The building at 39 Main Street, which is best known as the former longtime home of Janis Kay’s store Surroundings, may soon be condemned. And if that leads to the building’s removal — which to me looks much easier than repair — we’d all have a sidewalk view of the old grist mill pond, the spillway falls, and beyond.

Camden has the golden opportunity to partially restore an exceptionally beautiful Main Street view of the Megunticook River Falls, the Harbor, and the Bay — a view we lost about a century ago. But that might not happen, and I doubt that anyone knows for sure which way the decision will go. Moreover, the situation is moving fast and few Camden citizens are paying attention (maybe because there’s a whole lot else happening from local to global).

Moreover, if Camden voters decide to remove the Montgomery Dam and restore the River outfall to its more original path in the June ballot, eventually the 39 Main Street view will look directly down the free-flowing Megunticook River as it tumbles over bedrock, like the original ledge falls that explorer George Weymouth may have noticed during his visit 420 years ago.

Here’s what I know from public documentation easily available at the Town website, plus conversations with the owner’s representative and relevant Town staff:

On Feb. 18, the Select Board will conduct a Dangerous Building Hearing that will be unlike other public hearings. As mandated by State law there will be no comments from the public and if the Select Board agrees with the engineering study that the building “is dangerous to life and property,” the same statute gives the Board the right to condemn and demolish the building.

But they probably cannot pay for the building without a Town vote that could take more time than this building may stay upright without repair.

Meanwhile, just a few weeks ago, Jeff Weatherholtz, the person who had purchased the building in 2020, forfeited the deed back to Janis Kay, according to Kevin Hall. 

Thankfully Kay is well represented locally by attorney Susan Theim, and more specifically by Theim’s longtime paralegal Kevin Hall, who told me recently that there is an offer on the table from a party who hopes to renovate the building. I don’t know who that prospective buyer is, but it’s apparently not the one mentioned by Camden Planning & Development Director Jeremy Martin during the Select Board meeting when the Dangerous Building Hearing was approved. Hall also told me that Kay may try to repair the building herself.

But renovating 39 Main will not be easy. If the repair cost is greater than 50% of the building's current appraised value of $128,000 — which seems highly likely — the law requires that it be considered new construction designed to current codes. Which looks like quite a challenge given that the entire foundation sits in a river sometimes subject to flooding and significant debris. In fact, emptying the small Montgomery Dam impoundment to facilitate such construction cannot be guaranteed for a lengthy period because high river flows can overtop the dam even when the sluice gate is fully open.

Moreover, the Select Board may also find the Feb. 18 Hearing to be quite a challenge. While I think they will be quite sympathetic to Janis Kay’s situation — or even that of a brand new owner — I suspect that they will need to hear a solid remediation plan with a short timeline in order to fulfill their mandate to protect the Town from a sudden disaster that could happen any moment.

Picture, for instance, a huge late winter rainstorm that also melts all this snow and thus quickly fills the Lake and River. Could 39 Main Street survive the extreme high river flow and all the floating debris that could cause? At the Dangerous Building Hearing Tuesday night, both the Select Board and the owner of 39 Main will likely feel like they are “between rock and a hard place”!

My hope is that some benevolent philanthropists are talking behind the scenes with Kevin Hall and Jeremy Martin about how they can help Janis Kay with the financial mess dumped in her lap, remove her old building with no damage to its neighbors, and restore the 39 Main Street lot as a public view.

If this hope sounds good to you, please do whatever you can to help, which may include extending sympathy to the Select Board and Janis Kay. Also please let me know if I got any facts wrong in the paragraphs above.

PS: There's strong evidence that Mary Louise Bok might have sought the same solution if she were alive today.

Ben Ellison lives in Camden