Enfield — Alyssa Wormer of Lebanon went for a swim last weekend in Mascoma Lake and said the only thing of note was the cold water.

Chad Michetti of Canaan fished for trout near the dam yesterday as his 4-year-old son, Asa, climbed rocks and dipped his feet into the water.

And Rich and Mary Lord of Claremont are gearing up for another summer of boating and swimming from their spot at Mascoma Lake Campground.

Around Mascoma Lake yesterday, residents and business owners for the most part said they had been following reports that Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center researchers are trying to determine if there is link between a neurotoxin that may be found in blue-green algae known as cyanobacteria and a cluster of nine cases of Lou Gehrig's disease around the lake.

Most of them said they see no cause for concern, noting that researchers themselves have said there is no reason for the public to be alarmed.

"I've been up here since 1978, before they cleaned up the lake. It was a nasty lake then ... now it's as clean as it's ever been," said Jim Kelleher, a contractor who has built several homes in Shaker Village.

"I've been in the water 10 times since that news (broke last week). I didn't see any blue algae," added Paul Raymond, the co-owner of Mascoma Lake Campground. After some initial calls of concern from prospective visitors last week, Raymond said he has only a few slots open for this weekend and is completely booked for the Fourth of July.

Wormer, 18, said she had followed the news reports but said she isn't worried about swimming near her father's lakeside home. The swim was "cold but it was good," she said.

"What I read is it (may) affect people who have been living here a long time," Wormer said.

Michetti, who does carpentry work on Nantucket, said he wants to learn more about the concerns about the neurotoxin from cyanobacteria but noted that many other beaches on the East Coast are also affected by similar problems, such as red tide.

He said reports of a cluster of nine ALS cases didn't alarm him.

"You can get hit by a car today ... the percentages are pretty low in my eyes," he said. "As for kids going in the lake and stuff, you can't take that away from them."

And Rich Lord said the preliminary research isn't changing his summer plans.

"There's people who are just afraid of life in general," he said. "If it was warm enough to be swimming or tubing, we'd be doing it."

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has posted warning signs at public docks and beaches on Mascoma, and some other New Hampshire lakes and ponds, telling the public to stay out of the water if they see cyanobacteria blooms, which have been documented to cause other health problems for pets and humans. The warnings are not directly related to the possible ALS link.

"This beach may not be suitable for swimming due to high levels of potentially toxic blue-green algae," a DES sign at Shakoma Beach near the Shaker Bridge reads.

Lebanon City Councilor Nicole Cormen, who previously chaired the city's Conservation Commission and Planning Board, said people on the lake should "pay attention to what cyanobacteria looks like" but also not overreact to the possible, but as yet unproven, link to Lou Gehrig's disease.

"This is not a clear-cut situation as far as the disease cluster goes," said Cormen, who went canoeing on Mascoma Lake on Saturday and said she would have gone swimming, too, if it had been hotter that day. "It's a very complicated piece of research that is being undertaken, and there are a lot of variables."

"It bears looking at," she added. "I guess the first thing I would advise is that people not overreact and not panic, but also not dismiss it as a lot of hooey. People have to pay attention to their environment."

One of the Enfield residents paying especially careful attention is 77-year-old Austin Flint, who lives on a house at the head of the lake that was built by his grandfather in 1890.

Flint, a retired psychology professor and the son of a botanist, has been studying algae on the lake for the past 15 years and is a member of the Mascoma Lake Association. What's more, his first wife, Ann, also summered on the lake as a child and died of ALS.

But Flint said he thinks the possible link is "spurious" and that the Mascoma cluster of ALS cases is just "one of those happenstances" of statistics.

"If you have a pattern ... you have to have some concentration," he said. "Nothing is completely random."

Flint, who examines slides of algae with a microscope in the former hayloft of his lakeside barn, said Mascoma Lake has an especially large watershed, stretching east to Mount Cardigan and to Mount Cube to the north, providing a constant source of fresh water to the lake.

"It's a very viable lake because it has such a tremendous watershed," Flint said. "I think it's a good thing that they are researching (the cluster), but I don't want to see them ruin the lake in the process, reputation-wise."

Flint's wife, Joyce Flint, said she and her husband aren't worried about swimming in the lake, but because researchers believe the neurotoxin could trigger ALS in people with a genetic predisposition to the disease, she would worry about her husband's children and grandchildren from his first wife being exposed when they visit.

"I would be more concerned about them," Joyce Flint said.

Many of the residents appeared to have a similar take on the situation as Jennifer Lee, a mother of two who lives in Shaker Village.

After news of the cluster first broke last week, she called the DHMC neurologist conducting the research directly to learn more information, and was heartened to hear that she shouldn't be alarmed.

"I still take them swimming," Lee said of her children.

John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or (603) 727-3213.