An unusual land sale that involved much of the frontage around one of New Hampshire’s most pristine small lakes has produced an unusual result: On the Boscawen side of Walker Pond, almost the entire shorefront has been preserved from development for public recreation, including a public place to put in boats. On the Webster side, everything remains in the hands of private owners, including that town’s only place to put in boats.

The public-versus-private, two-sided story of Walker Pond partly reflects history. Boscawen once used the pond for drinking water but Webster didn’t, giving them a different outlook. Importantly, Webster has two roads next to the pond that allowed the creation of more than a dozen lots of varying sizes, many with houses on or near the shore, while the Boscawen side has only one unmaintained Class 6 road, which prevented all but a couple of house lots from being developed.

The different story of the two sides of the pond also reflects choices made by the community. Boscawen has given its Conservation Commission access to land-use change tax, which gave it enough money to buy the two large lots available on their side of the pond. By contrast, when five lots on the Webster side owned by the water utility went up for sale by auction, that town’s Conservation Commission fell short.

“Everybody was there who had placed bids. We sat and watched while they opened envelope after envelope. … Everybody laughed at our bid,” said Chris Schadler, chair of the Webster Conservation Commission.

Those long-ago decisions coupled with the recent land sales have created two different realities for public access on either side of the pond. The roads on the Webster side feature no-trespassing warnings put up by landowners, including some former and current town officials, and a large stop sign announcing “Private Road. You are trespassing.” On the Boscawen side, the town was so proud of its decision to keep the area open to public use that a picture of the pond was featured on the cover of the annual town report.

Water precinct sale

The history of Walker Pond is echoed by many other small lakes in New Hampshire.

When public drinking supplies were created and protected in New Hampshire, as in much of the world, surface water from lakes and rivers were a primary source. The 200-acre Walker Pond straddling the border of the two towns was the first source for the Penacook-Boscawen Water Precinct. That independent water district – one that is not part of any town government – was created in the late 1800s and today has about 1,400 connections in Boscawen and the Penacook portion of Concord. It does not serve any communities in Webster.

The precinct, like many independent and municipal water districts, wanted to protect its water source, so it bought land around the pond as it became available from private owners, some of whom had built seasonal camps that were slowly upgraded to permanent homes. Eventually, the precinct owned most of the shoreline.

Even so, concern about pollution of surface water and meeting regulatory standards led it to switch to drilled wells in the 1990s, a move that has been made by many water suppliers. With no need to protect the water supply, members at the district’s annual meeting in the summer of 2021 voted to sell off the land.

Boscawen has long wanted to buy and preserve the undeveloped parcels that the water precinct owned on its side of the pond, especially a northern swath which includes the former pump house. That building’s parking lot as well as a small lot closer to the shore is used by people putting their boats into the pond for fishing or recreation.

Alan Hardy, who grew up on Walker Pond and has long been part of Boscawen’s conservation scene, including a stint as town administrator, says the creation of a boat launch site wasn’t planned and, so far as he knows, was never officially approved by the Water Precinct.

“It’s one of those things that sort of just happened,” he said.

Access is where the contrast between the two towns’ approach to Walker Pond is most obvious. Webster has a similar boat launch on nine acres of land that was purchased from the Water Precinct at auction by Town Clerk Michele Derby and her husband, Ronald, for $100,133 in February. The town did not try to purchase it. Derby and her husband own a year-round home on 35 acres on nearby Pleasant Street.

Boscawen purchase

Boscawen officials had been talking with the Water Precinct for years about buying the 25-acre northern parcel and jumped at the chance to purchase both it and a 37-acre parcel along the southern portion of the pond, which is not easily reached. The purchase was OK’d by the select board. Boscawen officials touted it as “one of the best things that could have happened” to the town in a Monitor story published last summer. Webster officials said they would try to follow suit.

The Boscawen purchase, for about $90,000, was done with Conservation Commission funds built up because Boscawen gives that group control of land-use change taxes paid to communities when property is taken out of current use for development.

It’s up to towns and cities to decide what to do with land-use change tax paid by developers – give it to the conservation commission or add it to the general funds. Webster doesn’t give it to the conservation commission.

Partly for that reason, there was no major town bid for the five lots up for sale in Webster. Instead, the members of the Water Precinct decided to sell them in a sealed-bid auction.

The Webster Conservation Commission was interested in Parcel 6, which includes 32 acres along the north side of the pond that they wanted to keep undeveloped.

“Boscawen had pretty deep coffers … whereas we came in – I think we offered $37,000, which almost emptied our coffers in totality,” said Schadler.

The parcel was purchased by a trust owned by Marea Santos, who outbid two other private residents.

Schadler said she had heard the other would-be buyers planned to put a house or two on the lot but has hopes that now it will stay pristine.

“I asked (Santos) that night, ‘Will it be conserved?’ and she said, ‘Oh yeah,’ ” Schadler said. “We think it will be preserved.”

Santos could not be reached for comment.

Total revenue from sale of the properties was $338,044, according to minutes of the March 7 annual meeting of the Water Precinct.

One much-publicized parcel in the area that was not part of the sale is 3 acres of town-owned land bought by town treasurer Bruce Johnson in 2019. Johnson was fined $1,200 for illegally buying the property adjoining his waterfront parcel on Walker Pond Road without going through competitive bidding.

Next steps

What’s the future for Walker Pond now that the Water Precinct has stepped aside? On the Webster side, perhaps another house or two going up and no public tresspassing.

On the Boscawen side, the community now has to decide how much more access is possible – or, for that matter, desirable. After all, the relative difficulty of getting onto Walker Pond helps explain why it is not on the state’s list of “infested waterbodies,” where invasive species like Eurasian milfoil have been accidentally imported by visitors, as has happened on nearby places like Turkey Pond in Concord, Oxbow Lake in Canterbury and Kimball Pond in Hopkinton.

Hardy said discussion has begun in town about what to do.

“We’re going to look at all of that, start talking about the future,” said Hardy. “We’ve got to consider the mix between conserving and use. Balancing the two isn’t always easy.”

Whatever happens, expect Walker Pond to continue doing what New Hampshire ponds do best.

“We do a lot of ice fishing in the winter, a lot of kayaking in the summertime,” said Kellee Easler, planning and community development director for Boscawen. “We are very excited.”

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