On the Ballot Profiles of Sebago races; three candidates for Bridgton Planning Board Pages 2A-3A
Tragic week
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Sebago man killed in motorcycle crash; fire destroys Bridgton home
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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 150, No. 21
18 PAGES - 2 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
May 27, 2021
www.bridgton.com
(USPS 065-020)
95¢
Solar farm layout shifts; Living Center concerns aired
EYE-PLEASING PLACEMATS — The Needle Charmers quilting group donated placemats to the Casco-Naples Senior Meals program to distribute to residents who pick up meals. From left, quilter Barbara Brown, Casco Parks & Recreation Director Beth Latsey and quilter Bonnie Wetmore pose with the placemats earlier this month. (De Busk Photo)
Needle Charmers
Quilting their way into other’s hearts
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — The dozen women who belong to Needle Charmers have an appetite for life. The local quilting group donated placemats to the Casco-Naples Senior Meals program. The colorful placemats were handed out during the drivethrough meal time in midMay. The quilting members like to stay busy and have a focused purpose that ties them to the community. These quilters have a zest for life. Now, the Needle Charmers are multi-tasking. They are simultaneously working on two projects: Quilts for the victims of home fires, and also a quilt to donate to the Quilts of Valor foundation, which presents hand-made quilts to veterans. Quilter Bonnie Wetmore, who is a former third and fourth grade teacher at Songo Locks School, talked about the placemat project and what the group did to keep on quilting during the pandemic. “The group took on a project to make placemats for local entities that supply meals to seniors,” Wetmore said. “Everyone
PICNIC OF PLACEMATS — An area quilting group, the Needle Charmers created various designs for placemats that were donated to the Casco-Naples Senior Meals program in May. (De Busk Photo) made a placemat of their own design, and it was fun to see how many different designs the group completed. We ended up making around 60 placemats.” “We wanted to do something for the senior citizens,” Wetmore said.
On May 6, those placemats were given to the Casco Parks and Recreation Director Beth Latsey for the senior meal program. Since COVID restrictions, the in-person meal program morphed into a
drive-through set up. So, the seniors get meals but not as much socializing. A couple weeks ago, the placemats were handed out along with the food. “My impression was that they loved them,” Latsey said. “They were happy. They like anything. They are so lonely.” She had enjoyed seeing the array of designs and colors used for the placemats. Her personal favorite had bright colors: cobalt blues, turquoise and reds, Latsey said. “The Needle Charmers are a group of women who love quilting,” Wetmore said. “We have 12 active members right now. We would like to have more. We are doing all this activity and trying to get it out so other people see it and want to join.” The quilting group has existed for a long time and was formerly known as Vi’s Quilters. It has been called the Needle Charmers for the past four or five years. Group members hail from the towns of Windham, Raymond, Casco, Naples, Otisfield and Standish. The group meets at 2 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursday of the month at different sites in NEEDLE, Page 6A
Naples keeps outdoor seating
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — The lifting of Maine’s mandatory mask law and capacity restrictions has put a lot on the plate of the selectmen when it comes to outdoors seating at this town’s restaurants. After hearing from the owners of several restaurants, the Naples Board of Selectmen decided to keep picnic tables, patios and decks in place for this summer. That’s because the public is still wary, and also a future outbreak of COVID19 or a more contagious variant is still uncertain. The resolution does not allow the seating capacity to
change. Whatever number of people is allowed inside the building will be split between indoors and outdoors seating. Last year, the selectmen passed a resolution allowing restaurants to have outdoors seating to capture what space for customers had been lost indoors due to social distancing requirements. Some of these outdoors seating arrangements caused a conflict with the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. However, since it was a temporary fix to an unexpected problem, the selectmen agreed to the allowances. On Monday, that resolu-
tion adopted by the selectmen in 2020 expired because of the changes in Gov. Janet Mills executive order. On May 14, the Mills administration announced the upcoming changes, according to the State of Maine website. As of this Monday, people who are fully vaccinated are allowed to go maskless. The stateof-emergency is still in effect. The rules requiring social distancing have ended. People who have been vaccinated no longer have to wear a mask in public places. The exception to the mask rule is that facecoverings must be worn at hospitals, medical centers,
and doctors’ and dentists’ offices, the website said. On the very day that the no-mask ruling began, the selectmen and the owners of eating establishments in Naples discussed what to do before the tourist season goes full force. Most business-owners said the public is opting to sit outdoors and that people want to feel safe before returning to ‘normal lifestyles.’ What business owners want Darryl Murray, the owner of Freedom Cafe, reiterated that this was the first day of the new mask-free declaration. SEATING, Page 5A
By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer It seems these days for the Bridgton Planning Board, a public hearing rarely lasts just one night. Public interest in a proposed solar farm and a senior living center, both off North High Street, resulted in numerous questions to applicants via Monday’s Zoom meeting. Engineer David Albrecht informed planners that the North High solar farm plan had received a significant change when developers were notified that a potential vernal pool did not exist, thus enabling them to “slide” the array “quite a bit” to the south. The move, Albrecht noted, achieved several positive results: 1. The array is now 356 feet from the northwest property line; and even greater distance to neighboring homes. 2. Reduce the length of the access road. The road will be outside the fence line, enabling better fire department access to the site. Before, the road was inside the fence. 3. Equipment area moved to south about same distance. 4. The change results in the elimination of four to five utility poles. The plan calls for a fenced area of about 18.82 acres, and 19.98 acres will be cleared. “We felt this was a really good change — typography better (slope face due south, not as south western, place racking closer together/north slope farther apart), further away from neighbors, cost savings, roadway outside of fence area for fire protection,” Albrecht said. Planner Ken Gibbs asked what the grade of the access road would be? Albrecht said the range is 1 to 10%. The engineer addressed questions raised by abutters regarding noise levels. By sliding the farm plan more south, Albrecht said a noise study showed that the project “won’t add noise at all, it will be below ambient levels.” Some homes will be 1,100 to 1,758 feet from the solar farm. Because sound is a major concern of abutters, Planner Greg Watkins asked whether measures could be taken to mitigate noise. In nine years working on solar projects, Albrecht said just two cases surfaced which fencing or a cinder block barrier were used to mitigate noise, and in these cases, the abutters were 100 feet from the property line. Planning Board chairwoman Deb Brusini recently stopped at a solar array off Route 26 in Oxford (Albrecht noted that array was one of his company’s projects, and is a “little larger” than the Bridgton proposal). “It was quiet, I couldn’t hear anything,” Brusini noted. “It’s a different situation, there’s more background noise. I’d say the inverters were 500 feet away.”
Resident Ken Ainsley of White Mountain Way voiced his concerns regarding fire protection. He noted a recent forest fire in Brownfield, which burned 12 acres and “wasn’t discovered until a private pilot saw smoke.” While he appreciated the changes in the plan, Ainsley is concerned that the access road does not surround the facility, it only extends along the west side of the array halfway. He also questioned why the roadway was trimmed to 14-foot width, not 20 as the standard calls for. Brusini noted that the Fire Chief has the authority to approve a lesser width or call for additional requirements. “I take all these projects seriously and make best recommendations,” Frie Chief Tom Harriman said. Chief Harriman clarified the Brownfield fire situation, noting that he responded to that call. The fire was first reported by Brownfield’s Fire Chief, who smelled smoke and figured where it was coming from. Yes, a pilot did notice smoke and the “Fire Chief got in the air, located the exact location,” Harriman noted. Response to the blaze using “4-by-4 apparatus” was quick, and by the time Harriman arrived at the scene, the forest ranger reported that it was “pretty much taken care.” “Every fire is different. The fuel situation is different. A brook area was used as a water source,” Harriman said. “The Fire Department wants the grass clipped around the solar panels to eliminate a fuel source, and have a sand buffer near fence.” While Harriman strives to stick to the national fire code that calls for 20-foot width roads, sometimes due to various circumstances, that standard can’t be met. “I always try to suggest it. Working with the developer, the situation needed to narrow to 14 feet in a certain area. They agreed to create pull off areas, which make it palatable to me,” Harriman said. “Some intown roads measure 18 feet wide. If you get dump trucks up there to make the road, we’re able to get fire trucks up there.” Harriman added that safety is always the top concern regarding any project or development. “But, you can’t always be 100%. I feel the developer made our recommendations as close as possible. This is not a housing development, where people could be hanging out of a window because of a fire. It’s not dynamite factory. Solar farms historically don’t cause fires,” he said. “Where abutters live, at the top of mountain ridges, are dangerous places to live. We love our views, and we build in places that probably we shouldn’t because it can be challenging fire suppression.” If a fire did start in the solar farm area, Harriman PLANNERS, Page 3A
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