The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Abutters May Get to Buy Winslow Riverfront

November 17, 2009 - WINSLOW -- It's all about public access.

So say members of a special subcommittee that delivered recommendations to the Town Council this week on the controversial question of what should be done about some 200 acres of newly acquired town land along the Sebasticook River.

Among the River Land Advisory Committee's key suggestions: Offer to sell land to abutting property owners and consider buying land along the river for a new public watercraft launch, but don't impose land easements on landowners to create a recreation trail.

The Town Council voted unanimously to accept the group's report.

"I think the council will move on those issues in the coming months," said Councilor Gerald St. Amand Jr.

One key piece of information that's still unknown is exactly how much land is there. Town officials have estimated 200 acres, but have hired Elwood Ellis of China to conduct a land survey. Ellis said Friday he should know the acreage in a week or two.

Florida Power & Light, the former owner of the Fort Halifax Dam, transferred ownership of the land to the town government. The land transfer was one aspect of a settlement between the town and FPL to avoid a dispute in court.

The "new" land used to be under water; the shoreline expanded because the breaching of the dam lowered the river's water level.

Early ideas for the land ranged from public uses such as parks or a bike trail, to selling or giving the land to the 68 abutting property owners. To figure out what to do, the Town Council formed the Riverland Committee, which included Councilors Catherine M. Nadeau and James A. Byrne, as well as abutting property owners, state Rep. Ken Fletcher, and others.

The group held four meetings that lasted several hours each. "We didn't rush through it," Fletcher said.

According to a majority report, the committee held votes on six questions. The group recommends that the town:

• Offer to sell sections of the land to abutting property owners, at no cost to the town.

• Sell such land at prices that cover the town's cost of surveys, title searches and land transfers, while not making a profit on the sales.

• Not impose trail easements on the land that's acquired by landowners.

• Retain ownership of "islands" that may exist along the river.

• Retain "flowage rights" that would make it easier for a new dam to be constructed in the future.

• Purchase land owned by the so-called Paine heirs – Christopher, Alfred and Thomas Osgood – and make it the new public-access site for watercraft.

Fletcher said the findings show that the group believes giving property owners the opportunity to buy parts of the land "was only the fair thing to do."

"People who previously had riverfronts now have a piece of land between them and the water," Fletcher said. "My sense is no more than half (of the abutting landowners) will actually say, 'We want to acquire the land.' "

But not everyone agrees with the group's findings.

Ray Caron, a councilor-elect who begins his term in January, objected to the group's suggestion of not pursuing trail easements for land that the town sells. Noting that he's a snowmobiler, Caron said public use of the land could easily be thwarted.

"It would just take someone putting a fence up," Caron said.

Councilor Byrne doesn't think that will be a problem, and neither do a majority of committee members, he said.

"I just felt it was better to go through the process of asking landowners' permission rather than to put up an easement," Byrne said. "I just don't think there's going to be an issue with the property owners. They're not going to fence it up and close it up to people."

Fletcher said the easement decision doesn't close the door on a trail being created there in the future.

Committee member Peter Garrett, who is president of the Kennebec Messalonskee Trails organization, had initially been a vocal advocate for the creation of a public trail on the land. But in a minority report he wrote for the committee, Garrett softened his advocacy, saying he listened to abutting landowners and "came to empathize with their sense of loss" when the impoundment behind the Halifax Dam was taken out.

By SCOTT MONROE, Morning Sentinel November 15, 2009


Lakes:
Regions: Belgrade


Print this story

Email this story

return to Lake News