A once vegetated spot upriver of Alna’s Head Tide Dam is now a hazardous, “sheer drop,” resident Chris Cooper told selectmen Dec. 23. Big rocks or some other barrier will go there, Atlantic Salmon Federation Vice President of U.S. Programs Andy Goode said in a phone interview Dec. 24.

ASF has given the dam site and part of the dam a makeover including a Sheepscot River overlook and, downriver, a stone stairway. Both are railed, but not the spot upriver, Cooper said. As of Dec. 25, an orange snow fence, in place throughout the project, remained there. 

Cooper’s Clear Pine Carpentry of Alna put in plants around parts of the site last fall as part of the project. He raised his concern Dec. 23 about the spot upstream when Third Selectman Greg Shute was giving his latest update. Next spring, ASF’s contractor, Sumco, will address  “a little bit of erosion” found under the steps and retaining wall, Shute said. “They’ve been watching it ... to see exactly what’s happening so they are well aware of it.”

Resident Ed Pentaleri commented it was his understanding the water used to overtop the dam when flowing at 900 cubic feet per second, and post-project the water has not overtopped it even at the 1,500 cubic feet per second Shute cited as a recent high water level. “So it’s quite a change,” Pentaleri said.

“So it’s working,” First Selectman Melissa Spinney said.

As for the spot upriver, Cooper called it a cliff face and said he believes it needs something at top, maybe a rough wall of boulders or even a four-foot high palisade fence. “The town has to do something I think, because it’s a hazard ... It was heavily vegetated before and ugly, and nobody ever went there. Now, it’s a sheer drop. And we do have a couple of boulders there, and a couple of shrubs, but if somebody’s toddler took a run, it’s –”

That spot has been discussed a number of times and Sumco will be addressing it, either before leaving for the winter or when the firm returns in spring, Shute responded.

In the next day’s interview, Goode said ASF can have big rocks or something else put there, “whatever the town wants to do.” As for the erosion, Goode said the followup work the site gets on that should just need to be a one-time fix.

Shute, a canoeist, added during the board meeting, he is seeking more signage at, and upriver from, the dam “really to warn people who have no business paddling through (the new opening during) high water levels.”

In another development, the dam’s new platform got its bench Christmas week.