Toddy Pond, Alamoosook Lake watershed districts vet 2026-2027 budgets
The dam at Toddy Pond. File photo.
Jan. 7, 2026
By Tricia Thomas
ORLAND—The two watershed management districts created to take over concrete dams at Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake held public hearings on Jan. 5 on their respective budgets for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
The preliminary budgets must be turned over to town select boards in Blue Hill, Orland, Penobscot and Surry on January 15. They then will be presented and voted on at annual town meetings this spring, said Marc Restuccia, president of the Toddy Pond Watershed Management District.
While startup budgets for each watershed district were approved by sizable majorities of voters in each of the towns last November, the Jan. 5 public hearings gave voters a first look at budgets for the coming fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2026 and runs through June 30, 2027.
Voter approvals of both budgets this spring will be a crucial step in taking ownership of the aging dams, and to ensuring that the districts have the money to do so, Restuccia said. Both dams now are owned by AIM/Bucksport Mill, LLC, a Canadian company that wants to abandon them, Restuccia said.
“If we don’t ask for money for this next fiscal year, we’ll have no ability to have any money to run the dams until July of 2027,” Restuccia said.
“Bucksport Mill has made it really clear
that they want out of here as soon as possible.”
—Marc Restuccia
President of the Toddy Pond Watershed Management District
Nearly 50 people attended the separate, back-to-back hearings, held at the Orland Community Center. While a handful of residents asked questions about the two budgets, no one in the audience voiced an objection to either proposal. Through a show of hands during the 90-minute meeting, most attendees indicated that they were residents of Orland, which will be doubly impacted by the takeover of the dams, as a large part of Toddy Pond and all of Alamoosook Lake are located within its borders.
Restuccia, who headed the Toddy Pond Association before he was elected president of the watershed district last month, presented his district’s budget first. The proposed Toddy Pond budget totals $56,220. If approved by voters this spring, half of that amount—$28,110—will be funded proportionally by the towns, based on the number of lakefront properties in each town. Blue Hill will pay $1,686.60, Orland will pay $12,087.30, Penobscot will pay $6,746.40, and Surry will pay $7,589.70 under the proposed budget.
The remaining $28,110 will be collectively and proportionally borne by lakefront residents in each of the towns, with those in Blue Hill paying $54, those in Orland paying $114, those in Penobscot paying $88, and those in Surry paying $69 for the year.
The biggest expenditures listed in the Toddy Pond budget are $15,000 for legal fees and $18,000 for accounting fees.
“The transfer of the dams is a fairly complicated process. Both districts have decided to retain [Bangor attorney] Russ Pierce, who has been advising the towns for the last year and a half. He has done a great job. He’s very much on top of this and it would be very difficult to bring someone else in at this point,” Restuccia said.
Pierce also is giving the districts a discounted rate, which is less than what the Toddy Pond Association, which first mounted the campaign to save the Toddy Pond dam, is paying its own attorney, Restuccia said.
“[Pierce] is knowledgeable. He’s great to work with. He’s accessible, and he’s reasonably priced,” Restuccia said.
Hiring an accountant to professionally manage the districts’ assets and expenditures, and to handle collection of funds from towns and lakefront property owners, also is necessary, Restuccia said.
“It’s important that we actually have very clean books, that we’re able to send out the assessments in a timely manner, account for them, and have good accounting at the end of the year,” Restuccia said. “This is not something that a part-time, volunteer treasurer should have to do.”
Another $17,000 will be set aside in the Toddy Pond budget for initial dam operations and maintenance after the takeover, Restuccia said.
“That is an estimate of what it would cost to actually have somebody open and close the gates, be on call if they’re needed, mow the lawn, [or] alert us if there’s a problem with the dam.” Restuccia said. “That is based on a facilities management [agreement] that Bucksport Mill has with Bucksport Generation,” which has water usage rights for the lakes and must sign off on the takeover plan.
Required insurance for the district’s board of trustees, setup and maintenance of a district website, and costs for district-wide mailings make up the remainder of the budget.
Representatives of the Alamoosook Lake Watershed Management District then presented their budget, which totals an estimated $48,580. District president George Schelling said that while trustees still are finalizing the budget, he expects little change to it before it is turned over to the Orland select board on Jan. 15.
Under the Alamoosook budget proposal, $24,290 will be funded by the town of Orland, if approved by voters there, and $24,290 will be paid for by lakefront property owners. District treasurer Brian Sale told the audience that the budget includes $17,000 to be held in reserve for dam operations and maintenance, $15,000 in legal fees, and $13,000 in accounting fees. The Alamoosook budget also includes $1,000 for insuring board trustees and a $2,000 set-aside for title insurance once the district takes over the dam there, Sale said.
The Alamoosook budget draft handed out at the meeting did not include a breakdown of estimated costs to lakefront property owners. Sale told the audience that Orland residents can estimate their costs by using an online cost calculator built specifically for taxpayers.
Both Toddy Pond and Alamoosook Lake were dammed more than 100 years ago to supply water to a now-shuttered paper mill in Bucksport. When the plant was sold in 2014, ownership of the dams also changed hands. In 2024, new owners AIM/Bucksport Mill LLC petitioned the state to relinquish ownership of the two dams, along with a third dam at Silver Lake in Bucksport. While the company’s first application was rejected, its second was accepted for consideration by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in late 2024.
Concerned residents and officials in each of the towns affected by the proposed abandonments worked together to garner legislative and community support for public ownership of the dams, and voters in each of the towns gave their go-ahead on Nov. 4, 2025.
If voters had rejected the takeover referendums, the dams could have been dismantled and the lakes drained. The resulting drop in water levels would cause devastating environmental impacts, render existing boat launches on both lakes unusable, and affect area fire departments’ ability to use water from the lakes for firefighting, takeover proponents have said. The dams’ abandonment also could have resulted in an estimated $50 million reduction in property valuations.
Restuccia told the audience on Jan. 5 that a schedule for takeover of the dams has not been determined. AIM/Bucksport Mill currently is negotiating with Bucksport Generation, a natural gas-fired power station in Bucksport that uses water from the lakes, on future water rights. Once an agreement is reached and Bucksport Generation signs off on the turnover of the dams, their transfer to the districts can take place. While the state has issued a mid-June deadline for an agreement, Restuccia said it is unclear if that deadline would be extended further.
“There’s a bit of an unknown element here,” Restuccia said in response to a question about the timing of the takeovers and the effect on the budgets. “Is it conceivable that this could get tied up in court for years? It is possible [but] I think it’s highly unlikely,” he said. “Bucksport Mill has made it really clear that they want out of here as soon as possible. Bucksport Generation, in the limited conversations I’ve had with them, have said that they would like, at this point, to get out as soon as possible also.”
Until dedicated websites for both districts are available and budgets are published in town warrants, questions or comments on the Toddy Pond budget can be directed to Restuccia at toddymail@toddypond.org. Questions or comments on the Alamoosook budget can be directed to Sale at briancsale@gmail.com. More information on the takeover of the dams is available on the Orland town website.
