FARMINGTON — Selectmen agreed Tuesday to start work on erosion damage to a riverbank on the Sandy River at the corner of Whittier Road and Route 156.

Rick Jones of Jones Associates Inc. of Poland Spring told the board that the Department of Environmental Protection will expedite a permit for the work above the high-water mark. The permit should take 21 days.

The work includes cutting trees 20 feet up from the base, pushing the trunks into the banking and allowing the exposed roots to collect sediment and encourage vegetation to start rebuilding the banking, Jones said.

Permitting to remove sand from a sandbar on the opposite side of the river will also be sought. When the river deposits sediment on the sandbar and it builds up, it pushes the velocity of the river over, eroding the banking.

Regular harvesting of the sandbars is needed. Permits to do so were stopped in 2000, causing other erosion problems along the Sandy River, Tom Eastler, a geologist from the University of Maine at Farmington, explained.

The board entered into an agreement with Jones to secure permitting and planning for bank stabilization and gravel removal above the high water mark for a total of $13,240. They approved using $6,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds reimbursed to the town’s Public Works Department and taking the remainder from the department’s winter road budget.

The alternative to not starting the project could be the loss of a portion of the Whittier Road, a major roadway for Chesterville residents going to the high school and businesses on Route 2, Denis Castonguay, Public Works director, said. Summer rains and storms have taken their toll in just the last few weeks.

Two weeks ago, Jim Meader, who owns property along the river across from the site, had his eye on an oak tree standing tall above the water. A week ago, the tree was slanting toward the river and Tuesday, it was in the river, he told the board.

The future of homes along this portion of Whittier Road could be affected without the stabilization work.

Meader has agreed to harvesting the sand for the town along a sandbar on his property and to provide trees to be used in the stabilization process called rootwad.

Cost estimates for the repairs are not available without knowing what the permit requires, Jones said. He suggested the cost could be reduced to time and equipment along with cost of trees and gravel.

It will take a lot of trees, Castonguay said.

Jones would prefer to use riprap up to the high water mark and then rootwad above, but necessary permitting from the Army Corps of Engineers requires months, he said. Because the Sandy River has been designated as a spawning area for red salmon, the corps turns permits over to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. He is waiting to hear on other permit applications and thought it could take a year or longer to obtain permits for that type of work.

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