up
by the speed at which information moves and our seemingly
increasingly hectic schedules, Ocean Point is a place of
repose for me. A place where I come to see old friends,
enjoy the beauty of the coast, just “walk around” and a
place not only worth preserving, but a place worth leaving
better-off for those who will come after me.
I will
be at Ocean Point over Memorial Day weekend, during the
first 2 weeks of July and for 10 days in August, including
the Annual Meeting. My phone number at Ocean Point is
633-4827 and I can be reached any time by email at
g.yerrall@riveroakic.com.
See you
soon,
GeorgeYerrall
President – Board of Trustees Ocean Point Colony Trust, Inc.
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November 28, 2011
Dear Fellow Ocean Pointers:
With the holidays fast approaching, I
wanted to send all Ocean Pointers a short note about some of
the projects that the Board of Trustees will be working on
over the winter in anticipation of the 2012 season.
On the immediate horizon, we were
informed that at the end of the season, Dan Densmore, the
Activities Director, will not be returning. We turned our
attention to Chris Hoffman, our Activities Director from the
prior summers who did such a terrific job. Chris was
married over the summer of 2011 and although I think it was
a difficult decision, Chris decided that it would be better
for him to be at home in Brunswick during the summer of
2012. Board member, Jim Duncklee has agreed to head the
Search Committee for the new Activities Director. Jim can
be reached by email at
jim@jimduncklee.com. Please contact Jim, if you would
like to join the search committee or have any suggestions
that the committee could use. We are also continuing to
pursue discussions with the Town over the use of the Grimes
Cove boat ramp and will report back on those discussions
when there is something concrete to report.
As you may know, the Board of Trustees
and many other Ocean Pointers have grown increasingly
concerned over the condition of the central physical
facility, namely the Casino and the tennis courts. The
tennis courts are gradually becoming unstable from the
foundation up and will become unplayable at some point in
the next few years. The Casino is a 40-year old building
that was quickly built on a very tight budget after the
original Casino burned. Although, neither the Casino nor
the tennis courts are literally falling down, the facilities
are declining at an accelerating rate. Much time and
thought has been given to the future of these facilities by
the Board over the last couple of years. At the October
meeting, I agreed to chair a Steering Committee to gauge and
assess the interest of the Ocean Point community to build a
new facility that would increase the site’s functionality,
recapture the essential characteristics of the old Casino,
and reintegrate the Casino and the tennis courts into the
overall site.
The Board has envisioned a new Casino
as a more functional central gathering place. The Casino
would be a building that has a more visually appropriate
design, but the board has not envisioned the building to be
“upscale” in terms of its interior finishes. The building
will have a stage and a kitchen with space to seat the
entire membership and hopefully it would even have a place
to carve your initials!
Concurrently, we will be assessing the
requirements, both structurally and financially to renovate
the current Casino and replace the existing tennis courts
and fencing.
The Steering Committee has been charged
by the Board of Trustees to create visual renderings that I
can bring to them at the next Board meeting in May of 2012.
I seek your input as well, either as a member of the
committee or just as someone who wants to let me know what
they think about the idea of a new Casino and Tennis Court
facility. I picture a facility that will still be there
when my kids have kids and a facility that we can be proud
of because it will reflect the character of the community
which it serves.
You can reach me by email at
g.yerrall@riveroakic.com or by phone at 203.325.8009
extension 111. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
George Yerrall
President, Board of Trustees–Ocean
Point Colony Trust
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May 1, 2011
Dear
Ocean Pointers,
It was a cold and snowy
winter in the Northeast; it is very nice that spring has
arrived albeit a bit rainy. At this time of year my thoughts
turn to Ocean Point and my excitement begins to grow as I
anticipate the upcoming summer season. The 4th of
July parade, Sunday softball games, porch parties, tennis
matches, pancake breakfasts and kids playing capture the
flag. Another summer season is upon us and I’m looking
forward to getting to Ocean Point.
This is my first season as
President of the Ocean Point Colony Trust (OPCT). I just
turned 55, but this will be my 56th summer at the
Point. (April birthday, the old Crockett cottage, etc.) I
have an excellent team of volunteers that I am working with
that give generously of their time and of their treasure to
the Ocean Point Community. I want to give you a quick status
update on what was accomplished this past winter.
We had a very active winter
with some long overdue maintenance on the AD Cottage and
some unexpected, but necessary grounds work courtesy of
Mother Nature. Here is a short list of the major projects.
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Re-Roofing of the AD
Cottage, resetting and repairing the gutters and
correcting the plumbing stack.
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Removal of the trees
overhanging the south side of the tennis court.
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Clearing and pruning
trees around the Casino, the children’s play area and
the ball field.
Thanks to Jeff Steane, for
the excellent work on the
AD Cottage and thanks to Jim Dunklee for his cooperation and
contribution in regard to
removing the trees by the tennis court. It is cooperation
between parties combined with hard work that makes the OPCT
successful.
The OPCT is continually faced
with on-going maintenance of our physical assets. It is my
duty to keep you all up-to-date on any major projects and
maintenance expenses that we face, so you can get a picture
of what it takes financially to operate the OPCT. I believe
that the Board’s responsibility is to be good stewards; one
way to do that is by maintaining our community assets. Our
expenses continue to rise as our assets age and
unfortunately the contributions have been trending slightly
downward. This is not a positive pattern and one of the
major goals of the Board is to reverse this trend.
There may be many reasons as
to why this is occurring; one being that when the emphasis
on cottage contributions shifted to be more closely
associated with the right to vote, less people have
contributed. While it is true that a certain level of
contribution grants the right to vote at the annual meeting,
cottage contributions are put to work supporting the OPCT
assets and events as well as the local Boothbay community.
Cottage contributions preserve and enhance our abilities to
do the things that we all love and treasure at Ocean Point.
By supporting the OPCT, we can continue to offer activities
and the facilities that generations have come to anticipate
and enjoy.
By giving back we make it
possible to pass on the traditions and opportunities that we
value about our summer community. I view this as a shared
responsibility and one that I ask you all to support.
I have been asked to provide
some guidance as to what is an appropriate level of
contribution for a family or individual. The suggested
contribution schedule is attached. I think $75.00 is
exceptionally reasonable for an individual member and I ask
that you consider whether you can give more. By all means,
contribute, come and vote, but if you can’t be at the Annual
Meeting or don’t care to vote, please contribute.
Checks can be made payable
to:
Ocean Point Colony Trust,
Inc.
P.O. Box 642
East Boothbay, ME 04544
The OPCT is a 501(c)3
organization and your contributions are fully tax
deductible. Please consider having your employer make a
matching contribution if a matching gift program is
available to you at your current or prior place of
employment. This can be an excellent way to increase the
dollar amount of your contribution. Thank you in advance for
your continued support and generosity.
For me, what makes Ocean
Point into “Ocean Point” is not the buildings; it’s the
people. In an ever increasingly hectic and fast paced world
the Point is the place that I go to take time out, say hello
to my neighbors and friends and enjoy the easy sense of
community between us. We have a number of new an exciting
events planned for the summer along with many of our old
favorites, so stay tuned as we continue to work on the
enclosed summer events calendar.
I am open to your comments
and suggestions. You can reach me by phone at the Point at
207-633-4827 over Memorial Day weekend or during the first
two weeks of July. You can reach me by email anytime at
g.yerrall@riveroakic.com.
See you on the Point!
Best regards,
George Yerrall
President – Board of Trustees
Ocean Point Colony Trust,
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November 10,
2010
To those of
you who don't know me, my name is George Yerrall and I am
the recently elected President of the Ocean Point Colony
Trust Board of Trustees. My wife Ginna and I and our 5-year
old twins, Jonathan and Luke, co-own a cottage down the hill
from the
Casino
at 156
Shore Road with my sister Nancy Gale and her husband Fred. I
am physically in residence
at
the Point on
Columbus Day weekend, Memorial Day weekend, the first 2+
weeks of July and for the 10
days
leading up to
the annual meeting in August. When not on the Point I can be
reached by email at
g.yerrall@riveroakic.com
or by
phone at 203.325.8009. I am open to and interested in any
idea, comment or suggestion you might have.
I am thrilled
to have the opportunity to serve as President of the Board
and want to start by thanking everyone who makes the OPCT
work at every level. There is no Ocean Point as we know it
without the volunteers who run
the
breakfasts and
dinners, collect the "attic treasures", sell the cook-books
and do all of the other countless tasks that make it all
work. To those volunteers, past, present and future, I am
grateful. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank our
immediate past President and Treasurer, Joan Fischer and
Denise Griffin respectively, for their tremendous service
over the past two years.
Your new Board
of Trustees met in October and we are off to a running
start. To date we have accomplished the following:
•
Undertaken the replacement of the roof and assorted
smaller
repairs
on the AD
cottage
•
Contracted to remove the tree
overhanging
the
tennis court nearest to the street
•
Hired a new AD for the summer
of
2011. His name
is Dan Densmore and we are thrilled to have him onboard. You
will be hearing much more about Dan as the summer
approaches.
As the Board
of Trustees looked ahead to
the future, two
things became readily apparent. One, the major physical
assets of the OPCT, namely the Casino and the tennis courts,
are getting long in the tooth and planning needs to be done
to account for their eventual replacement and/or significant
renovation. Two, the Board wants to reach out to
all
of its
constituents
so as
to foster and
continue to build an environment of inclusion and
transparency as we continue to share the precious assets,
both physical and natural, that we all enjoy. I can promise
you that as your President, I
will
put my heart
into
my work
and make every effort to put the good of the whole of Ocean
Point ahead of any other consideration.
Last week I
was going through old papers on my desk when I came across a
stock certificate for capital stock in the Ocean Point
Association with
a
face value
of
$5,
signed, dated and held by my father in 1949. Somehow, all
my
thoughts and dreams about the future of Ocean Point
always
come
back to my (perhaps idealized,
perhaps
not)
belief that Ocean Point has been
a
community-based natural haven that has been appreciated for
the many of
the
same reasons
by generations for generations. I'm sure we all have
reflections like this that remind us why the community is so
special to each of us on a personal level.
Have a terrific Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah and I
look forward to hearing from you and/or
seeing you
soon.
Best Regards,
George |
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