I am writing in regards to the dam removal proposal. While debate has been going on for quite some time, I feel we need to slow down the wrecking ball and look at things comprehensively.

Once these dams are removed, not everyone will be happy with the result and the affects it will have on other types of aquatic life, recreation, jobs, and local tax revenues. The state seems too eager to change the way of life for people on the river to satisfy a few outside special interests.

I have a lifelong love of fishing, including bass fishing on the Kennebec River, which is very popular. I’ve grown up in this area. I’ve seen how people have enjoyed the mighty Kennebec River. My granddaughter caught her first fish on that river. I’d ask you to drive past the Hinckley or Skowhegan public boat launches during the summer months and see how busy they are. Families cruising the river in pontoon boats, kids tubing, and watercrafts trolling up and down the river. All that will be gone forever due to a few highly influential special interest groups, who have one goal and one goal only: dam removal.

Dam removal would result in decimating boating, swimming, and bass fishing. This would hurt local campgrounds, and would result in lost property of riverfront homeowners, not to mention the lost jobs and lost taxes.

I saw the results of removing the Fort Halifax dam. With many homes condemned and the way it divided the community, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Now, the water is so low in the summer you must drag your kayak over the rocks just to get down the river.

Let us not be so eager to destroy things that will never be replaced.

 

Robert Nichols

Skowhegan

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