In the 1970s, the Central Lincoln County Recreation Association wanted to build a playground and a ballpark near its community center on Route 1A in Damariscotta. Unfortunately, the organization wasn’t eligible for many grants, and didn’t have a lot of success with private fundraising, so it offered the town a parcel of land of about six acres so that the town could apply for grants to get the playground and ballpark built.

Damariscotta was able to get grants for the project, at a 50-50 split, from the Department of the Interior’s National Parks program, managed through the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands. Damariscotta got three grants from 1981 to 1986, and the facilities were built. But within the grant documents were obligations to keep the land in public hands in perpetuity. 

In the meantime, the Central Lincoln County Recreation Association became affiliated with the YMCA, and asked to lease the land back from the town so they could further improve it. In 1990, Damariscotta entered into a lease agreement with them that put the land back under their control, and in 2006, at town meeting, transferred the land outright back to the organization that had become the CLC YMCA.

But by so doing, the town unintentionally fell afoul of the original agreement with the Department of the Interior grant, which required that the land remain public.

Town Manager Matt Lutkus became aware of the problem when the MBPL asked for a five-year review of the property, and Lutkus realized that the town didn’t even own the property any longer. Lutkus said it became apparent that even the earlier lease agreement may have also been in violation of the terms of the grant, but that institutional memory was the biggest problem.

“After reviewing documents going back to the 1970s, it is clear to me that no one deliberately attempted to mislead federal or state agencies with regard to the town’s relationship with the Central Lincoln County Recreation Association or its successor organization, the CLC YMCA,” he said.

Lutkus said that as elected and appointed officials change, knowledge of this type of commitment can become lost.

“The MBPL made it very clear to us that we had to correct the situation,” he said.

After several letters and emails between Lutkus and Doug Beck of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, Lutkus said that Damariscotta must replace the property given to the YMCA with a property of similar value to be used for public recreation. The assessed tax-exempt value of the land given to the YMCA is $200,000, he said, and that is likely to be the “Yellow Book” value of whatever parcel the town must create as a public recreational space. Lutkus stressed that the town did not have to spend $200,000, and that the property could come from private donations or an extension of an already existing park.

The process of substituting one parcel for another is called a conversion, and whatever the town elects to do must be approved in advance by the MBPL. The land cannot currently be a park, so future plans to improve Biscay Beach with a boat launch wouldn’t be acceptable. But adding green space, restrooms and a pedestrian walkway along the waterfront may be acceptable. “Beck also suggested incorporating part of Misery Gulch to add to the park,” he said. “But that’s not currently in our plans. We are hopeful that the MBPL will accept the municipal parking lot additions we’ve already looked at as part of our Waterfront Plan.” The town recently agreed at a special meeting to set aside a sum of money for adding the restrooms as part of a bond measure that also included road improvements and a new tractor.

No plans are yet finalized, but Lutkus said that the Bureau of Parks and Lands has given the town a year to have an approved conversion plan, and Lutkus is hoping to have it done sooner.

Until Damariscotta meets the requirement, it will not be able to apply for additional grants for Land and Water Conservation Funds and Recreational Trail Funds. The Biscay Beach improvements could be financed through one of these funding mechanisms.