CANTON – A standing-room-only crowd attended the selectmen’s meeting Thursday night wanting to know what the board was going to do about the still open dam on Lake Anasagunticook.

Last year, the state ordered that the dam remain open after it was determined it was structurally unsound. The locks on the dam have been open since summer 2007 and the water level at the lake has remained dramatically low.

Dam owner Ray Fortier of Sabattus declined the town’s offer to buy the dam, according to Selectman Chairman Scott Kilbreth. Fortier transferred the dam to a company he owns called R.J. Fortier Hydro Power Inc.

Fortier has told the town he was meeting April 25 with engineers for a new design, Kilbreth said.

A temporary dam for the Canton Water District cannot be installed until Fortier signs off on it, according to selectmen.

Those in attendance were dissatisfied with the information and voiced frustration that Maine Department of Environmental Protection had not done more to enforce fines against Fortier.

“We can’t trust anything Fortier says, and we have people willing to make donations,” Michael Ranhoff said. “Let’s move forward to eminent domain. We can get the money.”

Ranhoff said the donations would be used to pay Fortier the market value for the property if the town took the dam and property by eminent domain.

“We have been quiet, but now the low level of the lake is raising the lake temperature, and we are having to use additional treatment to keep the water safe,” said Donald Hutchins, the water district superintendent. “We are looking at some costly adjustments and will be looking for a rate increase.”

The town uses the lake for its water source. Hutchins did not say how much of a rate increase ratepayers would face, but that could be complicated further as the pipe used to draw water from the lake may also soon need to be extended.

Judy Hamilton from the Dam Core Committee, a group of citizens formed to look into finding a solution to the impasse with the state and Fortier over the dam, asked the board to meet with them and the water district to decide how they could approach taking the dam by eminent domain and then get the legal counsel they need.

Townspeople would have to approve the takeover at a special town meeting, Kilbreth said.

In other business Thursday, Hutchins petitioned the board for a special town meeting to rescind the acceptance of Article 17 by voters at the annual town meeting. The article was to raise $75,000 for paving on Staples Hill and elsewhere.

Hutchins said he wants to rescind the paving to save the town money to lower taxes.

The board voted to accept the petition pending the verification of the 50 signatures.

The special town meeting must be held within 60 days of the petition’s verification.

Road foreman Craig Gammon resigned on the spot after the vote. “You’ll have to get someone else to be your puppet,” Gammon said.

The board voted to accept Gammon’s resignation. He will work a two-week notice. Gammon was previously the road commissioner for more than 10 years when the town switched to a road foreman instead.

Selectmen also appointed a village property committee to look into what the town should now do with the land it owns off routes 108 and 140 behind the Canton Villa. At town meeting voters rejected a plan to develop the land into residential housing. The committee is expected to meet May 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the town offices.