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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 145, No. 45
28 PAGES - 4 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
November 6, 2014
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 5D
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
Voters reject medical marijuana moratorium By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer The legal challenge raised over the wording of Bridgton’s medical marijuana moratorium proved to be its undoing. Tuesday, voters rejected the moratorium by a close vote of 1,062 yes and 1,262 no. The results may not,
however, be seen as disappointing to moratorium advocates, who will now not need to worry about possible lawsuits filed during the moratorium period by statequalified medical marijuana patients or caregivers. Instead, they can focus on the primary reason the moratorium was suggested in the
first place; that is, to draft language controlling the siting of commercial marijuana operations in Bridgton. It is expected that the Board of Selectmen will still go forward with plans to form an ad hoc committee to study what restrictions the town may legally put in place to control medical marijuana
dispensaries. What is not clear, however, is whether the board will charge the committee with studying the moratorium’s stated goal of controlling “sites of marijuana cultivation,” which was the language in the moratorium said, by medical marijuana advocates, to be legally
unenforceable. Support for the moratorium was also hurt by the perception by some that it was being rushed into enactment. The call for the moratorium was posed in early September by Planning Board Chairman Steve Collins, and by the time legal questions were raised, it was too late to
Plan update has voters’ blessing By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer After three long years in the making, the Bridgton Comprehensive Plan was overwhelmingly approved by voters Tuesday, by a vote of 1,584 yes, 639 no. The question is, what’s next? The document won’t become official until the state gives its stamp of approval, which hopefully will take place within a few months. In the meantime, the Board of Selectmen will be setting up the all-important Implementation Committee, whose members will see to it that the document is a living one, and does not simply get put on a shelf. Comprehensive Plan Committee members have spent a lot of their time making sure that doesn’t happen, by creating a spreadsheet that not only recommends which board, committee or organization should be tackling a particular goal, but also giving a deadline for its comple-
tion. On Tuesday, Planning Board Chairman Steve Collins suggested that his board hold a meeting with both Selectmen and the CPC to decide who will be in charge of making sure different goals get implemented. But CPC member Glen “Bear” Zaidman reminded him that the selectmen are in charge of that process. Collins replied, “I know, but it can’t be said often enough” that there should be no gap between approval of the plan and commencement of the work toward implementing it. From the beginning of the process, one of the most talked about aspects of the plan has been the creation of land use regulations. The plan recommends the creation of seven general zoning designations or districts that follow the town’s traditional growth patterns — downtown village business district, downtown village neighborhood, inner UPDATE, Page A
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — The road construction crew on Route 11 is doing what many Mainers know all too well. The crew is buttoning up for winter. The surface paving was not entirely finished after the contractor ran into adverse weather during this road construction season. According to Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) Project Engineer Tim Storer, the surface paving was not completed on approximately five miles of the 10.2mile road repair project. The sections of Route 11 that did not receive surface paving are the same areas that were not scheduled for reclamation. Only the worst pavement along Route 11, also known as Poland Springs Road, went through the reclamation process; and those areas received surface pavement, he said. “There is no need for them to redo anything that they put down — just areas to complete next year,” he said. “What we are doing now is putting down temporary pavement on side roads. They will put temporary mix on those to keep them plowable,” he said. “All work should be buttoned up there by the end of this week or sometime next week,” Storer said. According to MDOT regulations, the deadline to pave major roads is the Saturday after Oct. 15. The contractor on the project, White Brothers Division of Lane Construction, ran out of good weather. The MDOT headquarters in Augusta gave Lane Construction the okay to pave during the week after
Saturday, Oct. 18. However, several days of rain put the kibosh on that plan. “They were given a week’s extension. But, it rained that week,” he said.
Crew buttons up for winter
change the wording on the ballot for November. Selectman Paul Hoyt said he didn’t think the issue of medical marijuana met the legal challenge of a public health emergency justifying a moratorium. Selectmen had asked Town Attorney Richard Spencer to draft the moratoREJECT, Page A
Town leaving school unit 14
LIKE OLD TIMES — A Casco resident puts his ballots into a wooden ballot box on Tuesday night, while an Election Day worker oversees the process. (De Busk Photo)
‘Glitch’ leads to switch to old time ballot box
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — Casco residents who headed to their local polling place after work or after dinner took a step back into time. Some people ended up depositing their ballots in a wooden ballot box, instead of using the state-issued machine that accepts and counts ballots. Shortly after 6 p.m., a bottleneck occurred in the large meeting room of the Casco Community Center. About five dozen people were standing in line with completed ballots in hand — waiting to properly drop off those ballots. The Election Systems and Software (ES&S) 200 ballot counting machine, which is used by many communities, was not functioning correctly. The ballot counting machine is owned by the State of Maine, and supplied to municipalities during elections.
“The ballot machine was out of sync. It would take one ballot, and then not take the next one,” said Casco Town Clerk Lucille Griffin. The machine “just had a little glitch that was easy to fix. You opened it up and fixed it,” she said. “That was something that happened to several communities,” Griffin said. The process of stopping to fix the voting machine for every other ballot became timeconsuming. “That was why there was a backup of people,” Griffin said. So, the Election Day workers decided to rely on less modern technology — the tried and true wooden ballot box — in order to collect ballots from voters. “We didn’t want people to stand and wait too long. We got the wooden ballot box,” GLITCH, Page A
By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer RAYMOND — Change is in the air. Six years after voters from the towns of Windham and Raymond approved the union of their two school districts, Raymond residents passed a measure on the ballot to leave Regional School Unit (RSU) No. 14. During Election Day, 1324 voters supported the withdrawal from the regional school unit, while 940 people were fine with the status quo. Meanwhile, 80 voters left that portion of their ballot blank. Essentially one-quarter more voters backed the withdrawal and a return to autonomy as a school system. According to the language of the referendum, the next step for the Town of Raymond will be to file a “petition for withdrawal” with RSU No. 14 and with the State Commissioner of Education. As part of that ballot measure, Raymond residents are requesting that $25,000 be set aside in the town’s budget to cover any costs involved in withdrawing from RSU No. 14. According to Raymond SCHOOL, Page A
Fire destroys building
DENMARK — Extremely high winds made it nearly impossible for firefighters to effectively battle Sunday’s blaze at the Italian Moose Restaurant at 5 Bull Ring Road. The three-story building, including upstairs apartments, burned to the ground, despite a response by at least seven area fire departments. No one was injured. The 6 p.m. fire may have been sparked by the building’s heating system, Fire Chief Dana Costello told news outlets. The restaurant was newly-opened in the old building following extensive renovations. Deputy Chief Ryan Lord said around six to eight people, family members of the restaurant owners, have been displaced by the fire, and the Red Cross has been called in to provide emergency assistance. Those displaced are believed to be staying with family members. Because of the high A massive fireball is all that could be seen Sunday at 5 Bull winds, the building was Ring Road as the Italian Moose burned to the ground. fully-involved by the time firefighters arrived, and water was directed at neighboring buildings to prevent Established 1870 it from spsreading. It was P.O. Box 244, 118 Main St. around seven hours before crews left the scene at 1:30 Bridgton, ME 04009 a.m., and the state Fire 207-647-2851 Marshal’s Office was called Fax: 207-647-5001 in to conduct an investigabnews@roadrunner.com tion.
The Bridgton News
A pile of extra temporary pavement sits off a public easement in Casco. The Route 11 road construction project should wind up either at the end of this week or sometime next week; however, there are some portions of Route 11 that will be surface-paved next spring. (De Busk Photo)