Thank You, Mt. Vernon!
This past Saturday, the Town of Mt. Vernon had their Annual Town Meeting with thirty-nine warrant articles, one of which was the 2025 Belgrade Area Dams Committee pro rata Budget. The 250 or so residents voted UNANIMOUSLY to approve their 2025 Dams Committee budget and commitment. Thank you to all of our neighbors in Mt. Vernon! Mt. Vernon is just one of the five Towns (Belgrade, Rome, Oakland and Sidney) that participate in our uncommon and very successful Interlocal Governmental Agreement.
When Central Maine Power sought to divest themselves of our three local dams (Belgrade Lakes Village, Wings Mill, and Salmon Lake Dams) back in 1987, CMP designed, proposed and sold this Interlocal Governmental Agreement, whereby the respective towns’ residents would have control over the dams operations and water levels. To facilitate the project, CMP held numerous town meetings with all stake holders, including IF&W, DEP, municipal officers, etc.
That project was the genesis of today’s Belgrade Area Dams Committee! Each of the five Towns are represented by a pro rata appointment of volunteer delegates/members based on the length of their respective shorelines. Belgrade has the largest share of delegates (4) and 48% of the costs due to their 37.6 shoreline miles. Mt. Vernon has the smallest share at 7% with a one delegate alottment and 5.5 shoreline miles. We currently have nine active members of the Dams Committee that attend their public monthly meetings at the Belgrade Town Office the second Monday of the month, throughout the year.
For the past year, we have further benefited from an adhoc committee of our cohorts on East Pond. East Pond empties into North Pond and ultimately Great Pond via Great Meadow Stream so East and North Ponds are integral to our operations. We want to extend a sincere Thank You to Mt. Vernon and all of the five signatory Towns and their residents for their continued and undaunted support.
Well, as we pen this week’s column, the ten-day forecast is predicting 1.05″ of precipitation, so all of our dam gates are, as of today, closed. Great Pond’s Village dam is currently 1.44″ above full pond. Long Pond’s Wings Mill dam is holding nicely at 2.88″, also above full pond. Salmon/McGrath is right at full pond with its calibrated valve set to the mandated 1 cfs flow. Messalonskee is down 3.72″ due to their electricity generation needs!
If you have a particular questions regarding our Dams and/or water levels, please email your inquiry to dickgreenan@outlook.com, and we will try to answer your question either in this column or via email.
Dick
Dick Greenan is the Rome representative on the Belgrade Lakes Watershed Dams Committee. He submitted this report on June 19, 2025.
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