OXFORD — Plans for Oxford’s Welchville dam are uncertain after selectmen instructed Town Manager Adam Garland to collect more information before they make a decision on its future.

In March of this year, the board authorized Garland and engineering firm VHB, Inc. of South Portland to pursue state and federal permits to install grade controls upstream of the dam where the outlets of Hogan and Whitney ponds join, and for Garland to negotiate a temporary easement with an abutting landowner to allow access to construct the system in the channel.

VHB’s consulting engineer had advised Oxford that the town could qualify for grant funding to install grade controls by later removing the dam, which would allow fish spawning to return.

The estimated cost for the new system is $100,000. To repair the dam would be about $1.6 million. Replacing the dam with a new one would cost about $1 million. Removal of the dam would run about $150,000.

More recently, U.S. Senator Susan Collins included an $819,000 request for federal funds to help pay for the grade control system. The senator announced on July 28 that the Appropriations Committee had approved her project requests and referenced building the grade controls but made no mention of the other options on the table — either repairing or replacing the dam.

“The next step for the project is to hold a public meeting for the engineer from VHB to come to brief the board on bid packages and talk about the DEP permit that we received and the restrictions on it,” Garland told selectmen at their Thursday night meeting. “There has been discussion about whether we replace the dam with a dam or we replace it with the berm grade control structures.

“Before we do that, I want to make sure the board is ready, and to make clear (in regard to) the Congressional funding grant that we’ve passed the first hurdle of the committee vote, but there still hasn’t been a full vote in the Senate (and House).”

Selectmen asked to have Collins’ representative Carlene Tremblay clarify whether the federal funding would allow alternative applications for the project. They also want confirmation of whether Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will require the dam to be removed.

Garland said he would invite Tremblay to attend the board’s next meeting on Nov. 3 to answer questions about the proposed funding, including when it would be approved and released. A presentation by VHB will take place after that date.

Selectmen also asked that Garland collect testimonials from other communities that have used the same grade control system that VHB has recommended.

In other business, representatives of the Helping Hands Food Pantry attended the meeting to announce that the organization has decided not to move forward with plans to operate from the Station House Community Center on King Street. The group indicated it felt uncomfortable changing from the handshake arrangement it had with Oxford for years at its old municipal headquarters to more formal arrangements at the Rec Center, including disclosure of its non-profit financials and providing a certificate of liability insurance.

The Rec Center would need to have substantial electrical upgrades to accommodate Helping Hands’ refrigeration, lighting and storage needs. Only one electrical contractor, Northlight Electrical of Portland, submitted a proposal to do the work at a cost of $19,960. The estimated monthly expense to heat the insulated space in the building could exceed $500 during the winter months, money that food bank directors said needs to be used for food, not utilities.

The food pantry will continue to use its space at the old Town Office on Pleasant Street for the month of November. Linda Hooker of Helping Hands said they are pursuing other options for its future but are not ready to announce plans yet. Service to the community will continue after November on the first and third Thursdays of each month.

 

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