BELGRADE LAKES -- The Belgrade Lakes Association made the initial payment recently on two properties that will give boaters water access to the village.

This is a big first step in the campaign to purchase and renovate a Main Street building that houses the post office plus a vacant lot down the road.

The properties are on Mill Stream between Great Pond and Long Pond.

Gail Rizzo, spokeswoman for the association, said Docks to Doorways is a privately funded, community-led campaign aimed at enriching community life by providing:

* public access to the docks behind the post office;

* downtown community space for events, seasonal retail and realization;

* continued mail boat service; and

* resources devoted to ensuring both water quality and watershed integrity.

Rizzo said the association has a signed agreement with the property owners.

"The buildings are sale pending," she said. "We have one year to raise the rest of the money."

She said the Docks to Doorways Committee of her, Dick Grenan, Scott Finlay and Kathy Lowell got the campaign rolling, but at this point a larger committee is needed to raise the rest of the funds.

"We cannot do it alone," she said. "We need your help. We have to raise the rest of the money as soon as possible."

She said the association needs financial help as well as ideas and enthusiasm. She invites people to help with the campaign.

Lowell, who co-chairs the committee with Rizzo, said the campaigning started out without a big donation.

But committee members have solicited funds door-to-door, at the village farmers' market, and from the Great Pond mail boat.

"Everyone has been working together to make this happen including the property owners, which I get excited about," Lowell said. "This is truly a community effort."

The owner of the Main Street building where the post office is located put the property up for sale and built the fence to blunt liability from public use of the docks.

A summer resident from Naples, Fla., eventually bought the building and intended to tear down the fence and reopen the docks, but his plan fell through.

Rizzo said people can donate to the nonprofit for the campaign at www.belgradelakesassociation.com or Belgrade Lakes Association, P.O. Box 511, Belgrade Lakes, ME 04918.