As one Alna boat ramp issue continues, another has emerged. And part of the talk June 15 was on its potential impact on the older issue.

The older matter, involving Jeff Spinney’s boat ramp off Golden Ridge Road, has gone through the town’s planning, appeals and selectboards and is now in the courts. The new issue is on the other end of town, at Pinkham Pond. According to officials and other residents at the selectmen’s meeting held at the town office and on Zoom, an area once consisting of dirt and rock recently got more rocks when the town had work done near a dry hydrant and on Bailey Road’s edges that were falling apart.

First Selectman Ed Pentaleri said the planned fixes to the road edges and dry hydrant area came after a pair of April road committee meetings, one of them at Pinkham Pond to view the dry hydrant site. He was later surprised to hear from Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which had received a complaint about work at the pond. 

Pentaleri shared an email from DEP’s Cameron Dufour, referring to a complaint “of a fill being placed on town property on Pinkham Pond possibly to create a boat launch. I am not aware of any permits for activities in this area,” Dufour wrote. “Please advise what the town’s plans are for this disturbance.” And Third Selectman Coreysha Stone said there has been a complaint the newly lain rocks are course on feet and tires. 

Removing the material might do more harm than good, since the spot “looked like it needed work,” past selectman David Abbott said.

Second Selectman Steve Graham said he was worried how the town handles the matter could factor into the town’s litigation with Spinney over his ramp. Although people tried to take notes in the rain April 17, “clearly there was a lack of clear understanding among people that say they were there (and) what I worry most about from (tonight’s) conversation ... is if we go back and try to permit what’s been done, I can tell you ... it’s going to come back at me. It’s going to come back at us, in connection with the (Spinney) litigation.”

Recollections differed on the plans that came out of the April 17 road committee meeting. Pentaleri said this is why he likes to do requests for proposals: They help ensure a common understanding, he said. And past road commissioner Mike Trask said selectmen’s meetings, which are recorded, are the place to assign roadwork. Said Trask, “Now you have this program you’re running now where he said, she said, nobody knows.”

To Graham’s concern, Chris Cooper said Spinney is going to “hunt you guys to the gates of hell, one way or another,” and right now the thing to do is get a permit for the work done at the pond. Getting a permit after the fact happens all the time, might mean a fine for the town, and will do the least damage to the water body everyone purports to love, Cooper said. 

Selectmen will consult with DEP.

Also June 15, selectmen heard from Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission about grants that can be sought to plan and fund climate action. And Tom Aldrich said Alna’s food bank got an anonymous donation of about 150 pounds of chicken and ground beef.