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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870 Vol. 150, No. 17
16 PAGES - 2 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
April 29, 2021
(USPS 065-020)
95¢
Board: Clean up or pay up
Folks: Dam removal bad idea By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Two years ago, Trout Unlimited urged the Town of Naples to support the state’s proposed removal of the remnants of the Edes Falls dam, which some say prohibits some spawning fish from getting upstream. That subject will be brought to the table again in two weeks, giving the town plenty of time to notify abutters living in that area along Crooked River. The dam removal was on the agenda of the Naples Board of Selectmen on Monday night. But, the real public hearing will be held on May 10 when a representative from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will discuss the plan to remove what remains of the Edes Falls dam. Naples resident Ed Cash shared his opinion during the Monday night meeting. “We talked about this dam over Edes Falls. For some reason, I haven’t figured out why, the fish aren’t making it up. Mother Nature did that. There is nothing else we can do,” Cash said. “If it is really about fishing, the state shouldn’t have put the togue in the lake.” He was dead set against the removal of the dam. “The dam needs to stay where it is. It is historical. If the dam fish don’t go up there, they don’t need to go up there. It’s a bunch of garbage,” Cash said. Selectman Jim Turpin pressed him further with some questions. “If they remove the dam, REMOVAL, Page 5A
www.bridgton.com
MANY HANDS MAKE the workload lighter — After two hours of picking up trash, the crew from Main Eco Homes met at the Food City parking lot. On left side of trash pile in the back row are two employees: James Mauck, finish carpenter and Alek Maliski, construction technician. In the front row from left to right are: Finish Technician Dan Baker, Property Manager Steve Richard, Lead Carpenter Rich Cox, HR Administrator Brie Hinman, Project Manager Rob Mochetta, Assistant Project Manager Ed Wolfe, Project Manager Tim Powers, Pre-construction Assistant Chris Perkins, Financial Controller Danielle Davis, Master Technician Kris Evans, Finish Supervisor Rob Dumont, Construction Technician Steve Whitney and Finish Technician Lisa Laflamme. Above left, Master Technician Kris Evans and HR Administrator Brie Hinman; top righ, Tim Powers holds a container that includes discarded syringes found along the roadside. (De Busk Photos and MEH photo)
‘If we don’t care, who will?’
MEH had all hands on deck By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer Mother Nature offered up some wintertime temperatures and even a few snowflakes on Earth Day. But, the weather didn’t deter the crew of employees from Main Eco Homes (MEH) from spending a couple hours outdoors, picking up trash along Route 302. On Thursday morning, about 20 people who work for the Bridgton-based business started the day by making the community look a
little bit nicer. It was spring cleaning outdoors. The MEH team focused on the edges of Portland Road along a two-mile trek. They broke into groups of two and parked MEH vans
in the shoulder while they took to the ditches removing odd items, debris and finding lots of discarded masks. “It was shocking and sad to see how much trash was along the section of the road
— 25 to 30 bags of trash in a 2.5 mile stretch and just a 4-minute drive from Campfire Grille to Food City,” according to MEH owner Justin McIver. “The plan is to do this annually MEH, Page 5A
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer For far too long, Lee Eastman feels the town has taken a “soft” approach when it comes to junkyard violations. “We have to decide as a board to take a real position on this or not,” the Bridgton Board of Selectmen chairman said Tuesday night. “This has been going on for years. We need to put the hammer down and get it right.” The hammer did fall as the Select Board voted 5-0 to support a recommendation by Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Day to levy a $2,500 fine against Richard Danis, who reportedly failed to move a tractor trailer box unit from his 17 Elm Street property after repeated town notices. The Select Board went one step further, subjecting Danis to a $5,000 fine if he fails to comply with the removal order within a two week period. If another two weeks pass without appropriate action, the town will levy another $5,000 fine. Danis was issued a “temporary” permit on Sept. 5, 2019 to place the trailer at his 17 Elm Street property with the understanding the permit expired in November 2019. Code Enforcement Officer Day contacted Danis about removing the trailer and cleaning up the yard, as it allegedly had violated the town’s Junkyard Ordinance. On Nov. 6, 2020, a violation letter was sent, citing “miscellaneous nuisances, which is injurious to property rights and has in fact become BRIDGTON, Page 2A
Finding common ground on music By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — The music schedule didn’t sound good to the neighbors. That’s because the Entertainment Permit did not differentiate between indoors and outdoors music, and the applicant had marked down seven days a week, 12 months out of the year. Therefore, the neighbors had no idea how often music would be playing or what kind of music would be playing. Gabby’s Roadhouse BBQ, located at 1124 Roosevelt Trail near the Naples Fire Station, applied for its entertainment permit. The public hearing was held during the Naples Board
of Selectmen meeting on Monday. Abutters expressed concern over the number of nights that music would be
outdoors until after midnight. It was discovered that the business-owners did not intend to have music every
night. Instead, they planned to hold karaoke nights during the weekends, Friday through Sunday. The karaoke would be on the deck, which faces toward Route 302, and it would end by 11 p.m. Several abutters had concerns that the music would continue until after midnight since the request on the application was to have entertainment until 1 a.m. on weekends. Owner Gabriela Lopes Oliveira said this wasn’t the case. She stressed that her establishment was more focused on being a restaurant than a bar, and the karaoke nights were designed to attract more customers GABBY’S, Page 3A
wouldn’t get the candidates that we did,” Smith told the School Board Monday night. “We’ve hired a majority of our staff, but we still have 15 to 18 positions that will be funded by COVID grants to assist our students.” Smith said those positions will fall under a twoyear grant, thus the positions are advertised being twoyear contracts. However, Smith said some could stay on at SAD 61 beyond that period due to retirements or “other opportunities arise.” A bulk of Monday’s
meeting dealt with hirings, including officially welcoming Carla Gill via Zoom as the district’s new Director of Special Services. Gill replaces Lisa Caron, who after 17 years at the helm is resigning at the conclusion of this school year. “I love my job and this District, but it is time for me to move on and I am waiting to see what opportunity God presents to me,” Caron told The News. Four candidates applied for the position. Smith said a two-round interview process
by a search group ultimately resulted in a unanimous decision to recommend Gill for the director’s job. “I am excited to start with you and support students and staff as the new Special Education Director,” Gill said. Gill is presently the special education administrator/ coordinator at York Middle School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Southern Maine, Lewiston HIRING, Page 5A
NICE OUTSIDE DINING SPOT at Gabby’s Roadhouse BBQ in Naples. (De Busk Photo)
Early hiring work paying off
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer When it comes to hiring new staff, SAD 61 is getting ahead of the curve and finding great success. Superintendent Al Smith offered five prospective employees’ jobs on Tuesday, and all five accepted. Due to retirements and transfers, SAD 61 faced an active recruiting effort. “We’ve been fortunate in this hiring season. I commend our administrative staff for their work because if we had procrastinated, we
To keep readers up to date regarding Covid-19 vaccinations and issues regarding the pandemic, The News holds a Tuesday morning conversation with Bridgton Hospital President Peter Wright. The following is this week’s Q/A session with Mr. Wright: Q. Have you had conversations with individuals who are on the fence or don’t plan to receive the Covid-19 vaccinations, and what were their responses? Wright: What makes this country great is the right to have a diverse opinion. We’re not supposed to just talk to the people who agree with us but talk to the people who don’t so we understand their opinion…I engage anybody in conversation about the vaccine who wants to talk about it. If they are more of a political extremist, it gets complicated because no matter what you say, it isn’t going to resonate. I am interested in why someone won’t wear a mask. “Oh, masks are stupid.” But why? Let’s think of it this way, if you are right and masks are useless, the worst I am asking you to do is inconvenience yourself. If I am right and they actually protect people, then you are going to save someone’s life. The vaccine, we have to remember, that our desire to get 70, 80, 90% vaccination is very aggressive. We have a long history of vaccinations in this country, but a relatively shorter history about opposition to vaccine. When you think about polio, the flu, measles, rubella, we’ve been doing it for such a long time. Then, we had a vaccine that wasn’t properly vetted and it resulted in deaths. That’s when the anti-vax movement started. Since then, there has been a lot of misinformation regarding vaccines, including they cause autism, which every study done has undoubtedly proven not to be the case. Also, in rural areas, there are people who are naturalists. Their philosophy is that they don’t like to put foreign things in their bodies. They believe whatever my body is confronted with, it will COVID UPDATE, Page 2A
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