Signage Meant to Fight Chris' Pond Vandalism Approved
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—A local pond has been getting a lot of attention in Southwest Harbor lately and not all of it has necessarily been good.
The pond, which hosts skating and other winter recreational activities, was the focus of the town’s select board’s extended executive session, which was moved to the beginning of the meeting on Tuesday, January 14. The pond’s dam structures have also been vandalized multiple times. The pond is an approximate five-minute walk from town proper.
Tuesday night, the Southwest Harbor Select Board approved a sign that board members hope will deter vandalism of the dam that allows the pond to hold water.
“We’ve had to put the dam back six times this winter,” one volunteer said.
That, she added, is discouraging to the volunteers who take care of the pond, which has a long history of hosting skaters.
Some members of the public attending the meeting worried about the legality of fixing the dam repeatedly as well as any potential impacts to land owners downstream.
“You’re allowing volunteers to put a lot of property at risk [for flooding],” George Jellison Jr. said. “The town is passing on liability to volunteers.”
Select Board Chair Carolyn Ball cited the Torts Claim Act, which she believes offers protection for the town. This is because the language in the Maine statute covers public outdoor recreation as an exemption from liability.
“Not withstanding that section—and I’m quoting here—‘a governmental entity is not liable for any claim which results from land, buildings, structures facilities or equipment designed for use primarily by the public in connection with public outdoor recreation or dams,’” Ball said.
Jellison also worried that select board member James Vallette was taking notes immediately after the board’s executive session. Ball and others assured Jellison that no notes were taken during executive session, which is not allowed.
The Friends of Chris’ Pond is a subcommittee of the town’s conservation commission. In the draft mission statement is that the group strives to preserve the exceptional cultural, recreation, education, and environmental legacy of the pond as well as to assure that there are long-term plans for the pond’s continued health and vitality.
Ball suggested adding in skating and conservation easement language in the statement. That language will also likely be tweaked to low-impact recreational activities.
In December, the pond was vandalized and dam structures removed. It’s been tampered with multiple times.
“It’s crazy that you’ve had to repair it six times this year, and it’s not the first year that this has happened,” Vallette said.
He said given the repetitive nature of the structure’s damage, there needs to be select board action. That action was a motion to erect a sign that says that the town’s conservation commission is responsible for the pond and the dam.
Any unauthorized work on the dam will be considered criminal mischief by the town.
The dams that are being rebuilt after vandalism have never failed, but when someone removes the dam, they are releasing impounded water, which is more than what would occur during a normal release, one audience member said.
Resident Aimee Williams was concerned that the pond be taken care of year-round and said that there were concerns about the tarps and materials used to create the dam and potentially any toxic material that might leach into the freshwater wetland. She was told that was a question for the conservation commission and not the select board.
HISTORY OF THE POND
The pond was initially created in 1860 when it was dug out for an ice delivery system and business. An ice business existed at the site for approximately 90 years. It was owned by Christopher Wendell Lawler from 1921 to 1947. The pond was drained in 1939 to put out a large fire in town. In 1947, transients started a fire in the ice barn, burning down the barn and everything within it. This was the end of the business.
It was sold to another man who owned it for just about a decade. That owner sold it to the town, asking that it be called Uncle Bill’s Pond with a provision that it be used for skating with night lighting installed. In March 4, 1957 it was acquired at town meeting. For 30 years, people skated and took care of the surface. It hosted hockey programs throughout the 1970s.
In 1987, people blocked a proposal for a parking lot at the site. The town voted down a plan the next year that would have drained the pond for that lot.
In 1995, a group at Pemetic Elementary School called the “Problem Solvers” worked with Maine Coast Heritage Trust to put a conservation easement on the pond. That same year, the eighth grade class built the warming hut. The entire school came out to watch the hut moved from the school to the pond.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Southwest Harbor Conservation Commission
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