The town will offer a site on Lake Wassookeag free of charge for the summer to a person willing to serve as caretaker of the public bathhouse.

The caretaker, who must have a self-contained trailer, would be responsible for monitoring the use of the bathhouse and for the opening and closing of the facility each day.

The move is really a last-ditch effort by the town to reopen a building that has been vandalized repeatedly over the years.

Six counts of vandalism when the bathhouse was opened for the summer last year turned out to be the final straw for the Town Council. That damage caused the council to close it, supposedly for good.

But last week, the council was persuaded by Town Manager Judy Doore to allow the reopening if she could find an on-site volunteer caretaker. The council, however, made it clear it does not want any more expense from vandalism.

"I just can't bear to see the beach go unused," Doore said Thursday. Beach-goers need a place to change their clothing. Nor does Doore want vandals to control the town.

Last year, vandals repeatedly plugged the toilets and, in one instance, spread human waste over the walls. The $500 budget for the bathhouse that year was overspent by $300 because of the cleanup and plumbing costs.

Town officials said the vandalism was done during the day when the facility was open to the public.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Friday, May 18, 2007 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."