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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 147, No. 25
32 PAGES - 4 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
June 23, 2016
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 5D
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Democracy: Alive & well here By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer You’ve got to admire Bridgton voters: they demand detailed explanations for every penny they spend. It took the 125 Town Meeting voters three and a half hours to get through 41 warrant articles — even after voting to take 20 annual housekeeping articles as a block. In the end, after extensive debates on around a dozen issues, voters agreed with most of the town’s recommendations — with one significant exception: they rejected a $350,000 spending package to buy and develop a new Welcome Center on Nulty Street (see sidebar elsewhere in paper). They
also said “no” to taking over Home Run Road as a townowned road — instead agreeing to provide permanent access to the BRAG fields by improving BRAG Way, the town’s existing right-ofway off Route 302. Strong arguments were made, but ultimately rejected, to reduce or eliminate funding in the following areas: new restrooms and playground at the Salmon Point Campground ($70,000); design funds for the Main Street Streetscape Project ($30,000); interior improvements to Town Hall ($85,000); BRAG maintenance costs ($50,000); and hiring a new full-time police officer ($45,262).
Surprisingly few questions were raised over plans to hire a paid, full-time fire chief. The decision marks the town’s official transition to a paid fire department, although the stipend system for volunteer firefighters and deputy chiefs will remain in place. In a related matter, Fire Chief Glen Garland noted that a study will begin soon to research the location and condition of all dry hydrants in town. New patrol officer “There’s only eight of us, including me,” Police Chief Richard Stillman said, after Selectman Paul Hoyt moved to cut the new patrol officer position from the Public Safety account. The town’s
5,200-person population swells to 10,000-15,000 during the 12-week summer season, Stillman said, and he pointed out that the town hasn’t hired a new police officer for 30 years. Selectman Ken Murphy said Bridgton is the fastest-growing town in Cumberland County, “and if you don’t know that, the bell is going to ring soon.” The new position will eliminate the need to pay patrol officers overtime in order to cover all shifts, Selectman Greg Watkins pointed out. “Also, you’re looking at safety,” he said. Some criticisms were made that the warrant didn’t show a year-to-year compariBRIDGTON, Page 5A
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Bridgton Selectmen were shown a conceptual plan June 14 for a new downtown Welcome Center with adult education classrooms, but the next night, Town Meeting voters resoundingly rejected spending any money on the plan. Selectmen were themselves a bit taken aback by the $1.2 million estimated cost for a complete makeover of the 4 Nulty Street building, now occupied by the Depot Street Redemption Center. Maureen Westrick of Sustainable Architecture was hired by the town to come up with a conceptual plan, and based her estimate on preliminary structural and environmental studies done on the 1940s building. Town Meeting voters
were asked to spend a total of $345,000 on the project, which would include $190,000 to buy the building and land, as well as a parking lot across the street. Selectmen had budgeted an additional $150,000 in renovation costs, which didn’t even come close to Westrick’s $1.2 million estimate. Westrick told selectmen that her estimate was on the high side, but that the cost might actually be much lower. Her idea was to replace the building with new steel frame construction, using the existing system as a curtain wall. “Or, you could also decide that (the building has) used its life, and start over,” she said. “There’s a lot of possibilities that can be done here.” Not only would it provide much-needed public restrooms for the downtown, but the Welcome Center could serve as a stopover for tour
buses. Selectman Bob McHatton expressed regret at the short seven-week time frame for consideration of the plans. “It’s too bad we didn’t have more time to work on this,” he said. Chairman Bernie King didn’t mince words. “I don’t share the vision that other staff have — I just don’t see it.” The voters speak As Town Meeting Moderator Richard Dailey began reading the budget warrant articles, newly-elected Selectman Glen “Bear” Zaidman asked that the two spending articles related to the Welcome Center (along with the Home Run Road question) be taken up first, instead of at the end of the warrant. Voters agreed. Zaidman said there were too many unanswered ques-
tions about the project. The town hasn’t fully researched what the final costs would be, he said, or whether tour buses could even make the turn from Main onto Nulty Street, given the existing turning radius. McHatton said the Community Development Committee recommended developing a tour bus stop, and the board asked Town Manager Bob Peabody to look into it. Peabody turned it over to Planning Director Anne Krieg, who worked with Westrick on the plans. “One of the responsibilities of the Board of Selectmen is to look at the possibilities” to move forward on ideas that have been bandied about for years, such as restrooms for the downtown, Peabody said. But residents weren’t buying it. WELCOME, Page 3A
Thumbs down to ‘Welcome’ idea
A HELPFUL HAND — Employees Richard Welch and Joe Vaughn toss household trash into the bin on a Wednesday in June. The Brownfield Transfer Station received the Most Improved Transfer Site Award from the Maine Resource Recovery Station recently. (De Busk Photo)
Improvements lead to award
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer BROWNFIELD — For those people who remember the service provided at American gasoline stations in the 1930s through the early 1960s, the Brownfield Transfer Station is similar to that. People drive up in their vehicles. The crew at the Brownfield Transfer Station greets them, and happily takes their bags of trash and recyclable items. In the course of about a year, numerous upgrades have been made to the site. “We made improvements for the safety of the town employees and the public,” Public Works Director Frank Day said. “The biggest change is recycling,” he said. “We went to single-sort. It is easier for the public. It is easier for us,” Day said. “When we went to single-sort, the amount of recycling went up.” Transfer site employee Richard Welch agreed. STATION, Page 8A
Casco backs bond
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO – Residents of Casco will see construction equipment descend upon several roads, and they will see a noticeable increase in their annual tax bill. The majority of voters at Casco Town Meeting on June 15 approved a $2.5 million bond that will fund infrastructure improvements such as the replacement of the Pleasant Lake-Parker Pond Dam and also major renovations on five roads. With the bond money, the roads that will be improved are: Edwards Road — which leads to the public beach on Crescent Lake, and Johnson Hill, Cooks Mills, Tenney Hill and Point Sebago roads. The first two roads on the list will receive extensive repairs while the other three will have the worst sections repaired. The repairs entail grinding the asphalt on portions, re-ditching the culverts, repaving and striping. According to Casco Town Manager Dave Morton, if the infrastructure bond had not passed it would have taken about eight years to wrap up construction on those roads. The passage of the bond — along with the approval of a land purchase for $440,000 — will increase the tax rate. The approved bonds will impact the tax rate with an increase of 48 cents or $72 per $150,000 valuation. Residents receive their tax bills bi-annually in the sumBOND, Page 6A
Worry about Kezar effect
CELEBRATING THE GRAND OPENING of the newly renovated Bridgton Hospital Emergency Department waiting room were: second row from left to right: Sue Mercer, Executive Director GBLRCC, John Ludwig, VP, David Frum, President & CEO of Bridgton and Rumford Hospitals, Board members: Phyllis Ginzler, Susan Cole, Phil Morissette, Phil Libby, Chairman, Bill Chalmers, Board Member, Peter Chalke, President and CEO of Central Maine Healthcare (CMH), Doug Collins, M.D., Jill Rollins, Director of Nursing.
Rebuilt hospital ER waiting room creates comforting setting By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer A trip to the emergency room is never a welcomed moment, but Bridgton Hospital is hopeful recent renovations to the waiting room will make one’s experience a little more comforting. The newly-designed and expanded waiting room area is officially open, and is certainly a welcomed improvement. Hospital and staff celebrated the project’s completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony two weeks ago. The hospital (built in
2002) was designed after a series of hospitals built out West by Intermountain Healthcare to be able to consolidate spaces to make them more functional for the overlap of departments. “So in turn, at the time, it was the right size, what we needed. But, because of additional volumes, we outgrew the Emergency Room waiting room pretty quick,” Bridgton Hospital Vice President John Ludwig said. “When they did the design, the space allocation was very much focused on
the ‘real’ patient areas. Office space wasn’t the priority. These other ancillary areas weren’t considered the priority,” BH Director of Nursing Jill Rollins added. The original waiting room space underwent a minor renovation in 2006. A bathroom was moved to a different corner creating a better sight line to patients waiting for services and to create more seating space. Ten years later, hospital administration received a letter from a wheelchair-bound patient who felt the waiting
room lacked adequate space. “She told us that the current configuration of the Emergency Room waiting room forced her to sit in the middle of the space, and she WAITING, Page 7A
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Recent comments sent to the U.S. Forest Service about their planned logging operation in the Maine portion of the White Mountain National Forest have been overwhelmingly negative, with many people reflecting grave concerns about the impact the forest management plan will have on the 56-square-mile Kezar Lake watershed. “I hope you will strongly consider Alternative 1, which is designated “No Action,” and leave the forest to manage itself,” wrote David Arthur of Lovell about the Albany South Project, which proposes to remove as much as 3,000,000 board-feet of timber from the Kezar Lake watershed, including some areas of old growth trees. “The chance that the logging effort will adversely affect or pollute the Kezar Lake watershed is enough for me to oppose this 100%.” The Kezar Lake Watershed CLIMATE, Page 3A
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