Dam Ownership Cost Estimators

The Watershed Management Districts

Under legislation passed earlier this year, voters in the four towns abutting Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake will vote in November on whether to form two Districts, the Toddy Pond Watershed Management District and the Alamoosook Lake Watershed Management District, and to appropriate taxpayer funds for the Districts' first fiscal year.

Estimated Costs of Ownership

Everyone involved recognizes that most property owners and voters want to understand what the likely costs of assuming ownership of the dams creating those water bodies will be. To assist waterfront property owners and other town voters in understanding these costs, and putting them into perspective, volunteers have prepared two "Dam Ownership Cost Estimators" — one for the Towns of Blue Hill, Penobscot, and Surry and another for Orland. (Orland is more complicated because it has properties abutting both Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake.)

You can access the cost estimators here:

Toddy Pond Dam Ownership Cost Estimator
(for Blue Hill, Penobscot, and Surry)

Orland Toddy/Alamoosook Dam Ownership Cost Estimator

What Costs the Tools Compare...<click to expand>

These tools provide illustrative estimates of the potential costs to two groups of taxpayers:

property owners anywhere in each town under two scenarios:
1. the water is released, resulting in a reduction of the taxable value of the affected waterfront properties (a tax assessment firm used by several of the towns has estimated that the release of water from Toddy and Alamoosook would likely reduce the assessed value of the abutting parcels' land (not including building values) by 25-50%) ; and
2. the water level is maintained and their town votes to contribute 50% of the cost of dam ownership associated with properties in that town.
waterfront property owners with land abutting Toddy Pond or Alamoosook Lake who, under the legislation forming the Districts, would be directly assessed for all of their town's share of the District costs not covered by the town's general taxpayers. Assuming their town votes to contribute taxpayer funds to the District (50% of allocated costs), the owners' costs would take two forms:
1. an assessment by the District, which will be allocated amongst the waterfront properties in proportion to their shorefront footage (up to a maximum of 250' for Toddy Pond and 300' for Alamoosook Lake) relative to the total shorefront footage assessed in their town; and
2. an increase in property taxes representing their share of the general tax increase appropriated to fund the town's contribution.

Details and assumptions...<click to expand>

Split amongst towns. The Toddy Pond Watershed Management District legislation identifies the allocation of the District's costs amongst the four towns abutting Toddy Pond (whether those costs are shared by a town's general taxpayers and the waterfront property owners or borne entirely by the latter). The allocations are as follows:
- Blue Hill: 6%
- Orland: 43%
- Penobscot: 24%
- Surry: 27%
The Town of Orland, which entirely encompasses Alamoosook Lake, would be the only municipal contributor to the Alamoosook Lake Watershed Management District's costs.
Town voter appropriation of funds. The enabling legislation provides for each District's costs to be allocated 50% to the waterfront property owners and 50% to the encompassing towns (subject to an annual appropriation by the town's voters). For Toddy Pond, the appropriations would be split (as mentioned above) amongst the four towns; for Alamoosook Lake, any town contribution would come from Orland (alone). The estimator assumes that each town's voters approve the 50% contribution to the Districts' costs. If a town does not approve the contribution, that town's waterfront owner assessments will double (and their property tax will decline a small amount to reflect the absence of town funding).
Orland assumptions. The estimator assumes that Orland's voters approve both Districts and appropriate funds for both.