GEORGETOWN – The search for a missing $11,166.50 dock the town bought for the American Legion Park on Pentucket Pond is over.
We found it. Well, actually, The Town Common took a tape measure to the pond to measure the old dock (out of the water, on land) and the new dock. Then we compared the two purchase orders and found the dock right there floating in shallow water.
It just was not what the swimmers and fishing enthusiasts of Pentucket Pond expected when they voted to spend $20,000 of Community Preservation Funds for the new docks two years ago.
Here’s how it happened: Subsequent to last week’s article requesting information on the docks, we received copies of e-mails from Selectman and Park and Recreation Chairman Mike Donahue to Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco. Donahue, who has received considerable criticism for the docks, was seeking assurance that the administrator had ordered new docks which matched the two old docks in size.
Another e-mail from the Georgetown Highway Department written by Petr Durkee on Monday, May 4, 2026 at 1:36 PM replied to the Town Administrator’s measurements, noting: “The old docks are 700sqft with two 7×5 ramps. The new dock = 44 sqft.” (See diagram.)
Twenty-two days after Donahue and Durkee sent their e-mails, the Town Administrator ordered the “second” dock (invoice dated May 26 in the amount of $11,166.50).
When the Boy Scouts came together to assemble the docks, they used all the material that had been delivered by the Great Northern Docks in Maine. They could only muster one small dock that lets “swimmers” jump into the water at a depth of 21 inches, about to the knees of an adult.
Meanwhile, Facebook postings continue to defend the taxpayer expenditure of funds and especially the actions of the Town Administrator who placed the orders for the two small “docks” despite cautions raised by Durkee and Donahue.
In reviewing the dock purchase orders, Donahue has proposed potential reconfiguration of the old docks – eliminating damaged sections, and/or repairing sections, to allow use of a dock for swimming with minimal cost to the town. But depending on the amount of work involved, it is uncertain if there will be a dock for swimmers this summer.
The balance of the CPC $20,000 appropriation two years is $5,311.75, which could be applied toward a larger dock. That includes $3,521.75 for the first ‘dock’ and $11,166.50 for the second ‘dock’ for a total spent from the appropriation of $14,688.24. ♦
