WINSLOW -- Amid fears that a controversial dam breaching might further weaken a less-than-firm portion of the Sebasticook riverbank, Winslow Town Manager Michael Heavener announced the possibility that the town might use federal funds to buy six properties and demolish or move the homes.

That is only one option, and Heavener is investigating whether he can secure enough federal funding to pay for the estimated $504,539 project. Town officials hope to obtain money from a federal Community Development Block Grant.

If engineers determine the best and cheapest option is to move the homes, they probably would need to be moved far from the riverbank. While nothing but a small park occupies a large, grassy lot farther from the bank, the soil even there probably is not stable enough to justify the move, Heavener said.

"In light of what's been dumped there, the engineers said 'You know, if we're going to use federal dollars, we'd rather not' " move the homes from one potentially unstable plot of ground to another, he said.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is testing the soil to determine whether it would be safe to move the homes to a spot near the old town garage.

Heavener said he has informed the six homes' owners of the developments that could affect them.

"Certainly, a number of them favor the idea of moving across the street, because they could continue to stay in the neighborhood," he said.

Most of the homes along Dallaire Street were evacuated in the months after the summer breaching of the Fort Halifax Dam and subsequent draining of the impoundment above it.

In July 2008, police did an emergency evacuation of the remaining family that had chosen to stay in a home on the riverbank. Startled engineers who had been monitoring the bank's stability notified emergency management experts after their sensors detected an hourlong underground slide of about a quarter-inch in a portion of ground four to 20 feet deep.

In addition, portions of turf as large as 40 square feet have sloughed off the bank with the shifting water levels after the drawdown.

The dam's owner, FPL Energy, breached the dam after an agreement between the state and federal governments that stated the company must allow or enable fish to pass through that part of the river. The agreement called for the company either to provide some sort of fish passage, as in the form of a fish ladder or elevator, or to breach the dam.

The company chose the latter over loud protests from residents who live above the impoundment.

Property owners, often led by state Rep. Ken Fletcher (who also lives on the former impoundment), said the drawdown would lower land values, and formed an organization called Save Our Sebasticook.

After much debate and many studies, however, FPL Energy prevailed in its plan to breach the dam.

Engineers and geologists continue to express concern about the stability of the stretch of riverbank along Dallaire Street, however. While it has not shown any more shifts as dramatic as the one in July, sensors indicate the bank there has continued to slide steadily.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com