Monmouth residents on Tuesday voted 361-104 to approve a request by selectmen to raise $58,333 to help pay for part of the cost of restoring water quality on Cochnewagon Lake.
The growth of algae blooms in the lake in recent years prompted the Monmouth Board of Selectmen to support a project to treat the lake with aluminum compounds.
The board had recommended setting aside the money, which is one-third of the $175,000 the town eventually would have to raise for the proposed project. The Cobbossee Watershed District has been planning the project and will apply for a federal matching grant of $175,000 for the work.
The work proposed by the watershed district would cost an estimated $350,000. It has asked Monmouth taxpayers to cover half of the project costs and will apply for a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the other half.
If all the funding can be raised, officials estimate the project could begin in 2019.
The board has supported the project, according to Town Manager Curtis Lunt, because so much of the town’s tax base relies on that 394-acre body of water, which is 28 feet deep at its deepest.
Voters rejected a proposal to spend $14,000 for a double-faced electronic message board to be installed outside the Town Office. The proposal failed 147-301.
In other business, Monmouth voters elected Christopher Taylor to the Sanitary District with 28 write-in votes. Daniel W. Niles, who was listed on the ballot, took the other seat with 410 votes.
All the other items on the 30-article town warrant ballot were adopted, most by a 3-to-1 margin or greater.
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