Most Camden residents recognize and treasure the Montgomery Dam and waterfall in the heart of Camden and at the head of our harbor.  Those who have viewed it recently are also aware of how the Dam has suffered from lack of maintenance, a condition prolonged by a Select Board which fails to expend funds that residents have voted for repairs. 

Many of us hope that the decline will be arrested until the town is ready to consider a more permanent, integrated, long-term remedy.  The Select Board must be held accountable for not working to achieve a solution, even more-so after its latest attempt to defer the issue and do nothing.

Currently, the sluiceway gate leaks, the top of the wall has deteriorated in sawtooth fashion, mortar has deteriorated, and vegetation has grown in unwanted places.  Residents have pledged money for making temporary repairs until current studies on the Megunticook River have been completed over the next two years or longer.  They also have an estimate for low-cost, short-term repairs. 

Save the Dam Committee requested time on the March 21 agenda to propose a way to improve the dam appearance over the short term.  But, instead of listening to these residents and discussing the possibilities for short-term repairs at the Select Board meeting, the Board chose to spend the allotted time to discuss its own estimates of substantial, long-term fixes, predictably in the $250,000 range.  

The majority of the Board, led by Town Manager Caler-Bell, with the assistance of Public Works Director, David St. Laurent, used its inflated estimate to ridicule the notion of temporary repairs. Together, they tried to make the case that the problems were more complicated than commonly recognized, causing even more unknown expenses.  They spent so much time developing their strawman that they curtailed the chance for local residents to speak to the very issue they had requested to be placed on the agenda.  

Fortunately, Camden’s new board members, French and Hedstrom, were willing to listen.  They made helpful suggestions and were open to making necessary repairs, including the use of public funds.  But Falciani, McKellar and Romana turned down a motion, made by French and seconded by Hedstrom, that would have allowed Camden residents to vote on funding repairs to Montgomery Dam.  

These three Select Board members have acted consistently to deny an open discussion and any sort of vote by the people of Camden on whether or not to preserve Montgomery Dam.  As mentioned, they have also failed to expend funds that voters approved for dam improvements over the years.

We are unique in Camden; we live where the mountains meet the sea.  While it’s a rugged landscape, the built and natural environment have maintained a delicate balance over the years.  Settlers harnessed the Megunticook River in an initial attempt to master the wilderness so that they could thrive in their new life.  Their first efforts to harness the Megunticook have become our heritage as we continue to conduct our lives and livelihoods between the mountains and the sea. 

As we work to maintain the delicate balance into the future, it’s important that we honor a decision-making process that has worked over the decades, one that stresses democratic participation and open discussion of community issues, opportunities and goals.  We expect our Select Board to lead in this way.

Local residents were trying to solve a problem economically, even offering to assume some of the cost for making short-term fixes to the dam.  Why not give them a real hearing?  Why not encourage them and help them solve the problem for a change?  Open doors, not close them.

I don’t get it.  Of all the possible ways to handle our citizens’ offer, three town board members chose to silence them and to suppress ideas aimed at achieving a temporary solution to rehabilitate Montgomery Dam.  

We certainly can expect more, perhaps a friendly, participatory and democratic response from all five of the Select Board members.  As a start, how about them setting up a work group, including a public works representative, to bring the issue of short-term repairs to a satisfactory conclusion?  Ask the group to report back in a month or six weeks.  Let’s get this task accomplished, sooner rather than later.  Let’s see some positive leadership from our leaders.

Roger Akeley lives in Camden