Round 1 in books
Overtime thriller
Winners emerge in the opening of the Lake Region’s Got Talent contest
Inside News Calendar . . . . . . . . . 10A
Lake Region pushes secondseed Morse to the limit before falling on a last second shot
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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 145, No. 8
24 PAGES - 2 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
February 20, 2014
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 7B
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Mercer to lead local Chamber By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Sue Mercer just wanted to stay busy last September, when she took a job as office manager of the Greater Bridgton Chamber of Commerce. Little did she know that six months later, she’d not only be managing the office, she’d be running it. Mercer has been chosen to become the chamber’s new Executive Director. She replaces Barbara Clark, who resigned after eight months on the job. “When I started with the chamber, I loved it,” Mercer, 58, said Tuesday. She and her husband, Ed Mercer, bought a second home in Naples in 2005 and became full-time residents in 2010. They relocated from Danvers, Mass., where they began a professional photography business, Mercer Photography, in 1979. “We’ve been in business for 35 years and we must have done something right, because
SUE MERCER has been named the Chamber’s executive director. we’ve got a lot of repeat customers,” said Mercer. The advent of digital photography, “with everybody thinking they’re a photographer,” lessened demand for their business, she said. Even though they maintain a studio in Danvers and offer online MERCER, Page 11A
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Around 25 Bridgton residents turned out at the Bridgton Community Center Feb. 12 to give guidance to engineers designing a major makeover of Upper Depot Street. The project is scheduled to be ready for construction by early June, but it may be delayed until after the busy summer tourist season passes. The project, to be funded with around $100,000 in Community Development Block Grant money, calls for a complete “full-depth, box-cut reconstruction” of the street, with several new sewer and water line con-
nections, from the intersection of Main Street to the bridge that crosses over Corn Shop Brook. New sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, benches and possibly on-street parking will be provided, as outlined by three representatives from the Portland engineering and landscape architectural firm of Milone & MacBroom. The wide-ranging discussion covered many topics, including whether more onstreet parking is needed and whether Depot Street should have its own “look” or follow the design of Main Street. Infrastructure Project Manager Dustin Roma said a culvert would DESIGN, Page 12A
Depot Street design unveiled
This year’s Maine Lakes Winter Carnival (cleverly sandwiched in between snowstorms) was happy, bustling, and very well attended. Everything went off without a hitch and the “Freezing for a Reason” participants were treated to sunshine and above zero temperatures — a rarity this winter (middle left photo of Harvest Hills Executive Director Joan McBurnie and Harvey and bottom photo of Fryeburg Vet Hospital jumpers by Sue Rivet). All of the perennial favorites were there: horse-drawn wagon rides, the junior fishing derby (photo middle right is Larry Scholz and Robert Stewart) , sled dog rides on Highland Lake (Photos by Ed Mercer), snowmobile rides by the Bridgton Easy Riders, and many food vendors offering a delicious variety of good “eats.” Charlie Lopresti from Channel 13 News & Weather dropped by, but had to leave after a brief visit “to go forecast a blizzard.”
Comp Plan calls for six districts
Mailboxes, plows — A bad mix By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — If mailboxes threw a party, they would not invite a plow truck. If a plow truck did come to the party anyways, all the mailboxes would clear the floor as soon as the plow truck started dancing. As is evident during extremely snowy winters, a mailbox doesn’t fare well dur-
ing a close encounter with a plow truck. The catch-22 is that mailboxes need to be close enough to the road for postal drivers to have access to them. That proximity to the road puts the mailbox in the path of the wing plow on most snowremoval trucks. However, with mailboxes costing between $20 and $100, according to the pric-
es posted on Lowe’s Home Improvement, it is not a party for anyone to replace one. Recently, a Casco resident expressed his dismay that his mailbox had been destroyed by a plow truck. Mike London brought his grievance to the Casco Board of Selectman earlier this winter. London said the plow crew had torn down his mailbox,
which he said was located a few hundred feet back from the road. He said he resides on Tenney Hill Road. He said he called the offices of the town’s contractor for wintertime road maintenance. That is R.N. Willey and Sons Excavation. “If I would have gotten a ‘sorry,’ I wouldn’t bother,” he BAD MIX, Page A
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — After using the personal computers for a few years, the Casco Board of Selectmen realized that the iPads were not adept for the job. So, the PCs got the boot. The board voted unanimously to do away with the iPads and purchase a Microsoft Tablet. The original purpose of
the iPad purchase was so that the board could be able to share information regarding agenda items without requiring reams of paper. Relying on documents that appear on a computer screen allowed the board to scrap the paper, and save the staff time once spent making copies. However, the small PCs have been more of a bane than a boon. “We have been using the
iPads for a while. We are having problems sending information from one place to another,” Town Manager Dave Morton said. “The trouble is with formatting documents and posting them. The Apple software won’t open the Microsoft documents,” Morton said, adding that the board also lost the expertise of the iPad computer technician. During public participation
time, an audience questioned whether or not the purchase of PCs for the board’s use would be an ongoing expense to the town. “Is this the obsolete factor or can we get away with it (continuing to use them) for now,” she said. “You need to establish as a town, that this is not ,an extravagance,” the woman said. iPADS, Page A
Casco board gives iPads the boot
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Cautiously, methodically, after over two years of meetings, members of Bridgton’s Comprehensive Plan Committee have prepared the first draft of a chapter they hope voters will buy into this November. It’s Chapter 5, titled Land Use Regulations, otherwise known as zoning. Its draft language states that the 2004 Plan created the framework for townwide zoning — and now, with the 2014 Plan, its time to implement that zoning. Anne Krieg, Bridgton’s director of planning, economic and community development, appeared before the Bridgton Planning Board last month to encourage its members to study what the committee is proposing; namely, the creation of six defined zoning districts, as follows: • Downtown Village Business District • Village Residential Neighborhood Areas • Inner Corridor Areas
• Outer Corridor Areas • Lakeside Neighborhood Areas • Rural Village Neighborhood Areas “We’re adding zoning to the town, so it’s important to get feedback from you,” Krieg told the board. After the board has studied the draft, Krieg said she would like to see both the board and the committee hold a joint meeting to discuss its proposals in more detail. Public workshops on the updated Plan are planned for March, after which the CPC will make its initial presentation to the Board of Selectmen in April. More fine-tuning will follow before the CPC will be ready to hold its own formal public hearing on the Plan on June 9. That hearing will be followed by another hearing, held by selectmen, on July 22, with a second public hearing on Sept. 23 just before the Nov. 4 vote on the Plan. Krieg said the state review of comprehensive plans “is very stringent” in requiring PLAN, Page 12A
The Bridgton News Established 1870
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