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Maine Alliance for Road Associations

Use of funds collected by statutory association

  • 13 Feb 2014 11:50 AM
    Message # 1497349
    I am a member of a statutory association that maintains roadways adjacent to a lake.  After reviewing the Maine private ways law, it appears that funds collected via assessments levied by a statutory association must be used for road maintenance, liability insurance and association administrative expenses only.  If I understand correctly, this means that a statutory association created under the private ways law cannot appropriate funds for any other purpose, including water quality monitoring, education and preservation.  Is my understanding correct?

    Short of forming another association devoted to water quality issues, does anyone have any experience dealing with water quality issues from within a statutory association?
  • 14 Feb 2014 4:46 PM
    Reply # 1498335 on 1497349
    Todd, you are after my heart. It is absolutely wonderful that you want to raise money for lake water quality monitoring, education, and preservation. Do you know about the Maine Lakes Society? We're coming out with a new website soon, and doing a lot of work with "LakeSmart," a lake protection program, and you might want to look into it. The site is http://www.mainecola.org/ as we used to be Maine Congress of Lake Associations.

    So that is where there is information, until we get the new site up, which will be wwwmainelakessociety.org.

    I am planning to encourage a road association membership level soon, so you can join and through that get the benefits of instruction in the program. This is especially important since landowners are responsible for sites that degrade water quality. 

    The problem is, the road association statute is what it is, and whether road associations can expend funds for water quality issues is not explicitly stated.

    What you might do is go to your lake association, if you have one, or form one, or when and if the new membership level comes out, join through that. 

    Hope this helps.
     
    Last modified: 22 Feb 2014 1:42 PM | Anonymous member
  • 08 Mar 2014 11:21 AM
    Reply # 1513388 on 1497349
    Late breaking info!

    Yes, road associations can hire consultants to evaluate the condition and needed improvements of their roads. 

    If they don't need consultants, they can (and should) make improvements they deem needed so the road does not impair the water quality of a water body they impact.



     

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