Dear Fellow Abutters:

Welcome to spring! This Spring Newsletter is sent to report to you regarding several important initiatives and new developments now underway at WPCPA. We will summarize these developments in this newsletter and expand on them further at our Annual Meeting on May 12th at the Walpole Police Station.

 1. Annual Fees
First of all, we are pleased to report that your annual fees — $950 per home plus $400 for motor boat users – will NOT be increased.  Although our rent has increased by 2% for the year – approximately $1,300 – we will not need to change our fee structure at this time.  Invoices are going out this week – and can be paid by check or electronically.  Thanks in advance to each of you for paying your fair share and supporting our beautiful and peaceful pond. 

2. Dam and Spillway
We are also pleased to report that significant progress is being made on the spillway repair front.  Specifically, the Neponset River Landholding Association (“Landholding”) reports that the preparation of bidding documents for the construction-ready engineering should be completed soon.  That engineering will be for a planned “piano weir” system as described at last year’s meeting.  Assuming that schedule holds, we expect the construction-ready engineering work to be performed this year, followed by actual construction commencing in 2027 or 2028.  To finance the engineering, Landholding has applied for and expects to be awarded, in collaboration with the Town of Norwood, grants which fund 90% of the cost of the engineering, leaving less than $25,000 to be paid by WPCPA.  The construction itself, in turn, is expected to be primarily government funded, although as most of you know, WPCPA may ultimately need to contribute up to $500,000 toward that work in accordance with our Lease with Landholding.  We would be remiss, of course, to note that after 15-plus years of discussion of the infrastructure work it’s impossible to be certain these plans will come to fruition.  That said, there is clear positive traction, the plan is a logical one, and the state appears to be looking favorably at funding infrastructure projects such as this one.  But for more details on this process, please join us at the annual meeting, where Jim Kane, the Director of Landholding, will join us to report on that progress. 

3. Landscape Approval Process
Another new and significant development deals with the approval process for landscaping improvements for Walpole properties.  We currently have a three-step approval process in which an abutter seeking to make landscape alterations must seek approvals from WPCPA under the terms of your Subleases, from  Landholding under the terms of our Lease with LH and from the Walpole Conservation Commission under the Town’s wetland by-laws and State and Federal statutes and regulations pursuant to the Wetlands Act of 1976.   Under those statutes and regulations, for any work within 100 feet of the edge of a wetland, the ConCom must issue either a determination that the work is allowed without any permit, or an order of conditions allowing the work.   Prior to 2019, however, a “Standing Order of Conditions” (SOC) was in place with the Town of Walpole. That SOC allowed NEPRWA, then the owner of the pond, to make certain decisions regarding landscaping without the abutter needing to apply to the ConCom.  That SOC expired several years ago, however, which has led to delays and impediments in the landscape approval process.

In order to eliminate those issues, we have begun working with the Walpole ConCom to establish a new SOC, and we are hopeful that –  by late summer –  WPCPA and LH will be granted the authority to act on behalf of the ConCom in approving most abutter requests for landscape alterations.  We expect that we will be successful in gaining the requested approvals, though the exact scope and language of our agreements with both ConCom and Landholding remain somewhat fluid – -we will have more to report here at the Annual Meeting.  While such approval will not expand the actual limits on any landscaping change requests, it should eliminate a significant part of the approval complexity and shorten time-to-approval.  We also hope to explore this same process with the Westwood ConCom after we have this process completed with Walpole. 

4. Dock Approvals
We do not expect any significant changes in the dock approval process this year, but are pleased to announce that abutter Kevin Keaney has volunteered to take over the lead role on this task from Jim McGrath.  Thank you Kevin, and thank you Jim for your many hours of past effort on this issue. 

5. Boating Safety – New State Requirements
As many of you know, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is now going to require a state safety certification for anyone operating a motorboat –  even on a semi-private pond such as ours!  Although none of us are pleased about this, the fact is it’s the new law!  Effective April 1, 2026, all operators of motorboats (electric power included) are required, if born after January 1, 1989 (under the age of 37) are required to obtain a state required certification.  The rest of us will also be required to obtain that certification, but not until April 1, 2028.  Given liability concerns of failing to take and pass this test, it is imperative that WPCPA support the implementation of this new state law, and we intend to do so.  We are therefore asking everyone with a motorboat to affirm that they will not allow their motorboats to be operated on Willett Pond by anyone who is not appropriately licensed and certified.  We are also, however, working to facilitate training and certification for our members and their families, and are pleased to report that Jay Guidone has volunteered to lead that effort.  Jay is preparing information which we will be circulating to all abutters over the next few days and which we will also review at the Annual Meeting.  That information will include recommendations as to how each of you can best proceed to obtain this newly required certification.  Although we knew this requirement was coming and previously reported that to you, and we all felt like it was “a long ways off,” like it or not, the time has come. 

6. WPCPA Board Membership and Officers
We would also like to announce that there have been several changes in the composition of our Board of Directors at WPCPA.  First, we report that Rick Sonnenberg recently resigned from the Board after over 20 years of service as a board member and as our Treasurer.  We certainly will miss Rick’s true “hands-on” experience and perspective, as well as his detailed work as Treasurer collecting and dispersing money.  The bookkeeping work that Rick as performing will now be done through the generous volunteer efforts of  Valerie Bishop (Leo and Julie Cesareo’s daughter), who is already instrumental in helping with our website and all IT issues.  Thank you Valerie!    In turn, Jim McGrath, currently Vice-President, has volunteered to also assume the role of Treasurer.  As to the board seated vacated by Rick, Andrea Cuarda, a new resident of the Pond on Bullard Street, was elected to replace Rick. Dan Dennehy also resigned from his seat on the Board due to his heavy “day-job” work schedule, and was replaced by Gerard Roth, who was already serving as a Board alternate.  Dan’s efforts will also be missed.  Thus, your current Board is now as follows:

Jeremy Ritzenberg, Director and President;
Jim McGrath, Director, Vice President and Treasurer;
Susan Ragland, Director and Clerk;
Murray Beach, Director;
John Mustonen, Director;
Gerard Roth, Director;
Andrea Cuadra, Director

At our Annual Meeting this year, both Jeremy and Andrea are up for re-election and both would like to continue serving. 

7. Watershed District
Next, we are revisiting and seriously considering changing our form of governance to a “Watershed District.”  As many of you will recall from our discussions back in 2018 and 2019, over the years we have been somewhat financially burdened by abutters who don’t pay their fair share of Pond costs, creating what really is a “free-rider” problem.  Although the vast majority of you – nearly 90% of our roughly 85 homes – pay their fair share – to put the issue into perspective as a matter of math, each of our abutter households make up the circa 10% shortfall by spending about an extra $100/home/year.  We have generally been successful in collecting unpaid fees when properties are been sold – since new home-owners are buying houses here in order to be able to fully enjoy the water, but that process is far from certain, and we will all be better off if payments are automatic and if collection efforts are not required.  

This financial “leakage” –  as we will call it – is the product of an imperfect system. We can’t legally eliminate the leakage under our current system because we can’t force anyone to sign the Sublease and to pay their fair share – all we can do is keep people off of the water and the landstrips – and that’s not always enough, and takes time. While we can surely try to shame our neighbors into paying, as a practical matter that usually won’t work and will produce enmity within the community—exactly the opposite from our goal of trying to positively build community. Thus, the real question going forward is this: do we want to change our system to one that does in fact produce 100% compliance? Or do we continue accepting an imperfect system that costs each abutter about $100/year ?  This is exactly where the watershed district idea comes into play. 

So—what is a watershed district? As discussed at some length in 2018 and 2019, a Watershed District is a municipal entity, kind of like a “town within a town”, that manages certain tasks (the same ones WPCPA does now), and would collect fees that are equal to our existing revenue IN THE FORM OF TAXES.  Since the taxes would be collected from ALL abutters, not just the existing circa 90%, we would eliminate leakage, eliminates free riders and create a more fair system.  Today, this form of governance has been established in several like-kind ponds and lakes in Massachusetts, with another 2-3 dozen throughout the rest of New England.  We are therefore currently investigating a series of legal questions as to whether this system would be right for us, and there are a lot of details to be worked out.  But if we determine that it will work, we will bring this issue up for a vote by all abutters.   Assuming approval by the abutters, we will also then need approval by the three towns and by the State legislature, and would then hope to be able to implement this system within 12-18 months.  

8. Weed Treatment 
This year, the weed treatment plan is for two applications of diquat.  Although we have in some past years used Sonar, the costs of a single Sonar application are more than 400% of the costs of a diquat application, and although Sonar has some significant benefits, we believe they are outweighed in many circumstances by the cost.  We are, however, working with Landholding on an earlier diquat application than last year in order to reduce the amount of weed die-off and hopefully improve water quality as a result.  Stay tuned for details. 

9. Second “Annual” Willett Pond Appreciation Day
Finally, as to the fun stuff, last year’s first annual “Willett Pond Appreciation Day Party” was a great success and certainly helped bring us all a bit closer as a community. Based on that experience, we intend to repeat the party this summer. We would love to find a different venue if you have ideas, though as a backup Jim and Ann McGrath are willing to repeat as hosts. Please let us know if any of you might be willing to host this event—and if you’d like to serve on the party committee coordinating the event we’d love some help there too!

In summary, there is a LOT going on behind the scenes and we look forward to expanding upon all these matters at both our Annual Meeting on May 12th at the Walpole Police Station and in future communiques. As a last note, you will hear from us soon on the boating driver certification matter—which as we said must now (unfortunately) be dealt with by all of us. 

ONWARDS TO SUMMER 2026!
WILLETT POND CHARITABLE AND PROTECTION ASSOCIATION

By: Its Board of Directors

Best Wishes,

Your Board of Directors