The Nobleboro Board of Selectmen have rejected a request from Damariscotta Pumpkinfest organizers that they close off a portion of Bayview Road during the festival’s Pumpkin Hurl/Catapult event, Sat. and Sun., Oct. 6 and 7.
“We have a function that same weekend for the fish ladder,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Dick Spear said Aug. 29. He said the Pumpkinfest event calls for pumpkins to be shot out of a large cannon into what he termed a bog in Great Salt Bay. The event has been held in Nobleboro for the last few years, he said.
The fall celebration at the Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder celebrates the downstream return of juvenile alewives, through Great Salt Bay. The juvenile fish travel to the ocean, where they will live for the next four years, until it is time to make the upstream journey to the place of their birth.
“We’re gearing up for it,” Selectman Deb Wilson said. Wilson is also the fish ladder’s project director. She said the fall event offers visitors a selection of homemade soups and breads, children’s games and an opportunity to see the juvenile fish coming down the ladder.
“We had such a good year,” she said. Wilson said a half-million alewives made the trip this spring, upstream to Damariscotta Lake where they spawn. “There are lots of juveniles. People don’t always look at the juvenile run but it’s really fun to see.”
Wilson said closing a neighborhood road for an event that “doesn’t speak to everybody in the neighborhood” was problematic.
“There are safety issues and there are access issues,” she said.
Minutes from the board’s Aug. 29 meeting state the board wants the road open at all times for safety reasons.
“We don’t want the event to grow,” the minutes state. “They need to find someplace in Damariscotta. There is concern that we are putting all the effort into getting the alewives into the lake and when it is time for them to return to the ocean there are pumpkins being shot into the bay.”
“People park all over the place and fill up the road,” Spear said. He said it was a fun event for lots of people but it has an impact on important access for nearby residents.
Spear said the board invited Pumpkinfest organizers to send a representative to the Aug. 29 meeting but no one was able to come.
Speaking for Pumpkinfest, Sept. 4, Charlie Hughes said it was premature to comment on the decision. He said discussions between festival organizers and the Nobleboro Board of Selectmen are ongoing.