In a debate that is sure to pit the commercial enterprise of whitewater rafting companies against recreational users and general taxpayers, owners of roads in and around the Dead River and Kennebec River, continue to charge fees for access and threaten to raise fees or close roads.

Owners of the roads say they think it is only right to charge commercial business for access to their roads. They don’t charge the recreational non-commercial user. Rafting companies are complaining that with the rising costs of access fees and continued threats of closing roads, it’s putting them out of business.

Should the state step in and work to guarantee access to these rivers? Doesn’t the landowner hold the right to do whatever they wish with access to their land? Are we to somehow subsidize whitewater rafting? These are only a few of the myriad of unanswered questions facing Maine taxpayers in another land access issue.

Alan Crowell, Kennebec Journal, covers one aspect of the story and make sure you check out the mostly unsupported comments at the end of the article.

Tom Remington