Mayo Mill Dam Committee to bring recommendations to D-F Select Board

DOVER-FOXCROFT – Last June, Dover-Foxcroft voters rejected a referendum article concerning removal of the downtown Mayo Mill Dam on the Piscataquis River, meaning citizens were in favor of using tax money to fund studies, permits and repair costs for the structure. While the financial implications are still difficult to fully pin down, the town could be faced with a project totaling up to $16 million with bond interest costs.

The Mayo Mill Dam Review Committee was formed to help determine the future of the site. By June 30, the town needs to not only make a decision on whether to pursue hydropower, but also a plan that will repair the dam, make it compliant with fish regulations and more. An extension for those decisions will likely be requested.

The dam plan was discussed during the public forum at the Feb. 10 select board meeting, as the dam committee is set to meet on Wednesday, Feb. 19, to bring its recommendations to the select board at its next regular meeting on Monday, Feb. 24.

Resident Lisa Laser said she attended the committee’s public meeting six days prior and she inquired about the dam being in compliance with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulations, funding, voting and more.

Select Chair Tom Lizotte said the Mayo Mill Dam has not been FERC compliant for about a decade and a half.

“They have been giving us continuing extensions because they realize how much money we’re talking about, and how we could not come up with a spare $10 million,” he said.

Lizotte could not say how much fines for not being in compliance would total. 

“They typically don’t fine communities that are out of compliance as long as they are making good efforts toward reaching compliance,” he said. “What would happen if we don’t make good efforts to be in compliance, a court order would be issued in federal court against the town of Dover-Foxcroft forcing us to comply.” 

The town attorney has been asked to look into this, but legal counsel has not found a definite answer.

Laser mentioned a 25-year bond for dam work financing was brought up the week prior.

“Is there any opportunity at this time to get this to a vote?” she asked. “If the dam is removed and the wheelhouse is removed there is no need for construction of a fish ladder, so it would actually be a cheaper option than keeping the structure there, rather than paying for the construction of a new fish ladder.”

Mayo Mill Dam Review Committee Chair/Select Board Vice Chair Steve Grammont said the committee will be drafting recommendations for the board of selectmen at the Feb. 19 meeting, which will include trying to answer the question Laser posed.

“Keep in mind the town can’t spend any money unless it’s been approved by the voters,” Grammont said. “If the voters don’t approve the money, the dam isn’t going to get fixed and then what do we do?”

Committee members would like to have dam questions settled before any votes by residents are taken, Grammont said. 

“Our recommendations are going to be how to handle those whole thing,” he said.

The select board will take the recommendations and determine what is voted on, how the question is worded and how much money would be requested. This could be all at once or perhaps just a small amount for 2025-26 to get the project started, such as for an engineering study.

“The main takeaway is there is absolutely not going to be a scenario where the people don’t have direct say in this,” Grammont said.

Speaking of the price tag he said, “It’s very high, but we don’t know how high, and that’s part of the problem.”  

“It will be settled very soon and however we settle there is going to be a vote of some sort by the people and it could nix the whole thing for all we know,” Grammont said.

Options include breaking the project into pieces and asking voters for a smaller portion, such as $300,000 for an engineering study, to get better cost estimates, Grammont said. The other option is to seek all of the spending authority up front. 

“We don’t draw upon that until it is needed, so asking for, say, $15 million authority, then if that got approved we would go and do the engineering study out of that, hire a FERC a consultant, and all of that would come out of that authority,” he said.

The select board would decide which way to go and how to present this to the public.

“We have no intention of going back and having another vote on whether to remove the dam, we have got to go forward on that premise and ask people if they are willing,” Lizotte said. “It’s pretty clear they didn’t want to remove the dam, we can’t keep voting again on the same thing until we get the answer that we want.”

Selectperson Cindy Freeman Cyr said there is always the possibility of citizen’s petition pertaining to the dam, and the budget could be voted down. “All of these questions are really critical to try to make sure that everybody really understands what is happening,” she said.

Lizotte thanked the nine-member Mayo Mill Dam Review Committee.

“I can’t overstate what a difficult issue this is, it cannot be solved all overnight,” he said. “They have been working on it for three years now and there is a long way still to go.”

In other business, the select board approved a $574,000 bid from Gordon Contracting of Sangerville for work on the Autumn Avenue bridge. The submission was the lowest of three received, with the others totaling approximately $613,000 and $1.22 million. 

“All three of them met all the requirements for proper bids,” Interim Town Manager Alsina Brenenstuhl said.

Funding would come from reserve funds accumulated over the years. The project is awaiting a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so the timeline is still to be determined. 

Brenenstuhl was also designated as the interim tax collector, relieving now-departed Town Manager Jack Clukey.