Pittsfield planners OK fish elevator

PITTSFIELD – Pittsfield planners Monday night approved a $775,000 fish elevator at the Burnham Hydroelectric Dam. The dam is privately owned by Ridgewood Maine Hydro Partners and is part of a 1998 Kennebec Hydroelectric Developers Group settlement in which all upstream dams are required to implement fish passages.

The planners were warned, however, that Pittsfield will be next on the list for fish passage at its two town-owned dams, Waverly Dam and Pioneer Dam.

Town Manager Kathryn Ruth said she will likely be given a deadline for the passages after the Burnham project is finished.

She said following the meeting that grants from sources such as the Maine Department of Marine Resources and other divisions will be sought, since there is no local money put aside for such major expenditures.

At Monday’s hearing, Al Nash of Kleindschmidt Associates and Lewis Loon of RMHP explained that the project is not a fishway, as was installed in the North Street Dam in Newport at the mouth of Sebasticook Lake.

A fishway provides a series of ladders that allow the fish to make their way from the river to the lake, around the dam.

A fish elevator, however, is a mechanical device that actually lifts the fish to the higher level. Nash said the project had already obtained all necessary state and federal permits.

But since the mechanical elevator is on the Pittsfield side of the dam – the dam bridges the Sebasticook River between Pittsfield and Burnham – local approval was necessary. Work has already begun on the project and is expected to be completed by December 2005.

Pittsfield planners also approved a major development at the corner of Crawford and Webb roads by Moosehead Cedar Log Homes.

Assisted by a $400,000 state development grant obtained by the town of Pittsfield, the company plans to build a truss manufacturing facility and a series of three log homes that will double as office space and model homes.

Company representative James Sidenburg said the project will create 30 to 40 new jobs and construction will begin this summer once state permits are obtained. The company’s headquarters are in Greenville, and Sidenburg said no jobs will be lost there. “This will be a complete expansion,” he said.

Sidenburg said the project will cover two acres of the 35-acre parcel. He said extensive landscaping will be done to buffer the operation from nearby homes. “We want to be good neighbors,” he said.

The planners also approved a conditional-use permit for Bernard and Wendy Thibodeau to establish a day care home at 44 Hartland Ave.

Bernard Thibodeau said the day care will be operated from a separate building from his home and will serve a maximum of 12 children. In addition, Wendy Thibodeau will be operating a preschool program from the building. One employee will be hired, he said.

Michael Dugas, owner of J.W. Parks Golf Course, withdrew his application to expand the existing course by nine holes as well as construct 19 townhouses on a separate piece of property. He will be presenting it at a later date, according to Chairman Jason Morton.