Town officials in Greenville are urging visitors to stay off Moosehead Lake if they're traveling to the region to view the upcoming total eclipse.
Greenville Town Manager Mike Roy says the conditions on the lake vary.
"It's a wide-open space and it looks like a field right now, because it's covered with snow. And you know, we're projected at 30,000 people, and if we have 3,000 out there on the ice in one area and then it collapses, that's a huge concern for us," he says.
Roy says the Maine Forest Service will have a helicopter in Greenville. The Game Wardens will have an airboat in town in case of any accidents on the ice.
Roy says he's worried about where visitors will park. The eclipse may attract three times as many visitors as Greenville typically sees on the busiest weekend of the year, during the International Sea Plane Fly In.
Still, he says the town is excited to welcome visitors.
"It's mud season up here in Greenville, and you know there's not much going on. So it's great for the businesses to have this little boom after the quiet winter that we had. And I say quiet only because of the lack of snow," Roy says.
He says as many 150 planes may fly into the municipal airport on April 8, including a commuter airline that's offering passengers a flight from coastal Maine to Greenville to view the eclipse, with a lobster dinner included.
School is closed on April 8 in Greenville, as it is for many towns in the path of totality.
