Sarge's Store coming down

A Lakes Region landmark is fading away.

Sarge’s General Store in Winnisquam closed last year after serving as unofficial headquarters for decades of bass fishermen. “Sarge” Watts passed the establishment onto his adult children who operated it most recently as an antique store.

Now the old wooden building by Mosquito Bridge is slated to be sold and will likely be town down.

Ed Crawford, who owns Winnisquam Marina with his partner, Mark Porter, said last night that his business has a purchase-and-sales agreement in place with the Watts family and that the deal would probably be completed by May 28.

“We’ll probably take it down,” Crawford said of structure. “We’re assessing what to do after that.”

The co-owner indicated that the space where the building now sits would likely be used to increase parking for the marina – which owns property on both sides of Mosquito Bridge – and for other marina functions, perhaps an outdoor boat showroom.

The sale of Sarge’s building is significant because the business has attracted scores of fisherman over the years, particularly during two or three annual major bass derbies that used the store for their weigh-in headquarters.

Many of the fishermen also used Sarge’s inexpensive launch – he charged only $10 to put in and take out a boat – to put their boats in Lake Winnisquam.

Then they parked their vehicles and boat trailers in the neighborhood.

“There were sometimes as many as 80 cars out here,” Crawford said.

It was fun for the fishermen, but a problem for local residents who complained that the vehicles clogged up the area and created a hazard.

Earlier this year, people living in the area submitted a petition to the Board of Selectmen asking that “No Parking” regulations be enforced, especially on nearby Winnisquam Way.

At a contentious meeting of interested parties last month, the residents agreed to amend their request to allow 25 parking spaces on Winnisquam Way.

But at last night’s board meeting, the board voted to table the proposal until the ownership of Sarge’s — and Winnisquam Marina’s possible intentions for the site — were clarified.

“Shouldn’t there be public access to the lake?” asked Doralyn Harper, the board’s chairman.

“That’s not up to us,” Town Administrator Donald McLelland Sr. responded. “That’s up to the state.”

“We’re not sure who’s going to own that ramp,” McLelland told the board.

John and Grita Olmstead, who own The Lakeview Bed & Breakfast, were disappointed with the board’s decision.

They said they had been working on the problems for years and thought they had a working compromise after last month’s meeting.

The board members indicated that they understood the Olmstead’s concerns but that tabling the idea was their best option at the present time.

If Winnisquam Marina purchases the old Sarge’s property, the new owners do not expect to draw the kind of traffic to the area that Sarge’s did.

“We definitely won’t be doing that,” Crawford said. “We’re not going to have that kind of traffic coming in here.”