BUCKFIELD — Selectmen voted Tuesday to invite the new owner of a Christmas tree farm to meet with abutters to discuss their concerns.
The owner is listed as BKM Properties LLC of Maine Mall Road in South Portland. The property is on Faunce Road and abuts the property of former Selectman Cheryl Coffman and her husband, Gene.
Selectman Maida DeMers-Dobson said she has received several calls from people wondering what’s planned on the property.
“It may be that the congruence of the upcoming vote on recreational marijuana kind of makes everyone paranoid about a large building, but there are questions about that,” she said.
Concerns and complaints raised by neighbors include:
• The road is blocked by a trailer, which was almost hit by a school bus, and later blocked by cement trucks;
• A building to process Christmas trees was erected in a right of way;
• A request was made for an easement across the Coffmans’ land from the Buckfield Village Corp. to connect water to the property;
• The potential demand on the town’s water supply; and
• Fire safety.
“Regarding the right of way, the town of Buckfield, in my opinion, should not be getting into land issues between landowner and abutting landowner,” Town Manager Cindy Dunn said. “That’s not the town’s responsibility.”
“It seems like it’s quite a bit more than the right of way encroachment,” Selectman Mike Iveson said.
Regarding the easement request from the Buckfield Water Corp., Gene Coffman said he didn’t know anything about it until corporation Supervisor Lou Williams showed up and said there would be digging on the Coffmans’ land.
Cheryl Coffman said she was not informed that the Oct. 28 corporation meeting was official.
“That may have been a miscommunication but that’s not what we understood at the time,” she said.
Dunn clarified that the meeting had been recessed from Thursday, Oct. 27.
“The reason why it was recessed (is) the Coffmans were contacted about possibly attending this meeting to discuss some options about connecting this waterline to the existing main that the Buckfield Village Corporation paid for to connect water services to the Coffmans’ property,” she said.
“Just for clarity, the only option that was given to us was an easement,” Cheryl Coffman said. “There was no other option.”
“That is the only option that affects you folks,” Dunn said.
Before the meeting, Buckfield Village Corp. Chairman Glen Holmes said the water district “offered to buy an easement from them at a reasonable cost.”
The corporation has contacted legal counsel to see what its options are, but no formal action has been taken against the Coffmans, he said.
Cheryl Coffman requested selectmen send a letter to the new property owners and invite them to come discuss their project and address the neighbors’ concerns.
“We are feeling they are not being truthful with us,” she said. “I was just a little upset that so much had happened so quickly without us having an opportunity of figuring out what’s going on.”
Holmes, who was also at Tuesday’s meeting, cautioned against inviting a private landowner to a public venue to explain what they’re doing on their own land.
“I think they would probably shy away from a public forum,” he said, suggesting the town give the abutting landowners’ contact information to the new landowner.
Dunn suggested she contact the landowner, let them know there are some concerns from neighbors, and invite the interested parties to meet at the Municipal Building.
“The town’s only role is providing the space,” she said. “It’s just an neighbor-to-neighbor conversation.”
Selectmen voted to have Dunn do so.
In other news, selectmen:
• Voted to go to court over an unpermitted junkyard at 17 Depot St. after the property was not cleaned up by the Oct. 31 deadline;
• Did not approve including eligible employees’ domestic partners for insurance coverage through the Maine Municipal Employees Health Trust;
• Accepted the town’s financial report from July 1 to Oct. 14; and
• Appointed Janet Iveson to a two-year term on the Community Day Committee.
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