EXETER — Who gets to vote, and how that person is designated by the property’s other owners, in the newly established Boone Lake Shores Dam Management District will be the topic of a hearing set for 7:15 p.m. Monday at Metcalf Middle School.

The hearing, part of the Town Council’s regular July meeting being held in the school cafeteria on 30 Nooseneck Hill Rd. (Route 3) to accommodate more participants, is about a change in the ordinance creating the management district.

Owners of dams are required to maintain and inspect them.

The state has deemed Boone Lake’s structure, known as State Dam No. 219, a high-hazard dam, meaning its failure would bring a probable loss of human life. (The designation has nothing to do with the dam’s structural integrity.) Under new state regulations adopted in December, high-hazard dams must be inspected every two years.

The dam management district, formed by town ordinance last December, has taxing authority much like that of the fire district, which bills and collects taxes to operate and equip the town’s two fire companies, rescue company, emergency dispatchers and administrators. Property owners around Boone Lake will tax themselves to repair and maintain the dam and manage the district.

Before the management district can have its inaugural meeting, the board of directors appointed by the Town Council has proposed a change in how voters at annual meetings will be designated.

Under the ordinance, each parcel is entitled to one vote. Connected parcels with the same owners that are used as one site are treated together as one parcel for voting on management district matters.

If more than one person owns any such parcel, the owners are to designate one eligible voter and one “alternate eligible” voter.

What the board wants to change is a requirement that the eligible voter and alternate eligible voter bring written proof to each meeting that they are the designated voter chosen by the other owners.

“The intent of the provision was to require the owners present at a meeting to decide among themselves who would cast the vote on behalf of all,” says an explanation of the proposed change, “not to prevent those in attendance from voting simply because they have failed to bring along with them written authorizations from the owners who do not or cannot attend.”

The proposed change would read: “The owner of any such parcel shall be the Eligible Voter entitled to cast such vote; but if there is more than one owner of any such parcel, the owners thereof present at any meeting shall jointly designate one such owner as the Eligible Voter entitled to cast the vote on behalf of all owners.”

If an alternate is designated, “a written record of such designation will be filed by the Board of Directors and remain in force … until modified or amended by subsequent designations,” the proposed revision says.

For more about the Boone Lake community, visit www.boonelake.org/

For more about the dam management district, visit www.boonelakedam.com/

To view the state’s safety regulations, visit www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/compinsp/index.htm and choose the regulations from the boxed list at the left.

dnaylor@projo.com