CASCO — Replacement of the Pleasant Lake dam is almost complete, according to Otisfield Board of Selectmen Chairman Hal Ferguson.

“The dam itself will be finished in a week or two,” Ferguson said recently.

The dam is between the Hancock Lumber office building parking lot and the Pleasant Lake House Bed and Breakfast on Route 121. It controls the water level in the 4-mile-long lake that lies in both towns.

The lake has private camps, cottages and homes along it, as well as the Seeds of Peace International Camp on the western shore and Camp Arcadia for Girls on the eastern shore, both in Otisfield.

In 2014, Casco and Otisfield selectmen received a report from the Maine Emergency Management Agency about leaks and structural deterioration at the spillway dam. The towns faced significant fines from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection if the dam failed.

Town officials and members of the Pleasant Lake and Parker Pond Association, developed a strategy to repair the dam and voters in Otisfield and Casco approved bonding $250,000 each.

In June 2016, selectmen in Casco and Otisfield approved a $421,639 bid by T-Buck Construction for repairs.

In June, selectmen in Casco and Otisfield approved a $421,639 bid by T-Buck Construction for dam repair work. Voters in Otisfield and Casco approved bonding $250,000 each.

While the dam is almost complete, work continues to extend a pipe into the lake to provide Maine Inland Fishers and Wildlife’s passageway for fish.

The towns are waiting for a permit from the Department of Environmental protection to begin removing tons of sand and silt built up above the dam and that would threaten its stability once the water is released, Ferguson said.

Ross A. Cudlitz, the project engineer for Engineering Assistance & Design Inc. in Yarmouth, has been overseeing the project for Casco and Otisfield, along with Myron Pertrovsky, design engineer of MBP Consulting.

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