ROXBURY — Selectmen on Tuesday evening unanimously OK’d sending a letter to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife documenting services the town and volunteers contributed to the 2011 boat launch on Roxbury Pond.
The pond is also called Ellis Pond and Silver Lake.
In 2010, Roxbury received a state grant from the department to construct the boat launch. The grant stipulated that the town had to do a number of “in-kind services” related to the launch as its contribution to the project.
Writing to the department’s chief planner, Leon Bucher, Selectmen John Sutton, Timothy Derouche and Rodney “Bing” Cross said Roxbury spent $1,628 on maintenance for the boat launch. Other associated costs included $680 for cleanup and mowing, $122 for garbage collection, $250 to repaint parking lines with two handicap parking signs, $76 for replacing a post and signage destroyed during plowing, and $500 to clean one portable toilet weekly.
Additionally, residents and nonresidents supported the following projects last year:
* The town reconstructed Main Street along the lake and culverts for all brooks and streams for fish passage. Some culverts were modified for erosion control to improve the pond’s health. The road project cost $661,100 and five fish-passage culverts cost $96,148.
* The Silver Lake Camp Owners Association reinstalled the floating dock at the boat launch for boater safety in unloading and loading using four machine-hours and four man-hours. The in-kind services cost was $268.
* The association has also continued efforts by inspecting boats for aquatic plants. High school students are paid and all remaining hours are volunteered by residents with in-kind service labor cost. Selectmen said this has been “a well-managed project” for seven years. Last year, the work cost $8,019.
* Additionally, the association reinstalled and later removed lake buoys after the boat season. The maintenance cost was $311, with in-kind volunteer services estimated at 48 hours and totaling $817 to install all 24 buoys, and remove and repair them while doing inspections as needed.
* Maine Rep. Matt Peterson, D-Rumford, again donated a new American flag and Maine flag.
The association also started an Ellis Pond Watershed Survey using 38 volunteers who checked the entire watershed for erosion problems to reduce phosphorous contamination to the pond. Survey costs paid were $5,000 by Swasey Excavation; $3,000 from Roxbury; $1,485 in individual donations; $1,000 from the association; $500 from Andover; and $200 from Byron, for a to-date total of $9,985.
Derouche said the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is expected to approve the watershed plan this spring or summer.
In other municipal news, Roxbury’s annual summer cleanup is looking good for July 13-17. Derouche said he will contact Archie’s Inc. of Mexico about pickup on one road that is only 14 feet wide and doesn’t have a turnaround at the end of it to better accommodate large vehicles.
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