Topsham’s proposed water safety zone ordinance is still on hold.

Despite revisions made at Thursday night’s selectmen meeting, no action was taken toward adopting it.

At a previous Selectmen’s meeting, Town Manager Rich Roedner was directed to discuss the ordinance with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Those communications revealed restricting boating and fishing would fall under the state’s jurisdiction. Although the town could still restrict swimming, selectmen opted not to move forward with the ordinance.

Roedner said he discovered the state was unaware of the dangerous stretch of river, indicating Brookfield has only reached out to Topsham and Brunswick about the issue to this point. Selectmen were in agreement it would be productive to discuss the ordinance with Brunswick officials. If both towns were not on board, it would essentially only ban entering the river from the Topsham side.

The first revision discussed at Thursday’s meeting was moving away from the term water safety zone. A new ordinance will now read no water contact zone. Another concern brought up at the previous board meeting was language allowing people to go into the water up to their knees. That language was removed because of the potential gray area it would create for enforcing the ordinance.

The discussion about an ordinance began when the town was approached by Brookfield Renewable, which owns the Brunswick hydroelectric facility, saying previous safety measures in the Androscoggin River were not enough. Brookfield has signs posted along the river in the area around its facility and dam that pose the greatest threat to the public.

The no water contact zone would stretch to the east side of the Frank J. Wood Bridge, 500 feet downstream from the hydroelectric facility, to 3,000 feet upstream where the Maine Department of Transportation bridge is located. The distance downstream gives Brookfield’s crews a safe distance to install boat safety barriers.

Reaching this point has taken a lot of discussion and readjustments. Roedner has done his research on the safety issue, obtaining rescue call details to the area from Brunswick and Topsham. From that information, it was determined 14 rescues have been made since 2007. Topsham police have received 21 water-related calls to the Swinging Bridge area since 2006.

chris@timesrecord.com