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Serving Bridgton and the surrounding towns of Western Maine since 1870. Vol. 146, No. 51
24 PAGES - 4 Sections
Bridgton, Maine
December 17, 2015
(USPS 065-020)
Weather . . . . . . . . . . . 4D
www.bridgton.com
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
‘It’s our town’
Bridgton residents unite to fight Causeway guardrail
THE EMPTY STAKES mark where figures of baby Jesus in a manger and of a kneeling Mary were placed. The figures were stolen from the nativity scene in front of the Casco Village Church last week. (De Busk Photo)
Baby Jesus, Mary missing from manger By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer CASCO — During the Christmas season Jesus’s birth is put in the spotlight. A spotlight literally illuminated the nativity scene outside the Casco Village Church. Despite that lighting, someone stole the figures of baby Jesus and his mother Mary. On Sunday, parishioners noticed that Jesus and Mary were missing from the church’s nativity scene. Left behind were the stakes that held up the flat wooden figures. “It was not an inside job, where someone took them for repair. Someone took them maliciously just to take them,” according to Rev. Joyce Long, of the Casco Village Church United Church of Christ. She later referred to it as a “hurtful prank.”
“The sad part is that a lady in our community, Lynette Melnichuk who is now 91 years old, she made the figures for the crèche,” Long said. All the parts of the crèche were flat, wooden pieces. They are painted on one side only. They had leather straps on the back of the wood to attach to stakes in the ground. Two separate pieces are missing. Those are a kneeling Mary and baby Jesus in his manger, Long said. The reverend and people who attend the Casco Village Church have searched for the figures. “We hope that someone would just return it. No questions asked,” she said. It was on Dec. 5, a Saturday, that church members Dennis Martin and Holly Hancock redid the tree and put up new MANGER, Page 6A
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer With well-reasoned arguments backed by a wealth of anecdotal evidence, Bridgton residents united Tuesday to convince highway officials not to install guardrails on the Moose Pond Causeway and leave all of the granite stones in place. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” said Selectmen Chairman Bernie King, summarizing the near-unanimous opinion of the around 50 people who attended a public meeting to discuss the impact a metal guardrail — even a brown powder-coated version — would have on the National Register-eligible Causeway. The local meeting was led by planners from the Federal Highway Administration and Maine Department of Transportation charged with recommending a final design for the Causeway pavement overlay project, being done concurrently this summer with a larger reconstruction along a five-mile stretch of Route 302 in West Bridgton. “A decision has not yet
been made,” said MDOT engineer Colin Greenan, who acknowledged his agency erred previously by not involving the public in their post-scoping review of the historical and architectural properties of the federal highway project as required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The review requires that a letter be sent to the local municipality, and that was not done, he said. “We’ve hit the reset button, and are taking a step back.” The agency’s Engineering Council, federal highway administration officials and state historic preservation officers will meet on Jan. 14 to review the public record of Tuesday’s meeting, he said, “and a final, informed decision will be made.” Greenan did say, however, that after hearing the concerns of Bridgton Selectmen and several residents at an earlier meeting, MDOT modified their initial plans for a standard gun-metal guardrail in favor of a brown powdercoated rail with narrow posts,
which would allow 326 of the 451 granite blocks to remain in place behind the guardrail. In his 40-minute presentation, Greenan said MDOT is taking a “statewide, systemic, proactive approach” with all of their pavement overlay and reconstruction projects to install safety guardrails as part of the project, if deemed necessary. “This is a Priority 1 Corridor, and mobility is our main concern,” Greenan said. The stretch of highway carries 4,800 vehicles per day, 13% of which are trucks, and is only second to the Interstate in terms of its importance as a transportation corridor, he said. Greenan said the Causeway has 12-foot travel lanes and eight-foot shoulders with steep slopes and the waters of Moose Pond on either side. In MDOT’s view, the granite blocks are “deadly fixed objects” and the water beyond is considered a hazard. A third of all highway crashes are “run-off-theSTONES, Page 3A
Former Machias town manager hired in Denmark
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer Former Machias Town Manager Chris Loughlin has been hired as Denmark’s new Town Manager, replacing Dan Merhalski, who resigned July 31. The hiring ends a half-year period that Denmark has been
Naples board talks about taxes By Dawn De Busk Staff Writer NAPLES — Taxes were the topic on several fronts. On Monday, Naples residents and elected public officials discussed tax-acquired land, heard a clarification of when the town puts tax liens on real estate as well as the possibility of a more aggressive collection of that tax, and talked about the personal property tax owed to the town. Also, it was mentioned that the topic of tax collection policies should be on the agenda in the future. Currently, the amount of uncollected real estate taxes still owed to the town is slightly less than $500,000. Since May, when the 2015 Town Report was published
and there was $1 million in delinquent taxes, about half of that has been collected. The exact amount of unpaid real estate taxes is $494,843; and that list goes back to 2008. Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak said the town would send another round of letters reminding property owners of past debts. On Monday, the Naples Board of Selectmen voted on the fate of two parcels that the town owns through the tax lien process. During the meeting, the board’s action was to accept a bid for $10,000 to purchase a parcel that had been acquired by the town. The second parcel was put out to bid again. During public participation time, resident Jim
Gratello sought clarification on how the town goes about putting tax liens on property. Gratello referred to a comment by Paraschak during a Naples Budget Committee meeting. Gratello said he thought the time period was two years that a taxpayer was in arrears before the town started the tax lien process. According to Paraschak, a lien can be put on real estate after the bill has been due for one year. Gratello advised the town manager to file the liens so that the Town of Naples is positioned to collect those debts. “The town doesn’t have to exercise the lien,” he said, adding that the town should file that lien paperwork. “If a company goes out of
business, you are in line to get the back taxes. Towns can work with businesses on back taxes,” he said. Selectman Dana Watson said, “We voted not to implement the personal property tax.” Paraschak clarified Watson’s statement by saying the selectmen voted against a more aggressive means of keeping track of businesses’ equipment that would be taxed as personal property. “I think what Dana is getting at (is) years ago, some towns assessed personal property taxes. The assessors don’t go knocking on the door of every business every year” to record what new equipment has been purchased or what old equipTAXES, Page 2A
By Gail Geraghty Staff Writer The Bridgton Planning Board is considering limiting the number of Medical Marijuana dispensaries allowed in town, and making other major changes to the rules adopted by voters at the June Town Meeting. Suggestions for the revisions drawn up by the board’s attorney were discussed at a Tuesday workshop. Agnieszka Pinette of the DummondWoodsum law firm outlined the suggestions in a Nov. 18 letter to the town. The changes would be made as amendments to the town’s Site Plan Review Ordinance, and are gener-
ally intended to ensure that the rules in place for dispensaries are consistent with the state’s Medical Use of Marijuana Act. The Act allows municipalities to limit the number of dispensaries that may operate in the town. Earlier this year, the board approved plans for a dispensary to operate out of the old Bridgton Knitting Mill, and more recently, a second application was submitted for a dispensary farther south on Portland Road, across from Gallinari Electric. That second application, by New Age Builders, was tabled until January, in part because of conflicting and
incomplete information. Initially the proposal was stated to be a medical marijuana dispensary, but in later notices to abutters the plans were characterized as a cultivation operation. Adding to the confusion was the fact that the state had already given its approval for the operation, according to a spokesperson for New Age Builders. In her letter, Pinette recommended that if the board wished to limit the number of dispensaries, the language would need to clearly apply to structures: “For purposes of this limitation, each parcel of land, including any struc-
tures thereon, that is being used for the acquisition, possession, cultivation, manufacture, delivery, transfer, transport, sale, supply, and/ or dispensing of medical marijuana or related supplies and educational materials shall be counted as one Dispensary Facility,” she wrote. In addition, Pinette recommended that the board remove some of the provisions in the current local language that duplicates what is required by the Act. Towns may not duplicate the state language, and they also may not be more restrictive than the state language, she wrote.
without a town manager, and comes more than a year after dissent arose over Merhalski’s leadership style and the board’s response to that dissent. Loughlin was introduced at the board’s Dec. 9 meeting by Chairman Beverly Caparco. She welcomed him to town as the meeting began, but offered no additional comment. Later in the meeting, selectmen signed Loughlin’s employment agreement. The one-year agreement provides for an annual salary of $57,000 with a six-month probationary period. Merhalski’s starting salary was $56,000 when he was hired in September 2014. Reached by phone on Wednesday, Loughlin said he looked forward to working in Denmark. “It was an opportunity for me to get back in the mix, and it looked like it could be an interesting challenge,” he said. Loughlin served twice as Machias Town Manager, with his first stint from 1989 to 1994, and then returning from 2010 to 2015. He has lived in Machias for around 25 years, and currently still resides there. A May 27 article in the
Bangor Daily News states that Loughlin resigned effective June 5 of this year. Machias Selectmen approved a severance package that included $30,000 to be paid in weekly installments, the article stated. Loughlin said in the article that he had been considering the move for more than a year. Later in the Denmark Selectman meeting, the board was asked whether a meetand-greet would be held to introduce Loughlin to residents. Loughlin said he was open to the idea, and Caparco said she would work to set up a date.
Pinette also said the board needs to clarify its review procedures for medical marijuana dispensaries, especially in terms of how those procedures interact with other provisions of the Site Plan Review Ordinance. Board Alternate Cathy Pinkham also suggested that the board add language to
restrict registered caregiver collectives from operating a dispensary in a shared fashion. “This would put an extra layer of protection for the town, as it is my understanding many folks flock from other towns,” Pinkham wrote in a Dec. 5 memo to Board Chairman Steve Collins.
New Denmark Town Manager Chris Loughlin
Planners eye limits on number of dispensaries
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