GREENE – The Allen Pond Improvement Association will meet tonight at the Greene Fire Station to decide what to do about the pond’s leaking dam.

The association has decided against filing a petition for abandonment of the dam and plans to pull a group of pond property owners to work on it voluntarily.

“We plan on voting on how we are going to repair the dam,” President Dian Dubois said. “We have a lot of new resources and once we have a plan we will present it to (the state Department of Environmental Protection).”

She said the association will present its report and review the state’s report to the association.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will conclude by 8 p.m.

On Sept. 28, DEP Dams and Hydropower Supervisor Dana Murch said an inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service on Sept. 20 showed, “The dam is leaking slightly more than when inspected by the same engineer in 2000.” He also said the dam is slowly deteriorating but “that failure will not be a catastrophic blowout but rather will be more of a continual increase in leakage that would make it impossible to maintain summer water levels.”

When he tried to explain the lengthy process for a petition for abandoning the dam, the audience protested the mere thought of it.

David Casavant, chairman of the Dam Committee formed by the association, responded to complaints the panel had too much decision-making power, saying the committee has a responsibility to act when problems occur with the dam.

Repairs to the dam are expected to cost $1,500, and the association has an estimated $7,000 on hand.

The 140-foot long dam dates back before 1850 and was reconstructed in 1961.

State officials estimate that if the dam was to give way or be removed the water level could drop anywhere from 4 to 7 feet.