The Town Council is considering whether the quarter of a million dollars voters approved for purchase of land along the Salmon Falls River for conservation and water quality protection can instead be used for stewardship of the property.
Residents in November 2022 voted to allow the town to earmark $250,000 in undesignated funds for the Great Works Regional Land Trust’s purchase of 71 acres of uplands, salt marsh and a quarter mile of river frontage, collectively called the Salmon Falls Tidal Waters Project.
Since then, the land trust’s fundraising campaign took in $1.6 million for purchase of the 58-acre portion, and the town’s contribution was tagged for purchase of the adjoining 13-acre parcel appraised at $440,000, Tin Smith, vice president of the land trust board, told the Town Council last week.
In an unexpected turn of events in December, Smith said, the owners of the smaller parcel, Chris and Rosalind Magnuson of Kennebunk, decided instead to donate the property to the land trust. South Berwick’s appropriation is now unneeded for the land purchase, he said, but it presents several “stewardship opportunities” for the entire 71-acre property.
In asking the council if the funds could be reallocated for stewardship of the land and infrastructure for public access, Smith cited “the building of trails, a parking lot, gravel excavation, and other efforts to make it more accessible to the public,” projects costing some $165,000.
Reallocating town funding could face legal obstacles, according to Town Manager Tim Pellerin, because voters approved the money to buy the land and it may be restricted to that purpose. The town will ask legal counsel if the funding can be redirected, he said.
The council could also propose a new budget article at the Annual Town Meeting this spring, Pellerin said.
The land trust is now in the process of securing purchase of the 58 acres owned by Sara Cullen of Portsmouth for $1.6 million, according to Jordan Kelley, executive director of the land trust. He hopes to close on the property by June and make the entire protected property, located off Old Fields Road near Vaughan Woods, accessible to the public by the end of 2024.
Whatever the town decides to do with the funds, Kelley said, the fact that local residents approved the expenditure has helped advance the tidal waters initiative, which seeks to protect water quality in Maine and New Hampshire, secure wildlife habitat, and build climate change resilience.
“Because other grant partners are seeing that the town is serious about its commitment to the project, they are even more receptive to our mission of protecting land,” he said.
