What appears to be dog feces lie Tuesday evening near the edge of Brettuns Pond beach in Livermore. After a rainstorm earlier in the day, several such piles were seen. Numerous complaints about trash, feces and other contaminants have town officials considering closing the beach to all. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
LIVERMORE — Selectpersons on Tuesday considered options for handling complaints of trash, dog and human feces, broken glass and used needles at the town beach at Brettuns Pond. They are asking residents for their input.
Selectperson Scott Richmond said he received another complaint about the beach Monday, after a complaint about broken glass and dog feces was mentioned at the July 19 meeting. He was told there was “all kinds of trash down there” and complainants wanted Highway Foreman Roger Ferland to send somebody to clean it up.
“I called the mowing contractor, it is in their contract they are supposed to pick up trash before they mow,” Richmond said. He learned the mowers were there Friday, had picked up two bags of trash.
“I told Roger, ‘We are not picking up trash there,'” Richmond said. “If they can’t pick up after themselves we don’t need the town to go down there and pick up trash.”
Signs are posted at Brettuns Pond beach in Livermore, which is restricted to residents and taxpayers only. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Signs at the beach prohibit dogs and littering. Surveillance cameras are in use. The beach is for residents and taxpayers only.
In June 2018, selectpersons considered closing town beaches due to reports of a dead cat, bags of human feces, dirty diapers and used needles at Round Pond and Brettuns Pond beaches. Two weeks later they agreed to install security cameras at those beaches. More recently they limited beach access to Brettuns Pond to residents and taxpayers.
“At some point we are going to have to do something,” Richmond said.
A sneaker and a soda can lie Tuesday evening at Brettuns Pond beach in Livermore. The town has received several complaints about broken glass, dog feces and trash this year. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller shared two options: Shut the beach completely to the public or pay someone to be there and clean it.
“I have a third option,” Richmond said. “Sell it. Keep the boat launch and be done with it.”
Miller indicated material placed in the portable toilet plugged up the suction device. The town pays Nickerson’s Septic Tank Services in Turner $125 a month to have the toilet at the beach.
“If it doesn’t clean up, (Nickerson’s) are just going to stop like they did at Round Pond,” Selectperson Chairman Mark Chretien said.
Cigarette butts are strewn Tuesday at Brettuns Pond beach in Livermore. Town officials are asking residents for their ideas on how to handle complaints of trash, feces and other contaminants at the town beach, which is open to residents and taxpayers only. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Resident Peter Stokes said he thought of putting lights on utility poles as a deterrent but there aren’t any in that area. “It is a shame, there are only a few people that are going to ruin it for everybody,” he said. He asked what it would cost to hire somebody to be there.
Miller suggested hiring a retired person looking for a little extra income.
“I don’t want this to be where some little kid gets cut up . . . and all of a sudden we are on the hook for somebody getting hurt because it is not a safe place to be,” Deyling said. He said pursuing charges from camera footage is challenging; there must be very clear evidence.
“Post on the town website the people that are doing it,” Chretien said. “Publicly shame them.”
Selectperson Randy Ouellette suggested having a paid monitor in June, July and August.
List hours when the beach would be open, Richmond said. Others suggested dusk as the closing time.
Miller will check what other towns with public beaches are doing and get a sense of potential costs. If monitoring the beach is approved, the town could use some of its allocation from the federal American Rescue Plan Act or money raised at a town meeting, he said.
A small hole is seen July 20 in the pavement on Norlands Road in Livermore. Town officials said then that they are not pleased with paving done late last fall on Norlands and Goding roads by Pike Industries of Fairfield. The town wants the paving redone. By consensus, selectpersons agreed Tuesday to have a third party inspect the roads. File photo Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
In other business, Deyling said he would contact a company he works with to look at the Goding and Norlands roads.
At the July 19 meeting, representatives from Pike Industries of Fairfield offered to redo some of the paving they did on the Goding and Norlands roads last November. Selectpersons wanted both roads repaved.
At that meeting Pike representative Jason Griffiths said he would email the test results taken when the paving was done. As of Tuesday night, those results had not been received by town officials.
“The next time we do a paving project we may want to spend some additional money for a third party inspection to keep our testing outside of (the company’s) hands to make sure they are kept on track,” Deyling said. “If they are paying for their own testing that is sort of a conflict of interest. It is not that much money for what you get out of it.”
Having a third party look at the roads would mean not just the town saying the work was bad, Deyling noted. He recommended having that done before sending a letter to Pike about the situation.
By consensus, selectpersons agreed to the third party inspection.
Attempts by the Sun Journal to learn the name of the company suggested for that inspection were unsuccessful.
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