A boat passes along the water on the east side of Lake George Regional Park on Aug. 2 in Skowhegan. The 320-acre, state-owned park off U.S. Route 2 encompasses both the towns of Skowhegan and Canaan and is managed through an interlocal agreement between the towns. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Canaan’s Select Board is considering addressing a monthslong dispute over the Lake George Regional Park board of directors by asking its new appointees to resign.

The move would spare the town from a lengthy and potentially costly legal battle, as both sides remain in disagreement over the legitimacy of the appointment of five new Lake George board members in March, the chairman of the Select Board said.

“It’s not a good solution all the way around, but it’s the one that we’re left with,” said Jeffrey Clarke in a recent interview.

At the Select Board’s meeting on Monday, Sept. 9, Clarke shared that he spoke with the town’s attorney, who indicated the ongoing dispute may lead to a lengthy, expensive court process, with the two sides currently deadlocked.

The town’s attorney, Kenneth Lexier, was not able to reach an agreement with the attorney advising the park, Claudia Raessler, about the terms of the five appointments made in March and whether they were made correctly, according to Clarke.

At the center of the legal dispute is the length of term of appointments to the board of the Lake George Corp. The corporation manages the 320-acre, state-owned park off U.S. Route 2 through an interlocal agreement with the towns of Canaan and Skowhegan.

Select boards in the two towns each appoint five people to the park corporation’s board, per the interlocal agreement. The original agreement expired in 2012, but it was re-signed in 2018 and is valid today, according to officials.

Canaan’s selectmen, citing Lexier’s advice, have said the appointments have one-year terms, like all other municipal posts in Canaan, so it was legal to appoint five new members in March. The park’s board and Raessler have said the corporation’s bylaws call for three-year, staggered terms, so the board has not been recognizing the five people from Canaan.

In Skowhegan, meanwhile, Town Clerk Gail Pelotte presented updated appointment oaths to reflect the three-year, staggered terms, to the town’s Board of Selectmen on Aug. 27. Selectmen had no objections.

By having the new appointees resign, the town of Canaan and the Lake George Corp. could sign a memorandum of understanding that the previous appointees with time remaining on their three-year terms will continue serving on the park’s board, Clarke said.

At the annual town meeting in March, the Select Board could present an article to voters changing the appointments to the park’s board to match its staggered three-year terms, he said.

Around the same time as town meeting, the Select Board would seek applications for any positions open from expiring terms, Clarke said. According to JP Kennedy, the chairman of the park’s board, two members — Nancy Ames and Dave Snell — have terms expiring in 2025. One of the five spots is also currently vacant, Kennedy said.

“The actions have hurt the town enough,” Clarke said of the Select Board’s decision to replace all five of Canaan’s representatives of the board earlier this year. “To keep pushing forward, number one, financially, it’s a giant drain on the town. And it further splits the town. We don’t need that. We need the people to come together and feel confident in the people that are chosen to serve in these positions, and right now, we don’t have it.”

On March 28, the Canaan Select Board appointed five new members to the park’s board, while making several other routine municipal appointments. Then, on June 3, after a motion by Clarke, the Select Board rescinded the appointments.

That decision was subsequently reversed June 17, based on legal advice, leaving the new appointments made in March unchanged. Of those new appointees, two have resigned as of Tuesday.

Maureen Delahanty submitted her resignation in July, a decision she later said she regretted. Former Lake George board member Heather Kerner was re-appointed at the same meeting.

At the Select Board’s last meeting Sept. 9, Mary-Anne MacArthur submitted her resignation after hearing Clarke’s comments about how to move forward. The Select Board would not accept her verbal resignation, so she wrote it on a sticky note, she said.

“I don’t foresee things getting any better,” MacArthur said in a phone call Tuesday. “Even with the town looking to adopt the lake’s bylaws, I don’t think that’s going to help anything. I think the board that is refusing to leave is still going to refuse to leave no matter what we do. I think it’s just going to be a constant battle.”

Clarke said Tuesday he has yet to contact Mark Philbrick, Katherine Gee and Vanessa Bean, the other three who, according to town records, were appointed in March. He was unsure what would happen if they said no.

The Select Board has yet to take an official vote on moving ahead with asking them to resign. A vote is possible at its next meeting Sept. 23.

Selectman Daniel Harriman said he is skeptical of taking that route. The Select Board has not yet been provided with any documentation from Lexier or Raessler, the attorneys on either side, regarding the potential solution Clarke recommended, Harriman said in a phone call Tuesday.

Even if that documentation were to be provided, Harriman said he does not see the proposal as a good solution.

“The taxpayers of the town of Canaan have this entity that has the town’s name on it,” he said, “but the taxpayers have zero control over what goes on there.”

Harriman has been at the center of the recent controversy regarding new appointments. Of the three-member Select Board, Harriman is the only selectman who has said he was involved in the decision to replace all five of Canaan’s representatives on the Lake George board this spring.

Clarke, elected in March, voted to make the appointments in March, but was not on the Select Board when discussions would have taken place.

Megan Smith, the other member of the Select Board, was on the board when discussions before the March appointments would have happened. She said previously she never participated in any conversations about the appointments. Meeting minutes show Smith was absent from the March meeting when appointments were made.

Smith did not return a phone call Tuesday.

Facing questions this summer from members of the public about whether a July 2023 disagreement at the park between him and park staff led to his decision, Harriman provided a written statement July 23 specifying three reasons he voted to replace the five Lake George board members.

Kennedy, a Skowhegan resident who serves as the chairman of the Lake George board, said Tuesday that the park is leaving it up to the town of Canaan to resolve the issue of its appointments. The Lake George board is also working to make updates to its bylaws to clarify the appointment process, he said.

“I personally welcome, and our board welcomes, the idea of trying to clean up the appointees,” Kennedy said in a phone call Tuesday. “And the only other comment I’ll make is that we look forward to working with (Canaan) in the future on mutual appointments, which would be a decision both between the Lake George board and the town of Canaan.”

Clarke was not immediately able to say how much the town has spent in recent months on legal fees related to the dispute.

“Knowing what happened, and how it happened, now, even if we spent $1 or $100, it’s too much money to spend,” Clarke said, “because it was a needless action that was taken that drove this whole mess. And we’re all paying for it.”