FARMINGTON – A public information meeting regarding the Atlantic Salmon Federation project at Walton’s Mill Dam will be held Wednesday Feb. 21 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Farmington Community Center on Middle Street.
This is the fourth meeting that has taken place throughout the year-long project, providing community members with the details of the proposed project. Walton’s Mill Dam, constructed in 1820, was flagged as a barrier in the migration route of the endangered Atlantic salmon by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2009. The area is considered critical habitat for the quickly dwindling species and since being noted as such, the ASF has been working with the town to find a solution to the problem.
A feasibility report was offered to the town by Wright-Pierce Engineer Joseph McLean and ASF representative John Burrows, giving several options for the area including removing the dam completely or constructing a fish passage. The plan also included a proposal of design work for the surround park.
Wednesday night’s meeting will focus on the final conceptual park plan that has been developed by the landscape architecture firm Richardson & Associates. Photo-renderings of the site under both a fish passage construction and dam removal scenario will also be presented along with a brief re-cap of the major conclusions from the Walton’s Mill Dam Feasibility Report.
ASF’s John Burrows will review ASF’s draft financial proposal that was initially presented to the Town Selectmen in late January, and Town Manager Richard Davis will discuss the town process for evaluating the funding proposal and developing a timeline for bringing the issue to a vote.
Atlantic salmon don’t exist in the Saco river…. Never mind up in Franklin county
I hate the idea of the dam being taken out. I can live with a fish ladder. I, however, CANNOT live with a fancy park with some of the idiotic changes these guys want to make. Why can’t the park just be left alone? It’s been fine since the town took it over in the 1970’s, why does it have to be changed with the changes and repairs to be turned over to the town? Just more money for the tax payers to pay.
I agree. Why spend megabucks on a this. Just add the fish ladder and call it good. We don’t need an ultra fancy park.
HAving kept up with some of this, what I read is that if we choose to take it out, private donors will pay for that plus improve the park. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want a nicer park. If we choose the ladder, then yes, the taxpayers of Farmington will have to pay for it, upwards of 1 million. I don’t want that kind of increase on my tax bill, nope. The use of the concrete is past, a new park would memorialize it and we can move on.
What the majority of the people who want a fish in these parts DON’T know is that mill site/dam site is way over 200 years old. TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD! Reuben Colburn…remember him? Built bateaus for Arnold’s trek to Quebec. He and a bunch of men came here and built that dam before Farmington was even a town. To become a town, the area had to have lumber to build homes etc. To have lumber, you have to have a saw mill.
Colburn sold out later on. There were multiple owners of the millsite until the 1870’s, when Samuel Walton (not of Walmart fame) came from New Portland and bought the mill. He also likely built the house on up from the dam. He at least lived there. Walton sold out to Charles Gould, who added a generator of some sort to produce electricity. My former house was Gould’s and it had remnants of the electric lines coming into the house in the attic. Gould sold out to Metcalf, and two generations of Metcalfs owned that mill until the late 1960’s. L C Andrew bought them out, and burned the mill in the fall of 1971. They “donated” the area to the town in the mid-1970’s.
From what I’ve read, salmon like sandy soil to propagate. If the mill and dam are ripped out, there won’t be any sandy soil for a good long time. It’ll be muck for years. And the town will then be that much poorer for lack of recreation. It’ll be tough to paddle a canoe or kayak up to Mile Rock in a trickle of water thru the muck.
What happens when we have a dry summer, leave the Park alone!!!
Sadly the Atlantic Salmon foundation is taking control of our streams and rivers. They will tell you what you can and can not do with them.
A detailed review of the current salmon restoration projects would be a good way to start the meeting tonight.
So, if the dam were removed and the salmon did in fact materialize, what do they do when they reach the source of Temple Stream? Oh, I would guess they would have to stop. The same thing would happen at the dam. So what is to be gained by having the fish gain access to the short distance to the end of the stream?
And finally, what would be the recourse of the Atlantic Salmon Foundation should we vote this project down?? Take the town to court and sue?
See you all tonight.
wow 200 years, not even a grain of sand in the big picture. Return it the way it was for thousands of years.
Man is so egocentric .Nature always wins. Wake up and realize no one uses that as a park. I do see people sitting in there cars riping cigarettes! IT IS ALSO HORRIBLE FOR KIDS!
I love that park, just the way it is.
Leave it please.
The Walton’s Mill Dam has a lovely park, an asset to the town and to neighboring residents. Yes, it could use a few more parking places and places to launch a small canoe or rowboat, but it certainly needs nothing like the Coney Island atmosphere one planner described in the local newspapers after another “presentation”,
My husband and I eat lunch there several days a week in warmer weather. We like to watch the water and the birds, and no, we don’t smoke anything, not even grape leaves!
For 200 years this dam has been in place. Surely it deserves some respect as a historic site.
The out-of-staters who want to change our surroundings are not offering an appealing plan. The alternatives so far presented are a a phony choice between two unpalatable alternatives: accept their money and lose our park as it is, or force taxpapers in the Town of Farmington to pay for a fish-ladder which no one knows if salmon will be attracted to it or not! There are other choices, surely.
It’s way too soon to make any kind of change in the pond. Come up with some better choices, please, perhaps including a wider funding-souce and more evidence-based research!
Being a fisherman and being aware that the Sandy once roiled with Atlantic Salmon I was excited to hear about this meeting. But with all the negative comments spewed by some of the posters, without even hearing the complete proposal, I’m kind of sickened by the prospect of listening to the same people who are always whining about change and taxes.
I believe the real future of Maine is no longer in big industry but in the beauty and natural resources of our state. Salmon fishing in the Sandy and its tributaries could bring tourist dollars to the region. It is the perfect opportunity for an environmentally low impact way to expand our tax base. It is called investing in the future.
But alas, I won’t be spending my time listening to rude, closed minded people asking the same questions over and over and wasting well intentioned people’s time ala school board meetings.
Salmon are forever, dams are not. Eventually the town tax payer will have to pay for the removal if it’s not taken down the right way. I wouldn’t mind a fish ladder but seriously, we don’t want to pay more local property taxes.
When the Salmon arrive lets have that discussion. Until then go find another venture to ply the waters.
The dam has been there since the forever, I’ve lived on temple stream for over 35 years . The water wont sustain the trout fishery it has NOW. Times change and no salmon want to come here
Some people would like to make the whole state of Maine into a park, they take little pieces at a time.
We kayak frequently on the pond amd up the stream. What would happen to the pond if they take the dam out completely? This is a beautiful little pond full of wildlife.
Farmington resident the water level would drop to the level on the rivers side of the damn. It might be possible to kayak in the spring but most likely not late summer.
Lets wait until the Atlantic Salmon are piled up at the base of the dam and then worry about it. :-)
Never going to happen….