The town of Whitefield is in a pickle. Thanks to the bad judgment of two of the three members of its board of selectmen, the town's citizens might lose out on a $400,000 deal to fix its crumbling Coopers Mills dam, provide water for firefighting in the area and allow migratory fish effective upstream passage on the Sheepscot River for the first time in almost 200 years.

A little history is in order. In 1804, the first Coopers Mills dam was built across the river. Over the next 200 years, while the pond behind the dam served the town in a number of ways, the dam blocked the river's once-abundant supply of native fish from their upstream spawning grounds.

Along with a range of other problems such as pollution and streamside development, the Coopers Mills dam contributed to the demise of the river's populations of Atlantic salmon, blueback herring, alewives, American eels and sea lamprey.

Over the last two centuries, their populations all crashed and the formerly prolific Sheepscot was reduced to a sad echo of what it once was.

More than a decade ago, facing a precipitous decline in Atlantic salmon stocks, conservationists identified the Sheepscot as one of the state's most valuable rivers for Atlantic salmon restoration. To that end, millions of dollars have since been spent to fix the river's eroding banks, to protect riverside land, to divert dairy farm waste from flowing into the river and its tributaries. But along with clean water, shaded pools and lively riffles, salmon and their fellow migratory fish species need free access to their upstream spawning areas to survive and thrive -- and the Coopers Mills dam has been an impediment.

The town-owned dam -- at this point, crumbling and in danger of failure, according to engineers -- isn't just an impediment. It also provides an upstream pond that was the area's crucial source of water for firefighting. So for the last few years, federal and state officials, conservationists, engineers and fire safety consultants have worked with local selectboard members, fire officials and area residents to fashion a solution that maintained the town's ability to fight fires and allowed the river's fish to proceed easily upstream past the dam.

That solution, arrived at after a painstaking process involving much study and public input, was a so-called rock ramp dam. The rock ramp would look like a natural part of the river, allow fish free passage and still manage to impound water behind it. It's a solution that has been used elsewhere in the state, including on the nearby St. George River in Union. And unlike the current dam, which leaks so badly that it doesn't hold enough water for firefighting purposes year round, the rock ramp dam's would.

Best of all, removal of the dam and construction of the rock ramp would be free to the town's taxpayers. Because it would restore native fish passage, the federal and state government would cover the nearly half million dollars in costs.

What was there not to like about this deal? Even the town's firefighters -- the group with historically the strongest opposition to changing the status quo at the dam -- endorsed it. But there was a catch: The town needed to act quickly, because there was a time limit on the funding.

The wording of a warrant article for town referendum was devised so that Whitefield residents, who owned the dam, could vote on the rock ramp plan.

Yet inexplicably, two of the town's three selectmen -- Bruce Mathews and Charlene Bartlett -- resisted that solution.

The two engineered a different question to be put on the warrant for town referendum on April 24. Concerned about the potential cost to the town of dam upkeep and liability (which had been estimated at a few thousand dollars a year), they had the warrant ask: Should the town sell the dam?

We're hard-pressed to understand who would be in the market for a crumbling municipal dam that doesn't generate power. We're also hard-pressed to understand the motivations of the two selectmen.

So were many of the 60 people who confronted selectmen at a public hearing last week; they were harsh in their criticism that the members had jeopardized the town's chance at a deal. That criticism apparently took its toll: Mathews resigned on Monday.

In the meantime, it looks like the town's attorney and remaining selectmen need to figure out a way to get the proper question in front of the town's voters.

The people of Whitefield are looking at a gift horse. We hope they don't allow it to get away.