Camden resident Ken Gross pleaded with town leaders recently to save an iconic part of the seaside community’s identity — the dam and falls that are a hallmark of the downtown.

“The dam and its waterfall is not a collection of stone and concrete,” Gross said during Wednesday’s Select Board meeting. “It is an eye-catching icon. It is a moving and ear-catching sculpture at the very heart of Camden. It is the centerpiece of one of the most photographed scenes in New England.”

To Gross and others, the Montgomery Dam is worth preserving. But it needs repairs and as climate change adds to sea level rise, the town is exploring what could happen in the future to the town-owned dam.

On Wednesday, the select board voted unanimously to spend about $19,000 to hire FB Environmental Associates of Portland to form a citizen task force, review previous studies and develop a new vision for the Megunticook River and its watershed. While the task force will be long-standing, the consultants are expected to complete their work by late September, Select Board member Sophie Romana said.

Resident Jean Brewer told the board she applauds the decision to hire the consultants.

“I think you are going to restore community trust, which is better than restoring anything,” Brewer said.

The controversy dates back to 2017, when the town voted to repair and maintain the dam, Gross said. A year later, the town used money from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Coastal Resiliency Fund to hire a consultant to assess how all seven dams along the river could impact potential future flooding.

The report, released in 2019, describes the 200-year-old Montgomery Dam as being in “degrading condition” and in need of repairs to address deficiencies.

The town website notes that the dam was “evaluated for a full or partial removal in order to reduce flood risk for downtown buildings. The dam is also connected to the sea wall in Harbor Park which is deteriorating due to frequent overtopping during high tide events.”

But on Wednesday, Select Board members were careful not to discuss any one potential option, saying they wanted to hire the new consultant to form a citizen group to study the issue. The intent is to start with a clean slate, Selectman Tom Hedstrom said.

“There’s really nothing pre-conceived here,” Hedstrom said. “Some things got rolling in the past. We’ve taken a step back. There’s a different focus now.”

Gross, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of the citizen group Save the Dam Falls Committee, urged the board to hold a town-wide vote on the future of the dam. The group recently sent a letter to the board demanding a vote and outlining steps the group is prepared to take if it has to call a special town meeting on its own.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Select Board Chairman Robert Falciani told Gross he would not discuss the letter, saying the town’s attorney is in discussions with the group’s attorney. But later, when pressed by resident Linda Tanner, Falciani said options will be presented to voters.

She also said she wanted to find information about the project somewhere other than Facebook, prompting Vice Chairwoman Alison McKellar to direct her to the town’s website.

“Why are so many people up in arms about how this stuff is going to destroy the watersheds in Camden?” Tanner said.

McKellar responded by saying “it’s a mixture of reasonable fears and confusion and uncertainty.” She said the new consultants have been hired to come up with options, not to begin “any kind of construction.”

Falciani then further clarified.

“All the town is trying to do is evaluate the options to present them to the voters,” he said.