WILTON – The Friends of Wilson Lake (FOWL) have had a great response from the local business community in the Courtesy Boat Inspection (CBI) program. We are pleased to continue our 2016 program with a $250 donation from the Bass-Wilson Building to sponsor the eighth weekend of the summer, beginning July 15th. What is now known as the Bass-Wilson Building was built in 1896 as the home of G.H. Bass & Co. to take advantage of the water-power of Wilson Stream. The Bass factory was closed down in 1996 and was purchased by Cousineau Properties. It has since been renovated into four floors of commercial and residential properties. The signature tenant is Calzolaio Pasta Company on the ground floor. For more information contact Joey Cousineau at 207-645- 4448. When I asked the proprietor to sponsor, Randy Cousineau responded, “I know what great work you guys do for the lake and I would be happy to chip in.”

FOWL has been inspecting boats entering and leaving Wilson Lake since 2003. Students are hired to conduct these inspections and the town of Wilton pays them with all costs fully subsidized by FOWL. The costs have been immense averaging well in excess of $4000 per year. Over the past 12 years we have employed 44 student monitors many of them repeating up to 4 years. In 2008 FOWL published a cookbook, Favorites of Wilson Lake, which sold over 1000 copies to support the CBI monitoring program. Our students check boats on Friday from 4 to 7 and on weekends 10am to 6pm. If you get a chance, stop by to visit the boat launch on Canal St. and say hello to our monitors.

To maintain these inspections at the quality level, FOWL is asking our business partners to assist with this effort. For a modest cost of $250 a business can sponsor a weekend of boat monitoring, receive recognition in the kiosk at the boat launch, secure an ad in the FOWL newsletters published three times a year to over 300 homes. Its also a good feeling to know you are helping to keep invasive plants out of our pristine lake. Interested partners can contact Wynn Muller at wynnmuller@comcast.net. We still have a two (2) openings remaining in late August, 2016. We are also signing up sponsors for 2017.