For Maine’s riverside towns, ice-jams are lethal. Canton knows this well – it flooded in 1936, 1978, 1987, 1996 and, most recently, December 2003, when almost one-fifth of residents were evacuated from rising waters.

Six homes were destroyed. More than 90 others couldn’t be reached, and many accessible homes were unable to be occupied, because floodwaters damaged their heating systems.

Perhaps this memory is fading in Canton. After all, townspeople on Jan. 15 rejected the last piece of a four-year effort to help residents move out of the floodplain, the Village Ridge project. Voters declined to accept grants and take loans for sewer and water hookups for the development.

It seems a myopic decision, given the immense amount of support offered and secured by Canton to, finally, gain higher ground against the recurring floods. Some residents are understandably concerned about change, but change is being forced upon the community, not chosen.

The river isn’t going away. Canton will flood again, as it has over the last century. Since the Christmas 2003 flood, the community has enacted a new comprehensive plan and received unprecedented support to construct many new homes, far above the floodplain.

One agency, the Greater Brunswick Housing Corp., is providing about 90 percent of this project’s cost. Local taxpayers would borrow some $900,000 for the sewer and water lines, but this should be viewed as an investment in the town, not a frivolous expense.

The Canton Lake dam experience should also remind residents of the cost of failing to support infrastructure. The same ambition that townspeople showed in addressing the dam must be extended to the floodplain projects.

Village Ridge and its intent – offering residents protection against the next flood – shouldn’t be washed away by this last setback. Change is difficult but, in Canton, the alternative is even less desirable – the next winter, the next ice-jam, the next flood. And the next inevitable emergency.

There won’t be a second chance for his project, most likely. The town has already waited four years to act; an eleventh-hour rejection is the ultimate frustration for its proponents and backers, trying to help the town help itself.

We urge reconsideration of the sewer and water extensions for Village Ridge. Canton has come too far to abandon all the progress, disregard the hard work and reject this unique opportunity.

The plan was born out of crisis; it shouldn’t die because of shortsightedness.