The old Pleasant Lake Dam in Casco is at top, while the new dam is shown below.

Casco’s Pleasant Lake Dam in April 2017.

CASCO — Construction of the new Pleasant Lake Dam is complete.

The nearly $500,000 project to replace the failing dam beside Route 121 began in October 2016.

Project design engineer Myron B. Petrovsky of MPB Consulting in Portland announced its completion last week.

The dam is between the Hancock Lumber office building parking lot and the Pleasant Lake House Bed and Breakfast on Route 121 in Casco and controls the water level in the 4-mile-long lake that lies in Casco and Otisfield.

In 2014, Casco and Otisfield selectmen received a report from the Maine Emergency Management Agency about leaks and structural deterioration at the spillway dam. The towns faced significant fines from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection if the dam failed.

Officials from both towns, along with members of the Pleasant Lake and Parker Pond Association, developed a plan to repair the 160-year-old dam, and voters approved bonding $250,000 each from each town. In June 2016, selectmen in Casco and Otisfield approved a $421,639 bid by T-Buck Construction for the work.

The lake has private camps, cottages and homes along it, as well as the Seeds of Peace International Camp on the western shore and Camp Arcadia for Girls on the eastern shore, both in Otisfield.

Along with Petrovsky, Ross A. Cudlitz, the project engineer for Engineering Assistance & Design Inc. in Yarmouth, has been overseeing the project for Casco and Otisfield.

ldixon@sunmediagroup.net

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