A new statement by Alna's Head Tide Dam Committee has some residents concerned that the panel is beginning to lay out an argument for the town to remove the 99-year-old dam, selectmen said.

That is not what the committee is doing, its chairman David Reingardt said in an interview Aug. 26. “All we’re doing is gathering information,” Reingardt said.

First Selectman David Abbott said at the board’s Aug. 26 meeting, he will favor dissolving the committee if it pursues the dam’s removal.

The town's deed to the concrete dam specifies the dam must never be destroyed, Abbott said. A February letter of intent the board signed when it created the committee refers to that covenant, he noted.

Second Selectman Melissa Spinney said she was getting calls after the committee's statement of “desired outcomes” went out in a town email Aug. 25. People think the committee is going to say the dam needs to be removed, she said.

In the statement dated Aug. 19, the committee writes that the 1916 dam is in poor condition, but not in danger of imminent failure: “It is unlikely the town will spend money on needed repairs. At some point in the future the dam will decay and break down, leaving the town responsible for cleaning debris out of the river, creating expense, and foregoing present opportunities to proactively preserve the historical character of the site.”

The statement cites state and federal initiatives that have put millions of dollars into restoring and protecting Maine’s rivers for recreation, fisheries and the rivers’ health.

“The Head Tide Dam Committee is looking at ways to take advantage of public policy and funding opportunities that could improve the Head Tide Dam site and be part of a larger initiative to improve the ecology, recreation and community interest in the river throughout the Sheepscot watershed,” it states. Any improvements or changes would cost the town nothing, according to the statement.

When the committee’s materials go up on the town’s website, as the committee was requesting, Spinney said, “People are going to get mad.” But she and other town officials agreed the items are public and could go on the website.

Spinney asked Reingardt to send her everything he wants posted. Reingardt arrived after the selectmen finished discussing the “desired outcomes” statement.

In an interview later, Reingardt noted the statement says nothing about removing the dam. Removal would be a “paramount endeavor” that the committee would need to justify to the town, he said. “And I’m not seeing justification.”

As for the statement’s references to the dam’s condition, Reingardt said anyone who has seen the dam knows it is deteriorating.  “Everybody should have a walk and go look.”

The statement reviews the history of the site where dams powered mills over two centuries starting in about 1762. One of the committee’s desired outcomes is for the site’s history to be displayed and preserved, according to the statement.

“The Alna community will see the site as an educational representative of past historical use,” it reads.

The committee’s desired outcome for the site’s recreational uses is to maintain and enhance them where possible, the statement reads.

On public safety, it states that the west abutment’s railings need replacing; downstream of the dam, a path that canoeists, swimmers and fishermen take is difficult to navigate, according to the statement.

The committee’s desired outcome regarding fisheries is for all species to have safe and timely upstream and downstream passage, year-round. “This will  (let them) take full advantage of all river habitats and to increase in numbers over time ... It is the hope of this committee that any fish passage improvements at Head Tide will lead to restoration efforts elsewhere on the river and in the watershed.”

In an Aug. 26 email to the committee, one of the dam’s neighbors, architect Brett Donham of 4 Head Tide Church Road, writes that he hopes the committee will consider the dam site’s human ecology.

“There is a lot of consideration for the migrating fish, as there should be, but please keep in mind that human beings have been part of that landscape for over 200 years,” Donham writes.

Donham suggests a small exhibit about the site’s being the basis for Head Tide Village that had a school, church, dance hall, homes, general store and mill workers’ dormitory.

Donham goes on to ask that the swimming hole be preserved. On hot days, he has counted as many as 20 people swimming there, he writes.

“That may make it the most heavily used community resource in all of Alna.” The dam is instrumental because the water that comes over it scours the deep hole, he writes.

On another front regarding the committee, Reingardt told selectmen that engineer Mike Burke will not be leading the consulting work that Inter-Fluve does. In a letter submitted with the Damariscotta firm’s bid on a preliminary design for the dam site, Burke, of Newcastle, stated that he would manage the team and that, as a Lincoln County resident and owner of property on the Sheepscot, he was personally invested in the project.

Selectmen had voiced concern Aug. 12 that Burke’s ties to the river could pose a conflict of interest or residents’ perception of one. Changes to the dam could impact his property’s value, board members said.

“I don’t know how much work he’ll do. He will not lead the project. It sounds like he might not do any (work) on it,” Reingardt told selectmen Aug. 26.