The platform at Alna’s Head Tide Dam has long been a spot to take in scenic views of the Sheepscot River, calm in a summer dry spell or rushing toward the dam and sometimes over it after a heavy spring rain. Now the platform area will be getting some care, from the man who has long fished the river in Alna for its alewives.

The town’s longtime alewife harvester David Sutter said he will apply some protective coating to the railings to help prevent rusting, and will neaten the area with a weed-wacker.

Sutter already unclogs the openings that let fish through the town-owned dam. When he met with selectmen on August 20 about renewing his contract to take alewives, he offered to do the other work.

Under the latest, five-year deal, Sutter will again pay the town $2 for every bushel of alewives he gets. He’s been selling them for $20 a bushel, he told the board.

Selectmen agreed to the deal, 3-0. First Selectman David Abbott praised the job Sutter has done over the years at tending to the alewife population.

“That’s probably helped improve the fishery,” Abbott said.

The discussion also touched on past outside efforts to get the town to consider removing or altering the dam to help with fish passage, The fish are able to get through, with the dam as is, Sutter said.

Third Selectman David Reingardt said he was not proposing, and would not propose, doing anything with the dam, but that, in his opinion, “it’s just an eyesore.” If the town wanted to remove it and put up a footbridge, grants available for “green” projects would probably cover the costs entirely, Reingardt said.

“You could do it for free, and it would be a real improvement to the ecosystem,” he said. “I think it would improve the river. I think it would be better for the whole town,” he said, adding that the area could still be used as a swimming hole.

Reingardt and fellow board members said they would not be exploring the idea or putting it on an upcoming agenda to further discuss it. Reingardt added later that he only brought up the dam since Sutter was there and he was interested in any opinion Sutter had, based on his experience.

The concrete dam once powered a lumber mill. The town got the dam in the 1960s, in a deed that called for it to never be destroyed.