Toddy Pond Watershed Management District

Under legislation passed earlier this year, voters in the four towns abutting Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake will vote in November on whether to form two Districts, the Toddy Pond Watershed Management District and the Alamoosook Lake Watershed Management District, and to appropriate taxpayer funds for the Districts' first fiscal year.

The two districts, the Alamoosook Watershed Management District and the Toddy Pond Watershed Management District, are quasi-municipal entities created by the legislature that give the entities many of the advantages of being a town. Each is protected from liability, can raise funds, and can apply for grants and funding like a town. Each will be governed by a board of town and waterfront owners. The towns have committed to asking their voters to pay for 50% of the operating costs of the dam, with the waterfront owners making up the balance.

What was the process for developing these Districts?

To craft a potential ownership model for Alamoosook and Toddy dams, NWC has undertaken extensive efforts to assess the potential impacts of the lakes being drained as a result of Bucksport Mill LLC’s dam abandonment petition. The group assessed the property tax loss implications, the impact on local businesses, and an estimation of the environmental and recreational impacts. With that information in hand, the group developed a robust effort to seek Community input into the design of the ownership entity through surveys and public input meetings.

Both the survey and the town meetings verified that the majority of participants wanted the lakes to be preserved. The other majority view was that the costs should be shared between the lakefront property owners and the Towns. What was less clear was the percentage split between those groups. The online survey appears to provide the most reliable data on the opinion of the largest voting group. That position favors a 50/50 split in funding.

At least one municipality must vote to form the district for it to be implemented. The voters will be asked to approve the first year’s funding for establishing the districts. If a town’s voters opt not to approve funding, that town’s share of the budget will shift to the lakefront owners.