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Olympian in the mix
Inside News
Pierson Trio at Deertrees; Village Folk Festival preview; Poetry Jam at Denmark Arts
U.S. Ski Team nordic skier Kris Freeman will compete in Great Adventure Challenge
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . 7D
Section B
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Page 1C
Obituaries . . . . . . . . . 6D Opinions . 1D-3D, 5D-7D Police/Court . . . . . 4A-5A Sports . . . . . . . . . 1C-7C Camp News . . . . . . . . 8C Games . . . . . . . . . . . . 5C
Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 146, No. 33
32 PAGES - 4 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
August 13, 2015
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 5D
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Residents fighting propane tank plan By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Raspberry Lane residents are upset over plans for a 30,000-gallon propane tank filling operation at the entrance to their small residential subdivision off the Portland Road. After considering the application at their Aug. 4 meeting, the Bridgton Planning Board tabled the plans until their Sept. 1 meeting. Business partners Todd Perreault and Doug Holt, owners of Bridgton Bottled Gas, 209 Portland Road, have been meeting with the board about their plans since May. They originally wanted approval to place three 30,000-gallon propane tanks on about five acres they own at 4 Raspberry Lane, just to the left of the entrance of the 12-lot subdivision. The partners had earlier received approval to place five 30,000-gallon tanks on the site, but those tanks were never placed, and the approval lapsed. Currently the property has one
3,600-gallon tank on site, located in a fenced-in clearing well back from Raspberry Lane and not visible from the road. Perreault and Holt, in business since 1998, are currently proposing to place one 30,000-gallon tank of liquid propane on the property, using the existing access road on Raspberry Lane. “That one tank will provide quite a bit of propane for the area for quite a few years,” Perreault said. Earlier this year, the board approved plans for Dead River Co. to place a 30,000-gallon tank at its 161 Portland Road distribution facility, despite the opposition of Bridgton Health Care Center across the street. Perreault said he had hoped to change the access to Portland Road, but the Maine Department of Transportation denied that request, citing concerns over adequate site distances for propane delivery trucks. Bridgton Bottled Gas is the area’s largest propane disTANK PLAN, Page 3A
Medical marijuana growing operation ok’d
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Despite concerns expressed by new Police Chief Richard Stillman, the Bridgton Planning Board tentatively approved plans Aug. 4 for part of the old Bridgton Knitting Mill to be used in growing medical marijuana. Canuvo operates a licensed medical marijuana dispensary in Biddeford, and will be using 31,000 square feet of the former mill space on the Portland Road to grow and process pharmaceutical-grade cannabis. The board made the approval conditional on Canuvo’s owner, Glenn Peterson, sitting down with Stillman and Fire Chief Glen CREATING A CLOUD OF BLUE — During Saturday’s Color Run at Lake Region Garland to draft a comprehensive security High School, Samantha Jones created a cloud of blue with chalk as she waited for the plan. The board also wants to see a copy arrival of runners. The run benefitted the Athletic Boosters and Dana Farber Cancer of a letter from the Bridgton Water District Institute. More photos on Page 2C. (Rivet Photo) confirming their willingness to supply one million gallons of water annually to serve the
processing needs of the agricultural operation. In a letter written his first week on the job, Stillman listed his concerns about the cultivation operation as follows: “security of the building, security of staff, diversion, crime reporting, quality of life issues, robbery of cultivation center, delivery drivers, B&E/burglary, drug resales and diversion, including the marijuana infused products and internal theft.” Peterson told the board Aug. 4 that he gave Stillman a copy of “the 160 pages of regulations I live under” as one of eight licensed medical marijuana dispensaries under the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Program. He suggested that Stillman, who was formerly Police Chief in Walpole, Mass., might not be fully up to speed on how much regulatory oversight is required for dispensaries and MARIJUANA, Page 6A
Agreement sparks disagreement By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Abutting neighbors to the property owners who have already signed a consent agreement with the Town of Naples came before the selectmen, asking for a reconsideration of what was referred to as “harsh” and “overly punitive” requests within the consent agreement. According to those neighbors who testified during a 30-minute period, the message was the same to the Naples Board of Selectmen: Please reconsider some portions of the lengthy consent agreement. “We are very disappointed and quite upset on the decision to demand for the Slattery’s (Tim and Kerrie) to remove their
porch and ruin the roof lines of their beautiful house. This porch is a small area of a few hundred square feet of open space on a one-acre piece of property,” neighbor Marty Zartarian said. During the public participation period of the selectmen’s meeting, Zartarian provided a PowerPoint presentation with photographs and maps of the property. He cited an estimate of $80,000 that had been quoted by an unknown contractor for removing the deck, which would require reconstruction on that side of the home. “We just do not understand what you are thinking or where you are coming from,” he said. Likewise, other abutters who testified said they did not understand the logic behind parts of
the consent agreement. Four of the neighbors asked selectmen to let the deck stay. Removing the deck has no benefit to the lake, they said. “We urgently request for you to reconsider the town’s position,” Zartarian said. The board did agree to meet on the matter as soon as this Monday; therefore, an extra meeting was added to the regular bi-monthly meetings to accommodate the matter as well as other items that will be on the agenda. Naples Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak said when the Slattery’s consent agreement is reviewed again by the selectmen, most likely some of the discussion with the town attorney will be in executive session and some
of the discussion will be in open session. Two homeowners on Long Lake, Tim and Kerrie Slattery, appeared before the selectmen during a July 13 meeting. The couple was not present at Monday’s meeting. The consent agreement was signed by the Slattery’s in late July, according to Paraschak. In 2012, the Slattery’s were first given a notice of violation when it was discovered that some trees had been overpruned and some vegetation had been removed. No trees had been cut on the property; instead, a larger percentage of limbs had been pruned than what is allowable by the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. At the time — as pointed out
IMMEDIATELY AFTER CONSTRUCTION, this snapshot shows that vegetation within 100 feet of the Shoreland Zone was removed. The property owners were required to replant shrubbery and ground vegetation to compensate for this Shoreland Zone violation. No trees were removed from the property. However, the limbs on one evergreen were overpruned by nine feet. This Shoreland Zoning infraction was also remedied through replanting. (Photo courtesy of DEP)
Holt Pond Preserve — Worth the trip By Leigh Macmillen Hayes Special to The News I hope you will make time to pass under the hemlocks, beeches and oaks and into the wild and delicate beauty that the Holt Pond Preserve on the Bridgton/Naples town line offers. The preserve was created by Lakes Environmental Association, beginning with an initial purchase of 30 acres in 1971. Today, it encompasses 400 acres, including the 25-acre pond. Holt Pond is one of the last undeveloped water bodies in the Lake Region, making its protection significant. Designed as an outdoor classroom, the preserve is used throughout the year for school programs and many of LEA’s public education walks. Head down the trail and AFTER SPENDING THE SUMMER clearing the trails at Holt Pond Preserve, volunteer Ryan Curtis feels this is you’ll soon realize that the habhis second home. (Photo by Maverick Roy) itat keeps changing — from hemlock groves to red maple
swamps to alder thickets to a quaking bog. No trip here is complete without taking time to pause along the boardwalk that extends across a sphagnum moss mat supporting the quaking bog, where carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews grow among bog rosemary, cranberries, leatherleaf and sheep laurel. Wild orchids such as rose pogonia, grass pink and horned bladderwort also bloom here. Via snowshoes or crosscountry skis in winter, it’s easy to search for mammal tracks — look for evidence of a wide variety because this area is an important piece of a wildlife corridor. The entire trail system that surrounds the pond is about five miles long. This summer, Ryan Curtis donated his time to make the trails more userfriendly.
Soon, he will enter his senior year at the University of New Hampshire, where he’s completing a forestry degree. His program calls for 400 hours of an internship — paid or volunteer time. Last spring, he thought he was going to work for an arboriculture company, but that opportunity fell through. Within two weeks of calling Peter Lowell, executive director of LEA, Curtis was on the trail as a full-time volunteer. Besides using a weed trimmer and loppers, two jobs that
Curtis soon realized needed to be completed every few weeks, he’s fixed trail signs, cut downed trees, adjusted and fixed boardwalks, placed new arrows at key points to guide hikers, and learned about the flora and fauna of the preserve. One special niche he opened is the dedication stone previously hidden among overgrown trees and shrubs. Curtis cleared the way, making it obvious from the main trail that there is something to view. He added wooden steps and HOLT POND, Page 6A
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