Camelot Acres Residents Association (CARA) History
Newfound Lake has an area of 4,106 acres and is the fourth largest lake in New Hampshire. It was originally called Pasquaney. Newfound Lake is one of the clearest, cleanest lakes in the United States. It is 7 miles long and 2 1/2 miles wide at its widest point. Newfound is spring fed and has 22 miles of shoreline. It is 597 feet above sea level. At various times there have been sightseeing boats on the
lake. After one of these caught on fire and sank in Pasquaney Bay there was a lapse of many years until another sightseeing boat toured the lake in 1992, using the Pasquaney Inn as its home base.
The earliest transaction that we could locate regarding Camelot land was in a warranty deed from J. Olin Tilton to George B. Watson dated November 21, 1895. The lot was described as “a small portion of a farm of some 80 acres, more or less.”
In the early 1960s, this land was owned by Barney Bosonoff who lived in a trailer at the corner of King Arthur Lane and West Shore Road. In 1965, he sold the property to George and Margery Lallas of Lowell, Mass. They lived on West Shore Road (on the lot just before Frostie’s) and operated the area with rental cottages. There were three cottages on the beach and eight in their backyard. A dirt road went from the back cottages to approximately the current parking lot where there was space for 4 or 5 cars. From there the road continued to the beach in the same location as the road is now.
On June 8, 1966, a preliminary subdivision plan was drawn by David H. Hamilton, surveyor for George H. Lallas, manager. On July 14, 1966, the town of Bristol Planning Board approved the proposed subdivision development of 64 lots with minimum areas of 10,000 square feet. Three sample homes
were constructed in three different architectural styles, ranch, Swiss Chalet and log cabin. These homes were purchased by Lil and Vinnie Vaccarello, Ray and Jo O’Connor, and Emil and Doe Chagnon. Jim and Janette Harvey were the first to purchase a lot. In 1966, the declaration of restrictive covenants that govern Camelot was registered with the state of New Hampshire. In 1968, George and Margery Lallas sold to Emil Chagnon and Wilfrid Piekarski. The three rental cottages that were on the beach were moved within the first year after the subdivision was approved to three lots in Camelot. These cottages are now owned by Garvey, Rawlings and Serozynsky. John Turner who owns and built the cottages just north of Camelot did much of the work to make these cottages livable after they were relocated. At that time, Camelot had a central well located on four lots between Lancelot Lane and Tristan Lane. This well served as the water supply for Camelot
Acres prior to town water being installed. The water pipes from the central well to the Camelot lots were installed by Mr. Turner. At that time, there was a large wooden pier in the middle of the beach that had been there for many years. Eventually it deteriorated and was removed.
Camelot Acres Residents Association was started in 1970 by Vincent Vacarello and Henry McLaughlin. The founding members were Emil Chagnon, Jim Harvey, W. Murray, Harry McLaughlin, G. Nilson, Ray O’Connor, Walter Payne, J. Pelkey, Gordon Pinckney, Ernie Richards, Randy Robinson, R. Serozynsky, Howie Soberg, Charlie Surels, W. Wilson and Vinnie Vacarello. At first, the meetings were very informal. No by-laws had been formulated.
In 1972, the first rules were voted in as a supplement to the original covenants. These rules are still in effect supplemented by other rules that have been added over the years. Original rules were: No dogs on the beach; No refuse left on the beach; No motorized bikes, scooters, or cars on the beach except when transporting disabled persons or heavy objects.
Lights were installed on the beach in 1973. Dues were $10.00 and CARA’s balance sheet was $345.00.
In April of 1975, the central well pump burned out and Camelot Acres was without water for four days.
The roads were accepted by the town in 1975 and plowing and maintenance was taken over by the town. Spearheaded by Don Kenney, a charter was drafted and plans were made to incorporate the association in September, 1976. This was also the year of our first confrontation with Ken Bailey concerning the 30 foot right of way to the beach. The number of homes that year was 28.
The major concerns during 1976 through 1978 were to resolve the well water problem and for the town to pave the roads. Thanks to the persistence of Randy Robinson, Harry McLaughlin and Vinnie Vacarello, these projects were completed. In May of 1978, the by-laws were presented to the association and unanimously adopted.
In October of 1979, CARA was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in the state of New Hampshire. Most of the incorporation work was done by Don Kenney and Dick Guenther.
Labor Day parties in these early days consisted of cookouts on the beach, a dinner dance on the Mt. Washington on Lake Winnepausaukee (transportation to and from was by a rented bus), a catered Chinese dinner on O’Connor’s lawn and a Hawaiian luau.
The big news of 1980 was a master plan of the beach area drawn up by Don Kenney. The first phase would cost approximately $1,200.00. It was voted unanimously to accept and proceed with this plan. Dues for the 30 members were raised to $25.00.
In 1981, town water was installed and Chagnon subdivided and offered the back lots for sale – these are the lots west of Tristan Lane. At that time a one time assessment of $50.00 to each lot owner was made and CARA had a balance of $89.47 after all expenses involving the beach improvements were paid.
In 1982, the second phase of the beach project was completed and under the leadership of President Dick Guenther, plans were made to incorporate into future deeds the statement that new owners must join the association. Existing owners were not required to be members of CARA.
The parking lot improvements were completed by Chagnon in 1983. The Labor Day party that year featured a very successful international buffet on the beach. Don Kenney was given a bronze plaque and a scroll in recognition of his continued contributions to the beach improvements.
The next phase of the beach plan was completed in 1984. This was a pivotal year for Camelot Acres. C.A.I. (Chagnon), the developer, having sold the majority of the lots, decided to divest itself of the beach and parking lot because of the tax expense. They were two years in arrears on tax payments to Bristol. They wanted to turn the beach and parking lot over to the town. The town would have then made the beach and parking lot open to the public. This resulted in a turbulent six months of negotiating
involving the town of Bristol, C.A.I. and CARA. Led by President Mel Milender, we eventually forced C.A.I. to pay all the back taxes owed and each lot owner was deeded new quitclaim deeds granting them ownership of 1/106 of the beach and parking lot. This ensured that these areas would forever be in our possession. C.A.I. also transferred ownership of the restrictive covenants and rules to CARA.
The next year CARA received permission from the town to move the beach road. This work was done under the leadership of Dick Atkinson. 1985 was also the year of boat dock and mooring controversies.
The backroads were paved in 1986 and the remainder of the water pipes were installed. We were able to persuade the town to change the use of the road (Gareth Lane) running toward Turner’s from a Class VI highway to undevelopable property. This ensured that no road would be built connecting Camelot and Wulamut Road.
The controversial issue of boat docks and moorings was resolved in 1988. Amendments to the CARA by-laws regarding dock and mooring issues were approved. Much credit must be given to Dick Guenther who painstakingly put these amendments together.
In 1989, CARA settled a dispute with Frostie’s ice cream store by consent decree. Frostie’s was excluded from our regulations and they relinquished their rights to Camelot’s amenities. Also Chagnon’s request for a subdivision within Camelot was settled. Thanks to fine work by President Paul Kilian, we did very well financially in the settlement.
In 1991 the final phase of the beach area was completed with the moving of the access road and building of the steps and small beach to the south side of the road. We feel we now have the finest private beach on the lake. Credit should be given to President Bob DeNoble who diffused possible problems with the owners who have access to the right of way regarding the new road.
2006, 16 new Lockers were added. Giving us a total of 64 lockers on the beach.
Summer 2016
Fall 2016 – The long awaited Beach Project began. Many years of hard work went into this project. Special thanks to Ellen Rawlings (Pres.) and Glenn Pinkney (V.P.) for their hard work in moving this forward.
2017 – Beach Washout. Some pretty heavy storms cause some significant erosion on the beach. However with a lot of manpower and hard work, repairs were made in about one day.
September 19, 2020 – Massive thank you to Bob Monk for design, purchasing and transport of the new Kayak racks and to everyone who helped tear down, haul off old racks, dig, level, haul sand and rock, carry and set up the new racks. Special thank you to Brian Doyle for his time, equipment, and skid steer driving skills!
June 2023 Was the year of the massive washout on the beach road and the small boat area. So much sand washed into the jet ski area that some of the jet skis were lifted out of the water.
Below are transcripts of emails sent out by the President, Joe Chisholm.
Dated 26 June, 2023 – “Hello All,
We want to provide everyone with some additional details about what has transpired on the beach since last night’s storms. As was mentioned in the earlier note, we incurred heavy damage to the beach road and lower beach, and we have had a considerable amount of sand/silt/rock enter into the lake. Casey Kuplin has equipment onsite and is scheduled to begin repair work momentarily. We’ll get you additional details on that in a future update.
Most pressing is we had to temporarily relocate all the jet skis and two pontoons from their current locations to available moorings and slips. Fortunately we had 6 open moorings and 3 open slips. Some moorings have two jet skis paired up. Please know that we only had the ability to secure each PWC or pontoon on the moorings with one line at this time. Not the two lines we would prefer. If you have the ability to trailer your jet ski, we would recommend you do so. If you have not yet placed your boat on the mooring or slip, please refrain from doing so for the time being. Any future placements will need to coordinated with Bob to ensure availability. Lastly, we’re working with Liz Miller regarding how to address the small boats since we’ll need to access that area and repair and re-grade it too. We understand we are a week away from the Fourth of July holiday weekend where many have plans with extended family and friends, but we are requesting everyone’s patience and cooperation as we work through this untimely and devastating event. Brittany is evaluating the planned activities for the holiday week and will advise by Friday if anything is changing. Special thanks to Nolan and Cindy Manning, John Miller, Dan Bouchard, Bob Monk, Scott O’Connell and Donna Huot for assisting with the boat movements, and to Paul Thompson for coordinating with Casey Kuplin today.
Regards, Scott, Sue, Brittany and Joe”
Dated 27 June, 2023. – “We are working through NHDES with the assistance of Ken Milender to obtain an Emergency Authorization (EA) to mitigate the damages incurred. Please note we are working within very specific guidelines and timelines. One question repeatedly asked is “Can we re-design the current water conveyance system?”. Short answer is no for our immediate needs. The EA allows us to mitigate impact and return to as-was. Any proposed changes must be filed and submitted through the normal channels and review process which is more thorough and lengthy. We also have a tight timeline to recover from the lake any sand/silt/rock that flowed into the lake around the jet ski and dock area. That was the priority of Casey Kuplin yesterday evening. His plan is to return on Thursday and begin work on the road and lower beach repair. This remains a very fluid situation, hence, it is difficult to say when all the work will be completed by Casey, let alone when we can have the jet ski area ready for use again.
Based on the uncertainty of work timeline and that the impacted area directly impacts the jet skis, we are requiring all jet skis be removed from the dock or mooring field at your earliest convenience. Glenn Huot will contact those members under a separate note. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes in the short-term for members, but it presents the best path forward in terms of logistics and optics for the association. This morning a dozen members were present to help remove the small boat racks. Special thanks to Brittany Galvin, Liz Miller, Bob Monk, Dan Williams, Dan Bouchard, Peter Rawlings, Bruce Dorner, Glenn Huot, John Kaplafka and John Miller for your assistance. Special kudos to Bob Monk and his foresight on the small boat rack system since it readily assembles and disassembles. And a very special thanks to Glenn Huot and John Miller for the Bobcat and Tractor support and prep of the small boat area afterwards.
Many members who arrive on scene comment how the pictures shared on facebook or the website don’t give full context as to the damage incurred. The gulley in the road approaches four feet deep! Some bar napkin math suggests that the upper culvert adjacent to the parking lot may have been hit with 1.3 million gallons of water (assumes a watershed area of under 8 football fields and 5 inches of water that night). What we should all feel good about is the “new” beach wall held up admirably.
Sue Tenney is analyzing the available free-cash for the association using anticipated expenses through the remainder of the year. We don’t yet have a projection of the cost to repair, but once we do, will be able to share if our “rainy day reserve” (no pun intended) is sufficient to cover these expenses. Special thanks to Sue who is within a month of her daughter’s wedding, and I’m sure this was not on her to-do list.
In closing, a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has availed as able to help wherever needed. The next update may not occur for a few days since we’re in a slight pause of activity. As noted yesterday, Brittany will update the holiday events schedule by Friday.
Regards, Joe”
June 2024 Beach Cleanup Day
June 2024 – Installation of Camelot Acres Memorial Garden. Thank you to Brittany Galvin for making this happen. Click here for a link to personalized stones for our memorial garden.
