After a peaceful protest by Southport Central School students delayed the filling in of the SCS pond Jan. 18, Southport selectmen decided to put the project on hold indefinitely at a followup meeting Jan. 20. A crowd of about 40 students, teachers, parents and community members gathered in support of creating a separate skating rink and keeping the pond which serves year round educational purposes as well as ice skating in the winter.

Select Board Chair Gerry Gamage said the reasoning behind the board’s decision to fill in the pond was the prevalence of cat tails preventing the pond from freezing over enough at the edges for safe ice skating. Gamage said since the late 1970s the pond has on two occasions been dug out to remove cat tails. “They grow almost as fast as you can dig them out.”

“I can't in good conscience say that it's safe when I fall through the edge of it, so we are here today because we felt that it made more sense to fill the pond in, level it off for a field and put a skating rink on it that we could maintain readily at six inches of water instead of eight feet.”

Gamage said the timing of the project was perfect as the town had enough free fill lined up to fill the entire pond whereas it costs about $10,000 every time the pond needs to be dug out. However, hearing the call from the schoolchildren and community, Gamage said the project would not move forward.

“My sole purpose is the protection of our schoolkids (but) at this point if we choose to keep the status quo and don't tackle the cat tails because it's going to interfere with the wildlife, then the pond isn't safe for skating.”

Boothbay Region Land Trust Environmental Educator Tracy Hall said she regularly uses the pond in her classes at the school and comparatively ice skating is one of the lesser uses. She endorsed the idea of creating a separate ice skating rink, fencing off the pond and limiting access to teachers and allowing pond succession, a natural process in which the pond will progressively fill in over time.

“We were doing a study in the fall on birds and looking at the migrating birds that were landing on the pond. In the spring, the amount of life that is teeming in that pond is the best place on this peninsula to take kids to catch tadpoles, turtles, frogs … There's all kinds of aquatic insects in there, there's lots of diversity in plant life.”

Resident and parent Medea Harris acknowledged Gamage’s multitude of roles in town and gave an impassioned plea to keep the pond. “The Family Fun Day, if we don't have a barbeque it appears; island cleanup, our garbage is taken away; the Fourth of July parade happens and there's a thing that says 'call Gerry' to see if he can help and he does. So, I guess, Gerry, this is our phone call to you to say 'help.' The kids have had a lot taken away from them.”

SCS teacher and Principal Lisa Clarke said the students’ demonstration against filling the pond has been a good opportunity for them to learn about peaceful protest and communication within the community. Clarke also endorsed the creation of a separate ice skating rink.

“Let's look at this winter, for example, climate change. There's no snow on the ground so the children can't go sledding, can't go skiing, can't go cross-country skiing, or snowshoeing. If we had a skating rink, it would be a safe opportunity (for activity). I recognize the huge liability and think this is a time to see how we can save the pond, but keep it safer.”

After about 25 minutes in under 20F temperatures, Gamage closed the meeting and accepted resident Sarah Sherman’s offer to help launch a committee focusing on the creation of a new ice rink.

Said Gamage, “We've spent a lot of time over the years flooding the pond, pumping the pond out, cleaning it out … and quite frankly I never gave one concern about a tadpole. So, that's where we are today and you need to know that the filling of the pond is on hold and will not be filled in the immediate future.”