CANTON – The committee working on problems with the Whitney Brook dam agrees that owner Raymond Fortier should be forced to comply with Maine Emergency Management Agency’s order to repair the dam by Dec. 31.

Secretary Polly Bussiere stated that 189 names have been collected on a petition requesting that the maximum fine of $5,000 per day be levied upon Fortier for his failure to comply with MEMA orders of Dec. 4, 2006, and this past May 8. The petition further requests that the state use its legislative and statutory authority to assist Canton and Hartford and local property owners to change ownership to municipal control.

The petition, which lists numerous orders that Fortier has defied, will be delivered to Maj. Gen. John W. Libby, commissioner, state Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, with copies going to the attorney general and others. State Rep. Terry Hayes of Buckfield, who attended the Monday night meeting, will arrange the meetings and accompany citizens who deliver the petition.

Hayes suggested that they make clear to state officials that people in Canton and Hartford have been harmed by the state’s failure to enforce the law. She said it was pointless for legislators to make laws to protect residents if the state fails to enforce them.

Committee Chairman Malcolm Ray, a civil engineering professor at Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute, said he studied the engineering report submitted to the state by Fortier and discussed the report with MEMA engineer David Sait. He said there were problems with the report, including the fact that it projected a completion date of “summer” 2008 rather than Dec. 31, 2007, as required in the MEMA order. He said Sait said the state would insist on the 2007 completion date.

Ray said so much time has been wasted that it will be difficult for Fortier to finish the work by that date.

Code Enforcement Officer Jack Plumley said Fortier had done some work on the dam in the past and that if he started work on the dam and left the project incomplete over the winter it would be more dangerous than it is now. He suggested that the committee ask MEMA to insist that the work be done by a reputable contractor.

Ray suggested that several parallel efforts could be made to encourage Fortier to either comply with the orders to fix the dam or to abandon the dam so the towns can attempt to get it fixed.

The efforts can include MEMA enforcing its order, Canton enforcing a 1998 consent order, Canton starting eminent domain procedures and residents bringing suit over damages they have suffered.