Farewell tea Chickadee quilters say good-bye to longtime fellow stitcher & friend, Pat Glover Page 7A
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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 150, No. 16
20 PAGES - 2 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
April 18, 2019
Area events . . . . . . . . 6A
www.bridgton.com
(USPS 065-020)
95¢
Towns: Let off the gas pedal
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — Ask any town manager, public works director or law enforcement officer and they will probably say that people driving too fast is a problem in their town. Everybody who gets behind a wheel drives too fast or faster than the speed limit at some time. Some people are chronic speeders. It tends to be nationwide problem, and not limited to Maine’s roads. Still, it’s no surprise that during the same week, boards of selectmen in two towns talked about the
speeding issue. In Casco, there was new data collected on speeds being driven on Route 11, especially near the junction of Route 121, where the orange blinking light is in position across the road at Pike’s Corner. Casco Town Manager Dave Morton recently made the data public. The information was gathered by the digital road sign that sits on a trailer. The drivers coming from the Casco-Poland direction were typically driving faster than the drivers coming from the opposite direction, from the Casco-Naples line, he said. Perhaps, the section
of road between Quaker Ridge and Route 121, in front of the cemetery, is in such poor shape that drivers are forced to slow down before getting to the intersection, Morton said. Selectman Grant Plummer said that too often drivers do not know who has the right-of-way. This increases as tourists arrive in town, Plummer said. A four-way stop is what is being recommended by the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), Morton said. With a four-way stop, drivers know what to do. Additionally, such a setup would reduce speeding.
Since drivers are approaching a stop sign, they must slow down. In the Town of Naples, residents have asked about roads with no speed limit sign. How fast are you supposed to go? For paved roads, if there is no sign for the speed limit, it automatically becomes a 45-mph road. According to Naples Town Manager John Hawley, some residents have asked about roads with no speed limit signs. The town plans to ask the MDOT to review some of these roads to recommend what the speed limit should be.
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer HARRISON — The towns of Harrison, Raymond and Casco hold their secret ballot elections on June 11, the second Tuesday of June. Only the Town of Naples holds its spring election earlier, on May 21 — the same date as the school vote. The Town of Harrison will have a total of five ballot questions on Election Day (June 11). The majority of the questions on the Harrison ballot falls under the category of ordinances. Being proposed are: Question No. 1, a Mass Gathering Ordinance; Question No. 2, a Subdivision Ordinance; and Question No. 4, a Building Code Ordinance.
The latter, the Building Code Ordinance, will bring the town in line with state law, the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC). Question No. 3 asks residents if the Shoreland Zoning map should be amended. Then, Harrison residents will get to decide how they’ll vote in the future. Question No. 5 asks if residents would prefer to “vote on all warrant articles by secret ballot at the 2020 annual town meeting?” There is an explanation for this ballot question: “With a declining number of people attending town meeting, by going to a secret ballot for all warrant articles, more people would have the opportunity to vote on the budget articles.
Absentee voting would be available.” In the Town of Harrison, there is one seat open on the board of selectmen. Incumbent Raymond J. Laplante is running. The Harrison Planning Board has three openings and two candidates: Colleen Densmore and Brian Spaulding. There is room for a write-in. Incumbent Lisa Villa will be on the ballot for the one Zoning Board of Appeals position. That is a five-year term. It seems like the same people have a tendency to become involved and to stay involved with municipal boards and committees. Familiar names will be on the
ballot this spring. In Naples, expect to see the names of incumbent Bob Caron II and challenger John Nostin on the ballot under the board of selectmen race. This year, there is only one seat open on the board of selectmen. Four people are vying for the two seats on the Naples Planning Board. Incumbents James “Jimmy” Allen and John Thompson are running against challengers Caleb Humphrey and Bob Nyberg. Both Humphrey and Nyberg have served on the Naples Budget Committee. “No one took out papers for the Transfer Station Council or the budget committee,” according to Naples ELECTIONS, Page 3A
MISSING FAMILY HEIRLOOM, a personally engraved Confederate sharpshooter’s rifle, which Liam Opie of Bridgton hopes to locate.
Where is it? Town elections around corner Solving the
Relax the law, good or bad?
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — The Town of Naples could petition the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to relax the shoreland rules for businesses and residences on the Causeway. It is likely that will be the direction in which the town will move — at the prompting of the locally-elected officials. After all, as time goes on, the environmental protection agency might be less likely to make the changes. “We should strike while the iron is hot. There is no downside to changing the ordinance,” Naples Chairman Jim Grattelo said. Relaxing these laws would mean that less square footage is required for a business to add another allowable use to its list of services or to increase parking spaces on a lot. Those properties that have the most undeveloped square footage would benefit the most from relaxed Shoreland Zoning laws. Those are G.C. Cramer’s Jewelers and Naples Causeway Development, LLC, which is owned by Dick Dyke. Now, if the town were to install a public sewer system, the Shoreland Zoning rules could become even less restrictive. Recently, the Town of Naples contracted Mike Morse, of Morse Environmental Consulting, to figure out what businesses and residences exist on the CAUSEWAY, Page 2A
THE MERRIAMS pictured from left to right: Sam, Steve, Fremont and Seth.
40-year legacy
Docks, all in the family
NAPLES — It was the summer of 1977, when Fremont and Norma Merriam packed their belongings and loaded their seven children in a van to move from York to Naples. Summer vacations on the lake beckoned them to a lifestyle surrounded by water. Fremont was a builder and engineer, who came to Naples to expand his franchise of Vermont Log Homes, where he established the business “Merriam & Sons.” He dreamed that one day he would be able to work with his five boys in the business he started. Quickly, he became the premier builder in the Lake Region, and rapid growth of his business created a demand for hardware. With nothing around in the late 70s, he opened his own hardware store near the Naples Causeway. Many of his customers on the lake asked him
to build docks. In the late 70s, Maine only permitted temporary seasonal docks. Most of what you saw back then was homemade timbers with rocks piled up on them. There just was no good seasonal dock system at the time suited for the rough waters of Sebago and Long Lakes. So, Fremont designed his own dock system, and out of the side of the hardware store in a two-bay garage that served his construction
business, he hired a welder and set to work building dock hardware. In 1979, he opened Outdoor Living Products, which built docks, sheds and Adirondack-style furniture. As years turned to decades, the economy dipped, the building market stalled, and everything slowed except for the dock business. So, in 1985, Freemont changed the sign over the door to “Great MERRIAMS, Page 2A
musket mystery
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer Liam Opie realizes that recovering a family heirloom — a Confederate marksman’s musket — stolen in 1972 from a library exhibit, is like finding a needle in a haystack. But, he figures it is worth a try. The musket was last in the hands of Liam’s great-greatgreat uncle, Lewis Lyman Keen, born in Waterford in 1883. He lived in Bridgton, and graduated from Bridgton High School in 1902 or 1903. He grew up on a farm in Waterford, near the section of Temple Hill and Mill Hill. The farm was purchased after the Civil War by Lewis’ father, William Keen. “My Uncle Louie kept it (the musket) under his bed to keep it safe,” Liam said. When Lewis died, the musket was inherited by Liam’s grandmother. In May 1972, the musket was loaned to the Bridgton Public Library to be part of an exhibit. Then, it disappeared. According to a story appearing in The News, police found no “visible forced entry” into the library. One theory was the culprit remained inside the library after closing time, and later walked out of the facility with musket in hand. “There were no real leads or fingerprints,” Liam said. “Our family has been clueless as to where it could be now; who could have taken it; we have no personal grievances with anyone who may have taken it; we want it to be known that if someone locally, across the state or nation has it, we’re not interested how they got it, and not interested in pressing charges; we just want it back into our family’s hands.” It’s a unique musket in design and it has specific engravings. “I do believe I have a higher chance of finding it than say some standard issued Springfield musket that any other soldier would have received. Because of the design and initials engraved on its polished stock (on another page of Uncle Louie’s notes, the GA could also be IA), if someone has this musket, we have photographic evidence what the musket looks like, there should be no mixing it up,” Liam said. “I do have a little hope.” The family is willing to offer “reasonable compensation” for the musket’s return. “We don’t know who originally took it. If someone paid a decent amount of money for it, we can understand they have this beautiful musket that is an investment,” Liam added. “It was an extremely sad and disheartening loss for my family, as my Uncle Louie had cherished this musket along with his brothers and his father, who had served in the Civil War himself.” Why is the young Liam (a high school senior) trying to play family sleuth? Late last year, Liam took a major interest in honoring the Civil War soldiers buried in the Middle Ridge Cemetery by placing a monument there. He researched each soldier’s past, and in doing so, he reconnected with his own lineage. Like his Uncle Louie, Liam has long had a fascination with the Civil War era. “Two events seemed to spark my interest in history. When I was five or six, my brother was watching ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and I sat next to him. The infamous storming of the beach — a very sad scene, but I looked on in fascination and respect. Here were these men going above and beyond the call of duty. I had a lot of respect for these veterans. I quickly realized that this just wasn’t the movies, that there were real men who had experienced this and were alive today and can tell their stories. That got me started in my interest in the military,” he said. “As for family history, I was in kindergarten and my father decided to explain to me our family heritage. On my father’s side, he was born in Virginia. Through my lineage, I’m the fifth great-nephew MISSING, Page 3A
The Bridgton News Established 1870
P.O. Box 244, 118 Main St. Bridgton, ME 04009 207-647-2851 Fax: 207-647-5001 bnews@roadrunner.com