~ Bridgton News ~

Bridgton Police & Bridgton Dispatch
Tuesday night they instructed Town Manager Mitch Berkowitz to schedule the head of Cumberland County’s Regional Communications Center to come to their Oct. 26 selectmen’s meeting to explain what it can provide for dispatching and the associated costs.
They also will ask a representative from the Sheriff’s Office to come and talk to them about what law enforcement services Bridgton could expect, should the local police department be dissolved in the future.
Bridgton News

When PSSG evaluated our police and dispatch ealier this year, they checked them from several aspects...from record keeping, to enforcing the law, how the public views them from their point of view, what the public thinks of them from the public point of view, ect... This was done for dispatch and done for police services.

When asking the citizens what they thought, 69% wanted to keep the police department here in town. However, dispatch...not so much. Only 54% of the citizens who answered the survey wanted to keep the dispatch center here. Now that the state is doing what it is doing, we may not have much choice anyway. The thing is that in NH, they only have two dispatch centers for the whole state...one in Keene and the other in Laconia. I learned that by watching the last selectmen's meeting.

Bridgton Economic Development Committee
The selectmen unanimously voted in favor of postponing the appointment of new members to the Bridgton Economic Development Committee until their Oct. 26 meeting, so a previous legal opinion from Atty. Richard Spencer could be clarified…
“Perception is everything,” Selectman Earl Cash said, in making his motion to postpone the appointments until later in the month, in order to clarify the lawyer’s opinion as to what legally constitutes a conflict of interest.
Bridgton News

Normally what happens is the Director of Economic Development recommends names and they are approved, but this time, two of the names are on other town elected boards which brought this whole thing about.

The problem is that if they are on the planning board or appeals board, they can have formed an opinion about a business that wants to come to town or help a business come to town that may or may not have the best interest of the town at heart or they may be able to circumvent part of the process by using some of these people. This here lies the problem.

PM - happy threading! I started the Kennebunk thread for much the same reasons, and I wish you the best of luck with this one.

Thanks

Cutbacks at Bridgton Hospital
Bridgton Hospital let go six employees last month…
Despite the reductions, Bridgton Hospital President and CEO David Frum says the local facility is presently showing a healthy bottom line and it will make appropriate adjustments so patient care remains at a high quality level.
“Bridgton Hospital is a stable, financial organization. We can’t extricate ourselves from being part of a system. When the system has its struggles, we’re going to have some struggles,” Frum said.
Bridgton News

This hospital is part of the Central Maine Medical Center family of hospitals and medical care facilities.

Bridgton Library Courtyard Grand Opening
They gathered to celebrate the completion of a new front courtyard designed to put a welcoming face to the library.
These are the turning points, and your courtyard is part of that,” said Triglione, representing town government and the business community. “As we continue to focus on the downtown as the lifeblood of our community, we also encourage other businesses to make investment decisions as well that are part of the town’s economic development effort.”
Bridgton News

This is a project that has been underway for more than a year. Most of the money came from private donations that were from area businesses, fundraisers, and local residents. They projected that it would cost about $80,000 for this job and it came in well under that because they also had some contractors donate materials as well as time and labor into the project.

Thanks for the information about the Hospital PMRMSM. I knew it wouldn't take long before Bridgton Hospital to lay people off. Six doesn't seem like many people, but in a small hospital like Bridgton that can be alot. I only wonder now how Rumford Hospital is doing as that is small like Bridgton.That as well is associated with CMMC. I got a friend who works for Bridgton and she told me weeks ago that they would likely start laying people off.

Thanks for the Bridgton post too, good to catch up on news where I grew up!

It is not a problem.

Once I figured out the website and where it was about a year ago or so, it has been easy to post on here from their paper. They only started using the internet for their once a week paper a couple of years ago. They didn't want to at first because they thought it would stop people from buying their papers. Funny thing is that this particular local paper has not seen a drop in sales overall. One of the ladies in the office said that it has actually given a small increase in sales. An increase is an increase, no matter how small.

I attended the selectman's meeting tonight and an interesting subject came up. There is no recall allowed for elected officials in town. There were samples that were drafted a few years ago, but nothing was approved.

The subject has been brought up again and this time they are serious about wanting to pass something, but it has to be for reasons of illegal activity...not for reasons because the public did not like they way a member of an elected board has voted. The other thing is that this person has to have been found guilty of illegal activity, not just charged with something. Although the person has the right to resign from the board before going to court. It is up to them.

The reason for wanting to do something is because of everything going on in Casco, Harrison, Arundel, Raymond, Windham, and other towns we have heard about in the news over the last year.

McDonald’s hearing postponed, again
It was another frustrating night, but this time a smaller crowd, as the developer of a McDonald’s Restaurant in Bridgton once again got a formal hearing postponed Tuesday on a technicality.
Collins said the error was “due to some kind of a lapse.” Dubois, who was present with the plans at the ready, nearby on an easel, apologized to the board and abutters “for not doing this right the first time. It’s all on me.”
Bridgton News

What I find interesting about this article is the missing facts of this meeting. One of them being that a notice was sent out, but it was sent out late. There is no mention of this in the article.

The actual weekly paper has No abutter notice, No McDonald’s hearing and tonight the article online has a new title for this article of McDonald’s hearing postponed, again.

My father and I both attended the public hearing and were dumbfounded that this has been postponed again. First it was because the planning board wanted more time to evaluate the plans for the restaurant. Then the franchise didn’t think that they had to notify the abutters again of the public hearing where it has been advertised in two local papers for two weeks. When they found out they had to they did so that same day, but it was only 8 days notice. I mean, we understand that we do not want to give anybody room to fight this in court and do this letter by letter of every code of ordinance and state law we have. It is just that it is getting frustrating to see this go from the beginning of September to the beginning of November before we even get to see the layout of this place and ask any questions about it.

Dispatch cost presentation postponed
A recently completed study of the Bridgton Police Department, performed by Public Safety Strategies Group, recommended the town look into having Cumberland County take over dispatch, citing a potential yearly cost savings of $140,000.
The report did not recommend, however, that Bridgton look into dissolving its own police force in favor of the Sheriff’s Office. The PSSG study found that 71% of those surveyed are opposed to disbanding the Bridgton Police Department...
Bridgton News

The meeting with Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office has been postponed until November 16. Where the Captain will discuss what they can do for us as a town, what it will cost us, what upgrades we will need to make, ect…

We had also asked for the State Police to come and discuss this with us, but they told us that they set the rates by your population at the last census, calls per year according to your records over the last three year average, and our rates are going up when the next set of census numbers come in. They kind of gave us the opinion that they did not want to take on our town, but would be willing to discuss it, if we really could not work out a deal with Cumberland County.

Good for the economy; Bad for the economy
Bridgton is coming under siege from all quarters and it is vitally important to understand that not all development is economically healthy. Since McDonald’s has made overtures to come to town, others have started looking seriously at Bridgton. Bridgton has no ordinances on the books to regulate these types of businesses…
Last week the Associated Press broke a story how Walmart is changing its business model and will be opening smaller stores in small towns…

I took this from the print version of the Bridgton News and because it was not online, I still thought it was worth mentioning.

Walmart is looking to build 1700 of these smaller stores for these smaller towns. They are also looking at towns with little zoning or form based code or anything else for that matter. We have that problem and it is currently being addressed for the future, the very near future. Walmart is not the only possible business wanting to come to town that is a national chain store, but our town needs to do something and fortunately that ball is already rolling, about setting up some type of form based code for future business development.

Bridgton Police appoint interim chief
Lt. Peter Madura of the Bridgton Police Department was appointed interim police chief last week after David Lyons announced he will retire Nov. 26.
According to a press release from the town, Madura is a 31-year veteran of the force. He has been a lieutenant for the past six years.
“I look forward to assuring that our community is protected and served,” Madura said in the release.
Sun Journal

I know the Police Chief has been very out spoken about the PSSG report since it came out and how critical it was of the department. It was putting a lot of the blame on him and he has actually only been here for three years and things were in far worse shape when he took over than they are now. Of course the fact that the town has been cutting his budget does not help, so he can not make much head way on advancing the department in gear, technology, storage, ect... does not help matters.

I would like to have seen more to this article, but didn’t. I am hoping that the Bridgton News or the Lakes Region Weekly will have more coverage of this story this week.

Go Karts on hold again, needs new application
Churches’ dream to create Bridgton Raceway, INC including an 800 foot electric go kart track, hot wheels kiddie track, and a myriad of hi-tech family games both outside and under cover will have to wait until he submits new applications for those projects. The board did not discuss any aspect of those plans, which have raised both lighting and noise concerns by drive-in owner John Tevanian.
Bridgton News

There are three or four small wetlands on the property and will not need a wetlands permit and he also will not require a stormwater control permit.

Chief Lyons announces his retirement
…As for the PSSG Study, it was originally suggested as a way to look for cost savings and determine if the department was being as financially efficient as possible. Specifically, it was to show how we compare similar departments as far as staffing, equipment, vehicles, budgets, ect. In the end it was just another way for the disgruntled selectmen to look at the way I did my job and the way I ran this department.
Bridgton News

David Lyons is serving overseas in Afghanistan right now. He is working with the Afghan Police Officers as a training officer. He joined the Bridgton P.D. in 1973 and left in 1997 to work for the Maine State Police. He came back to the Bridgton P.D. in 1998 as a patrolman. For the last 6 years he has been Chief of Police. Given the fact that he has been in law enforcement for 37 years protecting the citizens of this state, he will be missed in this community.

Blues & Brew to return to the Square
Bray’s Brew Pub in Naples is leasing to own the historic Masonic Hall from Kahuna owner Tom McCarthy and will re-open the 140 seat space this spring as a blues and jazz venue called The Benchmark Pub.
Within a year they will have a micro-brewery on the first floor and offer retail sales of their line of beers and related merchandise such as t-shirts and mugs…
Bridgton News

This has been something that has been brewing around town for about 6 to 9 months now. It finally came to a head this week.

There was some mention about the noise it would create. A representative from the police department stood up and said that when the Kahuna was there and played loud music, we had very few noise complaints and they had some bands come in every weekend. The new owners are saying that they will not be looking to bring in rock bands, heavy metal bands, mainly because they do not bring in much money and they cause more damage than it is worth. They want to bring in big name jazz and blues names that are well respected in their field.

Too many applicants and not enough jobs

Shawnee Peak had their annual job fair this past weekend and more than 1000 people applied, they have never seen anything like it. They always give those that worked for them the previous year first consideration. Then fill in whatever positions are left with the new applicants. One woman said she has applied every year for the last seven years.

Businesses weigh in on new sidewalk
Some of the regulars who hang outside Ricky’s Diner have little good to say about the new sidewalk that’s been built at the corner of Main and lower Depot Street in Bridgton.
They think it’s a waste of public money…
But calls to several owners of commercial buildings located near the street tell a different story … I like the idea of defining the street. It will help the parking situation for sure,” Potter said.
Bridgton News

The thing is, I think this was needed on a safety standpoint. There have been many near misses for pedestrians because drivers would not look before pulling out. Now that won't be a problem any longer. Also some of these businesses have their door ways right up near the curb or people are forced to walk along side the road to get to these businesses. At least now they have something that gets them up off the pavement and vehicles can't just run over them because the drivers are to lazy to look to see if anybody is there.

Selectmen address Facebook issues
The Selectmen held a special meeting late last month, in order to enter into an executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel matters in the Bridgton Police Department, as a result of the letter of retirement they received from Chief of Police David Lyons.
During the open session of their Oct. 29 special meeting, the selectmen raised some concerns regarding the Facebook page that the Police Department members maintain, Town Manager Mitch Berkowitz said.
Bridgton News

A message appeared on the Police Departments Facebook page that said it was no longer going to be allowing people to post comments or ask questions on their site per the town manager and board of selectmen. That appeared the same night the Chief resigned. This was also a topic of conversation that was discussed having to do with the Electronic Communications, Equipment and Use Policy. I watched that meeting that night and there was no mention of not allowing people to make comments and ask questions on the Facebook page. They want to actually expand this service to other departments in town government.

I just have to wonder, the Chief was unhappy, he resigns, what are the odds he shut that down??? They say he was out of the country, but still had access to the Facebook account and knew what was going on, still have to wonder??? He is back in the U.S., was at last nights meeting, he never spoke to one of the selectmen, think he burned some bridges??? Oh yea.

The Bridgton police department has announced they will make their decision as to who they will purchase their next cruiser from. It is going to be from MacDonald Motors and it will be the Dodge Charger with the 347hp hemi engine. This will be their first cruiser in many many many years that is not a Ford. It is still rear wheel drive. They do have two SUVs, one is a Ford and one is a Dodge. I got the information from their Facebook page.

Bridgton Residents Debate Police Dept.
After a heated debate, the town voted in favor of keeping the police department.
"I think they need to leave things just the way they are. That's all I can say about that. They finally made the right decision on the police station," resident Bud Seeley said. Police Chief Peter Madura said he was happy with the vote.
"I've been here for 31 years. This is the third time that they've tried to take over…
WMTW

I have to wonder if the selectmen really think of the Acting Police Chief as the Police Chief because they keep calling him Lieutenant which is hold old rank. I don’t know if this is normal.

The dispatch issue is not over. The Acting Police Chief needs to make a presentation on what it is going to cost to upgrade the system. We heard from Cumberland County last night.

Brief rundown of what happened in last nights selectmen's meeting

They are discussing a recall for the elected boards. However, they are looking at setting up a set of standards ... meaning, no bribes, to act lawfully, no conflict of interest, and to not break any state and federal law. They could not be removed for the way they vote. This would still have to go out to referendum before town meeting.

They are looking into creating an anti-nudity ordinance in the entertainment ordinances and restaurant ordinances. They also are going to be looking into a regulation or prohibition of marijuana dispensaries.

One of the selectmen was mentioning that he has lived here 32 years and when he moved here, the population was just above 4200 and here we are 32 years later and the population is just a meager amount above 5000. Looking at the homes that are up for rent, B&Bs, summer homes, and hotels ... our summer population jumps to 15,000. I am not sure how we got to this subject, but we did. I just thought it was worth mentioning. I do know somebody had brought up economic development and what would happen if we disbanded the police department with the influx of all these businesses. I think what the selectman was getting at is we have all these businesses coming into town and yet our population has hardly grown. It certainly got a lot of people thinking for a minute.

There is one guy who is trying to put on a referendum to amend an ordinance that shows why a form based restaurant needs to meet certain codes that meet certain ordinances.

There is also a woman who is trying to put together a moratorium that will put a stop on all business applications while a form based code is come up with, but she has to show why this is detrimental to the community. The problem is she has to show why her moratorium is more pertinent to the amendment to the town ordinance and then the selectmen would have to select which one would end up on the ballot.

The board chose not to move forward on the moratorium, but said if she wants to do it on her own then she can. They said the same thing about the ordinance amendments, but said if the man and woman want to work together on this they can.

Wetland concerns dominate McDonald’s debate
Wetlands on the site of the proposed McDonald’s Restaurant took front and center stage Tuesday as the Bridgton Planning Board conducted a public hearing on the controversial project before a crowd of around 35 people.
Because of the wetlands, which empty into Willett Brook, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection has asked developer Mark Lopez to investigate alternative sites and to demonstrate why no other Route 302 location nearby would be feasible for the project.
Bridgton News

One possible site has Stevens Brook running through it, another site is 2 acres in size and is more than 85% wetlands, a third site not only borders up against but also drains into Stevens Brook, and the forth spot requires that they dig up all the underground propane lines and move the inground tanks not to mention adding in a better fire suppression system than the one in place. The site they want to build on does run off into the Willett stream run off. The thing is that the water would go through three different filtration systems before leaving the system through a series of pipes. The pipes run off in the storm drain run off.

One of the planning board members wanted a site walk. All of the other members have done it already and are not interested in walking it again just for this one member who did not want to do it when she was not available. She asked if she could go by herself and was told yes. She wanted to know if all the ground markers and tree markers were present. Anybody who has driven by the place can tell that the property is without getting out of the vehicle. The other board members just looked at her and said everything is very clearly marked, will all the changes from this mornings meeting with MDEP be made by the time I get there tomorrow. Then the chairman spoke up and said that if it has been done, great, if hasn’t then so be it. It will be what it is. They are just boundary markings anyway.

You have to understand that this woman seems to be very much anti-business and fights any business coming into town unless she does not have to look at it on a daily basis.

One recurring theme was to do away with the extra retail space. With the amount of vacant retail space in this town already, I think the citizens are right about this. They spent more than an hour trying to convince the developer why we don’t need empty retail shops with nobody lined up for them in the near future. We can’t fill the ones we got, why should we be building more.

There were many people who were happy that the sign was only going to be 5ft x 7ft back lit by LED lights. Me, I think this could be a mistake because I know how bright those LED lights are. Time will tell, I guess.

Some like the idea that it is being proposed to be built on the intersection with Hannaford, Hancock Lumber, & CMP … there is a traffic light right there and there will not be any need for traffic studies to be done or traffic lights to be installed.

Bridgton police investigate kidnapping report
The man is described as white, 30-35 years of age, about 5 feet 9 inches tall, 160 pounds with dirty blond hair, a thin build and pale complexion. He was last seen wearing brown boots, dark washed jeans, a red hooded sweat shirt, tan wool gloves, a black knitted cap and a Carhartt jacket.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Bridgton Police Department at 647-8814 or your local agency.
PPH

Bridgton Police are seeking any and all information leading to the arrest of this man so they can bring charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault against this guy. Here is the problem. This took place on Wednesday and this guy could be all the way Florida or California or clear into Canada somewhere for all we know. He has a three day jump on us. I wish we had something more to go on like a vehicle description, but we don’t.

Here is a scetch of the guy on Bridgton P.D. Facebook Page
Bridgton P.D. on Facebook

If somebody else would like to take a stab at posting his picture, I would appreciate.

No moratorium on formula-based businesses
Bridgton residents… Albrecht and… Finlayson are attempting to achieve the same result, when it comes to prohibiting and/or restricting formula-based businesses.
Abrecht is proposing that a six-month moratorium on formula based businesses, such as McDonald’s.
Finlayson, on the other hand…
• one to address limiting the size of retail stores to no more than 20,000 square feet;
• another prohibiting fast food restaurants…
• a third amendment that would not allow “formula hotels and motels”…
Bridgton News

One of the councilmen had to step aside because of a conflict of interest because he owns a hotel in town. There were some people there that were opposed to the current definition of fast food restaurant as proposed because it could cause problems for their seasonal businesses that they have been running for 10, 15, or 20 years now in regards to the ice cream places that also serve hamburgers, hotdogs, ect… There were even some who opposed the 20,000 square foot limit because we have some that are larger than that now and have been here for more than a decade and nobody has complained until now. I for one will be voting against these changes when they come up. As for the moratorium, it will only affect businesses that apply for a business license or permit to do business in town starting the day after the votes have been counted and certified. So it would not even affect the McDonalds Restaurant.

Recall, a good idea
Selectman Hoyt said, the town’s Code of Ethics policy, “If something occurs where you wanted myself off the board, there’s no way to go about it.”
Hoyt cautioned his fellow board members to consider a recall ordinance that would have standards for removal in it.
“I think what Paul says makes a lot of sense,” Selectman Cash said, “I think it’s good protection for the public to have, but make sure it’s reasonable and sensible.”
Bridgton News

It is obvious Selectman Hoyt and Cash are for it. So is Woodward as he was showing what happened in another nearby town. At first I thought he was talking about Arundel, but it turns out he was talking about something that happened some place else. Selectman Triglione was only mostly in favor of it, but is going to vote in favor of this when it comes up. Now comes the chairman, Selectman Taft, he is against this. He is only voting for it because everybody else is and does not want to cause any animosity on the board.

They want to create this recall ordinance up in a way that if they have done something illegal like accepting a bribe, breaking a law where a felony is involved, they break the oath of office, or they use their office to influence others. They don’t want people trying to remove them based on their voting record, that can be done at election time.

Former railroad site, “pretty clean”
The report of a Brownfields study the town had done on the Depot Street school and former railroad yard site is complete, and it shows that the 20-acre site and school building is “not a substantial environmental threat,” according to Alan Manoian.
“It looks much better than we thought. Relatively speaking, this former railroad yard site is pretty clean.”
“All looks good for a landmark redevelopment of this great site upon Depot Street in 2011.”
Bridgton News

Over the past year, we have had several interested businesses looking at this property including a narrow guage railroad museum. Only time will tell what comes for this site for 2011.

Bridgton Police ready for fresh beginning
We're looking at are the kind of skill sets that law enforcement officials carry with them, including knowledge of modern policing technologies, community policing strategies, oral and written communication skills, and experience as a field officer and a manager.
Berkowitz said he will form a candidate-interview committee with help from the selectmen, develop a revised job description and seek applications by the end of year. A new chief could be hired by selectmen by mid-February.
PPH

I think this is something that is needed. We need to be looking outside the department, somebody with a fresh perspective and new ideas. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Temporary Signs: Blight or Boon
Several businesses are objecting to an effort by the Bridgton Planning Board to eliminate the use of temporary signs, saying such signs are crucial to their ability to stay in business.
Code Enforcement Officer Robbie Baker has sent letters to businesses that use the freestanding signs, which are usually placed close to the right-of-way to attract attention, saying the signs violate the town’s current sign ordinance.
Bridgton News

This ordinance has been on the books since 2000 and they are only starting to enforce it. Just like they are starting to enforce other parts of the sign ordinance that have to do with how long a single sign can stay up that is the type that you would change as well as those on oil cloths. It is currently 90 days and they are looking to change it to 45 days.