WATERVILLE — Police and firefighters on Tuesday afternoon scoured the banks of the Messalonskee Stream off West River Road after it was reported that a man might have gone into the water there.

Deputy Chief Bill Bonney, of the Waterville police, said later that emergency workers thoroughly searched along the stream and took all steps to try to find the man. He said a person also reported seeing a man fitting the description originally reported later on Kennedy Memorial Drive.

Bonney was on West River Road with firefighters and Delta Ambulance crews around 3:45 p.m., where, he said, children on a school bus told their bus driver that they had seen a man in his 40s near the stream and he was wearing a camouflage jacket and glasses. The bus driver called the bus garage to report the incident and officials there called police.

Just before 4 p.m., traffic was moving slowly on West River Road where emergency crews were searching from Kennedy Memorial Drive south to about Franklin Street, about a quarter-mile stretch.

Bonney said the initial report was that a man was in the water.

“We responded and requested the Fire Department because they have a boat,” he said. “As things developed, it … looked like somebody ready to get in the water.”

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He said ice shelves on the edge of the stream appeared undisturbed.

“We’re not seeing any signs that anyone went in on this side,” Bonney said.

Messalonskee Stream converges with the Kennebec River just south of Carter Memorial Drive, which is south of where the search took place.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17


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