A large part of the charm of our village of Camden is the river running under Main Street.

As a child visiting my grandmother in Searsport, from our home in Oklahoma, one of my favorite memories was driving down to Camden from Searsport for lunch at Cappy’s Chowder House and visiting our favorite gift shop, The Smiling Cow.  What made The Smiling Cow so memorable was the fact that the back of the store opened onto a little balcony overlooking the dam.  We’d always go out onto the balcony and look over the falls running beneath our feet and out at the harbor and wish, for all the world, that we could live in this charming little village.

Well, when the choice was mine, I did (finally) move to this charming little village, three years ago — in no small part, because of the charm of the river running under The Smiling Cow and spilling out into those spectacular falls.  Not only is it visually spectacular, but even the sound of the falls adds charm and calm…  not to mention, help mitigate the noise of the traffic running through town.

If the reasons for removing the dam have been disproved — as they appear to have been — then why on earth would the townspeople (taxpayers) of the village of Camden agree to this literal and figurative bulldozing?

There is no history of alewives ever spawning in the Megunticook and no proof that they would, should a ladder be built for that purpose (at God-knows what cost!)

Engineering studies show that the dam would NOT cause the town to flood, as those who would tear down the dam have suggested.

The federal grant dangled in front of our collective noses like a carrot is contingent on the introduction of alewives.  No alewives, no grant.  

As far as the second contingency (that of river ‘restoration’), the removal of the dam does not, in itself, restore the river upstream.

Either of these contingent factors is reason enough to have the grant rescinded — as the $75,000 grant was recently rescinded in Thomaston.  This leaves the entire cost of this pointless exercise on the taxpayers of Camden.

But back to my original point: Why on earth would we remove one of the most distinctive — not to mention most-charming — features of our beautiful little village?  It’s completely pointless.  It’s WORSE than pointless!  It’s going to an enormous expense to remove one of the features that makes our village so very special.  It’s what brings tourists from all over the world to enjoy our little piece of Heaven.

Kelli McGuire lives in Camden