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Volunteers Clean Around Canton Dam

June 28, 2010 - CANTON -- Last Saturday, some 15 volunteers were out bright and early working to tame the grownup area in town around the banks of Whitney Brook in front of the Canton Dam.

Scotty Kilbreth, chairman of the Board of Selectmen and one of the volunteers, said part of the effort was to make this area a bit more eye appealing as it had been let go for the past 10 to 15 years.

Bushes and small trees were cut and carried off, and the high grass was mowed as well. Carefully climbing around rocks and tight areas, they used weed whackers, yard shears, and even a chain saw as they worked at a pretty good pace.

Members of the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee organized the cleanup day, with volunteers coming mostly from Canton and Hartford, which share Lake Anasagunticook.

Thanks in part to winning a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant, officials are planning the construction of a nearly $700,000 dam on Whitney Brook.

The dam will replace one the town took over by eminent domain in 2008 after the owner failed to make repairs and it was declared unsafe by the state. The dam regulates the water level in nearly two-mile long Lake Anasagunticook, which lies in Canton and Hartford.

Amy Landry of Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments is administrator for the grant.

Kilbreth noted that at the town meeting last year, Canton voters approved borrowing up to $200,000 in matching funds.

However, now it appears they will not need to borrow those funds thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Canton Lake Association, which he said has raised "almost half ($61,000) of what is needed for matching funds."

Kilbreth noted that administrators of the CDBG grant want to see a lot of community participation, which these towns are giving with fundraising efforts as well as events like the volunteer cleanup day.

by Bruce Farrin, Rumford Falls Times, June 28, 2010

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