k, Quillen said.
Edinburgh owns the dam itself and has a town ordinance that anyone walking on it could be fined, Hoffman said. The properties close to the dam, including a bait shop, homes and an apartment complex are private property, but the town is looking into getting the permission from local property owners to put up new signs.
Edinburgh also will seek approval from the state after they were told before they couldn’t put up warnings. When the town discovered damage to the dam last year, town officials put up a sign near the public access site at Irwin Park north of the dam but was told by the Department of Natural Resources to take it down, Hoffman said.
“If they would put something in writing to the town that it would be OK for us to put it up, we would do so,” Hoffman said.
Although residents are avoiding the river, they haven’t asked for warning signs or made any requests to have the town consider removing the dam, Hoffman said. The dam was built to power a nearby grist mill that no longer exists, and the state has determined removing it wouldn’t cause damage or additional flooding to properties downstream.