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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 146, No. 46

28 PAGES - 4 Sections

Bridgton, Maine

November 12, 2015

(USPS 065-020)

Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 4D

www.bridgton.com

SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS

Selectmen to seek sewer revote next June

By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Bridgton Selectmen wasted no time Tuesday in voting to hold a revote on the failed sewer ordinance revisions at the June 2016 Town Meeting. The fact that voters on Nov. 3 rejected the revisions by a vote of 575 to 424 was seen by selectmen not as a

Sebago sends message to ‘61’

By Wayne E. Rivet Staff Writer SEBAGO — For the past 15 years, Allen Crabtree has heard the whispers, too. “I’ve been hearing for years that one way to cure all the financial ills SAD 61 has would be to close the school in Sebago,” Crabtree said. “When people here heard about the proposed major expansion at Crooked River, I think that was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.” When local residents failed to receive any guarantee or major assurances that their community school would not be closed and their children transported to either Stevens Brook or the new Crooked River School, they decided to send their own message to SAD 61 administration. A petition was signed by 340 residents on Election Day to start the wheels turning for possible withdrawal from SAD 61. Former school board director Richard Merritt and Sebago Budget Committee chairman Phil Lowe recently presented Crabtree and fellow Sebago selectmen with the petition. “The board of selectmen recognize that there is quite a level of support to do something,” Crabtree said. So, selectmen will seek authorization to pull $25,000 from the Undesignated Fund Balance to be used toward expenses associated with studying and/or pursuing withdrawal. A special town meeting will be scheduled for January. “People are not saying that they don’t support some type of solution to the overcrowding at Songo SEBAGO, Page 6A

mandate against changing the payment rate structure, but the result of false and misleading information contained in a last-minute media campaign in The Bridgton News. Selectman Bob McHatton said during Selectmen Concerns that a half-page ad that the Bridgton Sewer

Users Group ran in the News less than a week before the Nov. 3 referendum “blindsided the board, because it didn’t allow us to rebut” the charges being made, particularly the statement that “The proposed new sewer system will cost over $23,000,000.” McHatton said he could hardly blame voters for

rejecting the ordinance after seeing such a huge number presented as if it were fact. The ad, along with an article that detailed the fears and questions of opponents, was, McHatton said, “I won’t say lies, but it was misinformation about the facts.” The need for sewer ordinance revisions and the need

for a new sewer system are completely separate issues, he said, and nothing at all has been decided about a new sewer system, least of all what cost might be involved. McHatton also felt that a fine effort was made to educate voters about the need to change the system’s current rate structure to free up

unused sewer allocation and make the payment structure fairer for everyone. “They did a fine job of bringing it to the board, as far as I’m concerned,” McHatton said of the Wastewater Committee and the town’s sewer engineering firm, Woodard & Curran. REVOTE, Page 8A

McIver seeks to start next project

WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR SACRIFICE AND SERVICE — Lake Region High School’s Teens Without Borders class organized and presented a special Veterans Day Assembly Tuesday. Area veterans were treated to a free luncheon, produced by LRVC culinary arts students, as well as a special progrram which included performances by Zach Gray (playing “Taps”) and Hannah Ranco (who gave a solo dance effort). (Rivet Photos)

By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer As he nears completion of a major new retail/ office building in downtown Bridgton, local developer Justin McIver is already on to his next project. McIiver, with engineer George Sawyer acting as agent, went before the Bridgton Planning Board Oct. 3 for permission to build a new 4,500 square-foot professional office building on Portland Road near Sandy Creek. The project, which includes a garage out back, would share a common walkway with another of his projects, the Ten Lakes Chiropractic building at 300 Portland Road that he built within the past year. It would also be similar in façade and architectural style, only larger. McIver’s intention is to have it serve as the new headquarters of Main Eco Homes, the construction company he owns, which is currently located around a half-mile north on the other side of the highway. His office would be the largest of either three or five professional offices in the new one-story building. The 1.75-acre commercial parcel where the building would be sited is located at the corner of a planned new road called Sustainable Way that serves as the entrance to the planned new subdivision of 96 apartments and 18 single-family homes that McIver and Vista Investments partner Mark Lopez won approval to build in June of 2014. PROJECT, Page 6A

Does public support upgrades for more roads? By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — When it was all said and done the total cost to repair Libby Road was less expensive than originally anticipated. But, it was a four-year project that took from the paving fund and focused most of the road improvement money on one road. Meanwhile, multiple roads in town — the list is long — get worse with weather and time. While the Casco Board of Selectmen may likely decide to hire contractors to plug away at upgrading sections of the town’s worst roads, one board member talked about allocating more funding to do more long-term road repairs. Selectman Grant Plummer said it might be a wise move to pass the road-improvement costs onto the budget commit-

tee, and to possibly provide residents at Town Meeting in June with the real costs of getting more road reconstruction done in a shorter period of time. Ultimately, funds are expended just trying to patch roads that really need reconstruction, he said. Plummer said maybe the residents — who drive on the area roads — would be supportive of public funds going toward reconstruction of more than one section of one road each season. On Tuesday night, the board left the meeting with homework: To drive around town, exploring and reevaluating which roads might get the No. 3 spot on the bad road list. On Tuesday, the selectmen received documents that showed an engineer’s cost estimates for what needs to be done to improve Johnson

Hill Road and Edwards Road. In recent months, the board top-listed those two roads. The bottom line is not news to anyone: Road repairs are pricy. “These projects are more significant than Libby Road” in terms of cost, according to Casco Town Manager Dave Morton. “We may consider breaking segments up even smaller than what is being proposed,” he said. “We have an analysis of the conditions of those two roads, and what can be done to bring them up to standard,” Morton said. “It’s a tough choice. Both roads are in need of reconstruction,” he said. Chairman Holly Hancock questioned whether some town roads could hold up while waiting in line for the right amount of funding.

“If we are looking at an annual budget for those projects, and looking at four years of work, is either of those roads going to hold up? What is happening to those roads while waiting for Phase Two,” Hancock said. Morton had a short, simple answer. “They are crumbling and falling apart — that is the upside. On the downside, we are putting a lot of (maintenance) money into making them a little better,” he said. Morton recommended doing the annual roadwork by alternating each year between Johnson Hill and Edwards roads — doing the worst sections of each road first. “The engineers agree with me,” he said. Selectman Thomas Peaslee commented that the total cost of multiple sections of two roads was in the

“neighborhood of one million dollars.” “We did Libby Road and it took four years. Unless we pony up, we cannot afford more. Maybe, we should tell the taxpayers that we need more money,” Morton said. “Our road budget has been about maintaining a good tax rate,” he said. “The other option that some towns look at is: (the towns) have received authorization to bond and borrow the money and then fix the roads” so that they will last 15 to 20 years,” Morton said,

adding that the loan is repaid over a set period of time. “The town of Raymond has done that with good success,” he said. On the upside: All the money the town spends on road maintenance becomes available for other roads. “If you improve two roads that have large amounts of maintenance, you will have extra money,” he said. The selectmen decided to hold a road repair workshop during their second meeting in January. The Casco Budget UPGRADES, Page 7A

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


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