Subject: Letter to the editor submission

From: George Fergusson <gsferg@clarylake.org>

Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:20:15 -0500

To: lcn@lincoln.midcoast.com

To the Editor:

This letter is in response to the 30 November 2007 issue of the Lincoln County News, in particular the article about the Whitefield Appeal Board meeting regarding Pleasant Pond Mill LLC's development plans for the Clary Mill property in Whitefield. The Clary Lake Association would like to set the record straight regarding our interest in owning the Clary Lake dam. That article stated that the Clary Lake Association has declined ownership of the dam. This is not true. The Association has in the past declined offers that it could not afford but to say simply that we have declined ownership of the dam suggests we don't want it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Clary Lake Association would very much like to own the dam and has been diligently working to that end for some time now. Over its 40 year history, the Association has tried many times to obtain the dam. Most recently at a special meeting held on 17 November 2007, in anticipation of the possibility that the dam might soon be offered to the Association free of charge, the membership voted overwhelmingly in favor of accepting the dam. Regrettably, that offer never materialized but the Association remains ready to accept the dam should it be offered to us under those terms. Pleasant Pond Mill LLC for their part has never offered the dam to the Association free and clear, with no strings attached. If they had, I can assure you, we'd own it by now.

Owning the dam brings with it a heavy responsibility including significant ongoing costs for maintenance and repairs, and considerable potential liability. Liability insurance is expensive. Due to neglect, the condition of the dam has deteriorated considerably in recent years and it is leaking badly now making it an even riskier proposition to own. Sooner or later, perhaps sooner, if it is not repaired it will fail completely. This would be a tragedy and it's hard to imagine it happening but it can and will happen if the dam isn't given the care it needs.

Mr. Kelley suggests in the above referenced article that the Town of Whitefield should own the dam. On this we agree. Whitefield would be an ideal owner and I have said so publicly in the past, as reported in this paper. Unlike a private owner, municipalities are exempt under the Maine Tort Claims Act of 1996 from liability resulting from dam ownership. Furthermore, the town has the most to gain financially from the dam's continued existence because without it, property values around the lake would plummet, along with property tax revenues. Nonetheless, the Town of Whitefield apparently doesn't want the dam nor does the Town of Jefferson, which has even more assessed property value around the lake than Whitefield does. Whitefield already has a dam and they don't want another dam especially one that needs work, and Jefferson apparently just doesn't want to own a dam located in another town. These are both short-sighted perspectives in my opinion because in the long run it makes total financial sense for Whitefield and Jefferson to invest in the dam's upkeep to maintain property values, and such interlocal agreement are not uncommon- but money is tight and nobody wants higher taxes.

Only the Association has offered to accept the dam. We cannot pay a lot of money for it and we cannot guarantee to repair it to Pleasant Pond Mill LLC's specifications or to do so in a "historically accurate" fashion as they would like to see. Furthermore, we can't guarantee to insure it the extent Mr. Kelley would like us to nor can we necessarily operate it as they would have us operate it. We are confident however that we have the skills and the resources necessary to pursue and obtain funding to repair, maintain, and operate the dam satisfactorily for it's intended purpose: to maintain a stable water level of and to preserve the quality, character, and natural beauty of Clary Lake. If the Towns of Whitefield and/or Jefferson are reluctant to own it, who better to own the dam than the Clary Lake Association?

Is Pleasant Pond LLC really willing to give away the dam? For all their talk about doing so, it doesn't appear that they really want to give up control of it at all. Mr. Kelley has repeatedly stated he isn't in the "water level maintenance business" and he doesn't want to spend his own money repairing the dam just to make a bunch lake shore property owners happy. I can understand how he feels and nobody is asking him to do that, but as one of those concerned lake shore owners, I strongly believe the dam needs to be fixed regardless and not be sacrificed on the altar of private development interests. The dam should not be a pawn in this game, it's too important to too many people. I hope Mr. Kelley would agree on this point.

Respectfully,

George Fergusson, President

Clary Lake Association

http://www.clarylake.org/

Home: 549-5991

Work: 563-1757