Who We Are

 LAON is an all-volunteer group dedicated to preserving the health and beauty of Norway’s four lakes: Sand Pond, Hobbs Pond, North Pond and Lake Pennesseewassee.  We protect the lakes from harmful invasive plants and pollutants, monitor and report on each lake’s condition, encourage responsible recreation, and conduct a broad based awareness campaign to reach our entire watershed community.

Of course, the key to our lakes health is the actions of all our members: Controlling erosion on their properties and roads;  Removing all plants and debris from all boats and equipment;  Limiting wake to protect other people, our shoreline, and property (state law requires minimum wake within 200′ of land).

Our members enjoy swimming, boating, fishing and other water sports during the summer and ice fishing, snowmobiling, cross country skiing and skating on the lakes all winter.

Events


The 11th Annual Length of Lake Swim  will be held on Sunday, August 16, 2026. This annual fundraiser and celebration of the health of our lakes welcomes individuals, 2 and 3 person teams. If you want to swim or help with a party boat, contact Susan Jacoby at: (617) 833-0646 or skjacoby@comcast.net

NEW: The LAON Lost and Found page. The Summer is here! That means things get misplaced, left behind or simply float away. If you have lost something or found something on or near your lake, you can check here to see if it has been located, or report a missing or found item. Click this link to get started:  LAON Lost and Found Listings


 

Update from Sal Girifalco:

I spoke with the town manager recently and have good news on the Lake Penn dam. All the gates and the spillway have been fully down for some time, and a temporary solution was applied to reduce the leaks around the gate boards, but water continues to leak, primarily from the spillway. An examination of the dam by a contractor found that among other things, the spillway frame is faulty, so it cannot fully stop water flow. The town has approved the repair of the dam (the spillway and the gates). The plan is to take advantage of the low water level to do the work this fall. Hopefully, the town will be able to carry that plan out so water outflow can be better controlled.

See the updates on the Lake Pennesseewassee watershed protection program:

Also, please review the summary of the highly successful North Pond Watershed Protection project, which was conducted during the fall of 2017 through end of 2019.

A survey of the Hobbs Pond watershed was conducted in June of 2024. The purpose was to locate possible erosion sites for future remediation. It will also serve as the basis for a grant application to support that remediation. The survey summary can be found here.

Sponsorship

Our sponsors are caring members and local businesses who recognize the connection between the quality of our lakes and local economic vitality. The Town of Norway is our main partner; we are grateful for its ongoing support. Our member and business sponsors are listed on Thanks to Our Sponsors.

We need you to Invest in our future.  We rely on annual membership dues and business sponsorship to support our work. (All donations are fully tax exempt)


Would you like to be on our email list?  (We only send a few messages each year and we won’t share our address list.) Just complete this form or Email: norwaylaon@gmail.com. Don’t forget to add us to your address book so that our messages reach you!

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