Something needs to change as Alna’s Head Tide Dam Committee goes forward, but the panel’s obvious dedication makes the decision harder for selectmen, Third Selectman Doug Baston said.

“We need to reset this in some way, and I don’t know what the magic solution is,” Baston told three of the committee’s members at a selectmen’s meeting Dec. 30.

Selectmen continued talking about changing the committee’s makeup, in followup to talks two weeks earlier; in addition, Baston and committee member Greg Shute raised the idea of having a facilitator lead the committee meetings.

The Atlantic Salmon Federation is willing to provide one, Baston said. The federation’s vice president of U.S. programs, Andy Goode, supports the committee continuing, which is encouraging, Baston said.

The federation months ago hired the consulting firm Inter-Fluve for design work with the committee; a project would come at no cost to the town, Goode has said.

Selectmen plan to resume talks about the committee’s future on Jan. 13. They want time to digest what they heard from committee members before deciding next steps, board members said.

“I still believe that having other views ... on the committee is important, and how we achieve that without disenfranchising people who’ve worked hard is something I just want to think about,” Baston said. “I do not want to insult the work that these people have put in. On the other hand, I want a positive outcome, and I’m just concerned from what I hear that unless we make some kind of changes, we’re not going to ...”

Getting calls about anything other than roads and taxes is pretty rare, but he’s been getting them about the dam committee, Baston said. “The theme that I hear is that the committee is composed of like-minded people, sort of bent on an agenda ... It almost doesn’t matter whether that’s true or not, but that’s a very widespread perception ... They are universally suspicious.”

Shute said he had no agenda in serving on the committee; fellow member Cathy Johnson said she came onto the committee with an open mind. She doesn’t consider the members like-minded. “We’ve had some vigorous conversations at the meetings,” she told selectmen.

The panel has been gathering historical, scientific and other information and is preparing to share the information with residents, she said.

“I would encourage you to let us continue to do our thing,” Johnson said.

If people are unhappy with what they are hearing, they should come to the committee meetings or call committee members, she said.

Then and again later in the meeting, Johnson asked who the people were who contacted the selectmen. “It would be really good for us to go and talk with them, but we don’t know who they are,” she said.

Baston said he wouldn’t want to name them, without first asking their permission.

“I’ve had people come to me, too, and they don’t want their names used,” Second Selectman Melissa Spinney said. “They don’t want to approach the committee directly, either. I don’t know why.”

It’s hard to have a dialogue if people won’t contact the committee, Johnson said. “I don’t think I’m that scary.”

People probably think it’s more appropriate to call selectmen, because it’s the selectmen’s committee, Baston responded.

First Selectman David Abbott said he favors having the panel continue beyond the original end date of January; he reiterated the board’s past cautions to the panel to avoid proposing substantial changes to the dam; selectmen have to honor the half-century-old deed restriction the Jewett family included, and the town accepted, when the Jewetts gave the town the dam, Abbott said.

The board reached out to Louise Jewett through an intermediary, Baston said. Jewett and two nieces want the deed restriction to still be followed, he said.

Because the board is responsible for following that covenant, the board could not go to voters with a proposal that would violate it, Abbott said. He restated his concern about a pair of options an Inter-Fluve consultant showed the committee. One would take out a third of the dam’s spillway; the other, two thirds.

Doing something else or doing nothing were also discussed at the meeting with Inter-Fluve, Johnson said.

Selectmen suggested the panel consider prospects for a fish ladder, spawning area, or both. “If you could fix the whole ecosystem, it would be really something ... The dam is just one little piece of the puzzle,” Abbott said.