Ogunquit News
Year of drama in Ogunquit
By C. Ayn Douglass
Sen. Peter Bowman, D-Kittery, was elected to represent Ogunquit back in November and has already agreed to work on the long-standing Wells-Ogunquit CSD issue with the town. Bowman is pictured here with newly-elected Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York, who is Ogunquit's new representative to the state legislature.
File Photo
OGUNQUIT - The town of Ogunquit was not without drama this year as it faced its share of political surprise and natural adversity.
Through it all, Ogunquit year-rounders pulled together for the greater good.
The flood and what followed
Just as the town was gearing up for tourist season, Ogunquit was lashed by a fierce storm on Mother's Day weekend, straining municipal services and stranding motorists as they maneuvered around roads and bridges that were washed out.
As newly-appointed Emergency Management Director and Fire Chief Ed Smith said at the time, "I've lived here all my life and I've never seen anything like this. I've seen it bad, but nothing like this."
Smith said his department was receiving about 20 calls daily from residents and businesses.
"We've had 77 calls for water removal so far," Town Manager Phil Clark said at the time. "Everything from a foot of water in a basement to 80,000 gallons we pumped out of Gorges Grant."
The Route 1 bridge between Wells and Ogunquit broke down and a large section of Captain Thomas Road washed out when two culverts broke loose. Residents on side streets of Captain Thomas Road were advised to evacuate.
Amazingly, the Route 1 section of road where the Ogunquit River passes under it was repaired within two weeks. Clark said last week that the fix was a short-term solution as the state has a more permanent upgrade scheduled as part of a five-year plan. He expects an improvement on the narrow and fragile section of Route 1 possibly by year 2010.
On Captain Thomas Road, Maine Department of Transportation officials agreed to replace the culvert system with a bridge after abutters, residents, fire department officials and town officials lobbied to upgrade the structure.
"The culvert was supposed to withstand a 100-year storm and we've had 100-year storms three times in the last 42 years. What happens if we have them for three years running?" Clark said.
Engineers for the state were persuaded to take another look at the repair and determined that a bridge wouldn't be considered over-engineering given the storm history. The 40-foot span was expected to be completed by the end of September; however, the new completion date is now May 15.
"They just ran out of time," Clark said. "MDOT stops paving on Nov. 15 and even though the weather held, and we had some beautiful weather, they won't come back until May."
Clark said it will require only two days to complete the new bridge - one day for a base coat and one day for paving.
Meanwhile, Nuisance Island, a build-up of debris in the Ogunquit River near The Plantation, remains - gathering rubble and ruin as funding to remove the mess that was created during the May storm has not been obtained. The island has actually changed the course of the river and Clark said he believed Wells is now affected as erosion has dumped sediment along the shoreline. Since the storm, Clark said, three trees have gone into the water. An estimate of $5,000 to $10,000 has been placed on the cost to eliminate the island, and Clark, frustrated by the failure of any department to take responsibility for its removal, contacted Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, for assistance.
In a letter to Clark on Dec. 12, Snowe said she has contacted officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, FEMA and the Maine Emergency Management Agency as well as both the Maine and federal DOTs on the town's behalf. Clark is anxious to see the last of this little parcel of unbuildable land as winter weather is approaching and ice build-up will only increase the blockage.
School daze
Selectmen from Wells and Ogunquit met on Dec. 7 to continue their talks about a buyout plan and dissolution of the Wells Ogunquit Consolidated School District. A plan to dissolve the district goes back at least nine years, but no firm dollar amount has ever been agreed upon by both towns.
In November, Wells proposed a $50 million upfront buyout, which Ogunquit selectmen took back to their town to ponder.
On Dec. 7, they countered with a $40 million offer and certain concessions regarding credit for assets in the CSD, state aid money amounting to approximately $500,000 being turned over to Wells and approximately $4 to $5 million in the assets of the CSD owned partially by Ogunquit.
Wells selectmen agreed to take the offer back to their town and discuss it, although Selectman Jim Spiller said their offer in November of $50 million dollars may have been low-balled. He said he believed $60 million was more in the ballpark.
Meanwhile, Ogunquit officials decided to reinforce their intent and submit a bill to the Maine Legislature asking for the state to intervene should negotiations fail between the two towns. Newly-elected Sen. Peter Bowman, D-Kittery, agreed to sponsor the bill, which exists in title only as "An Act Relating to the Wells-Ogunquit CSD - 18."
When asked about the issue, Bowman recently confirmed, "I have 'taken on that challenge' and submitted a bill … The real challenge is up to the towns. They must resolve their long-standing differences on this issue in a fair, open, respectful and timely manner. These words are easy to say and more difficult to implement, but I remain confident that it can be done."
Ogunquit also began talks with the York School Department, which has agreed to accept Ogunquit students on a tuition-only basis, should that town so choose, once the CSD issues are resolved.
Unexpected elections
For the second consecutive year, Ogunquit voters opted to vote by secret ballot. Town Clerk Judy Shaw-Kagiliery said of the 669 ballots cast, 309 were absentee indicating Ogunquit residents preferred to be able to vote at their convenience by secret ballot.
Article 60, overwhelmingly in the affirmative, assured Ogunquit voters that the 2007 town meeting will be conducted by secret ballot. In past town meetings, fewer than 200 voters were drawn to the Dunaway Center for a full day of voting by a show of hands. The $8.5 million municipal budget passed with little fanfare.
In a stunning and unprecedented decision in the 25 years Ogunquit has been a town, two selectmen were elected by write-in.
Incumbent Charles "Bunky" Waite - who was chairman of the Board of Selectmen - was ousted, as was Don Wunder. Both men's names appeared on the ballot; however, write-in candidates Donato Tramuto and Jon Speers were elected. Speers received the largest number of votes at 405, Tramuto was second with 370, Waite garnered 271 and Wunder received 197.
On the heels of the upset victory by Speers and Tramuto was a petition committee headed by Hank Hokans and Glen Deletetsky to recall Selectwoman Jackie Bevins. Hokans declined to elaborate as to the specifics for the recall initiative, but said he believed Bevins was in violation of the town charter, the Comprehensive Plan and state law - allegations, he said, that could be backed when the time was right. The time was, apparently, never right as the initiative failed to get the required number of citizen signatures to initiate a recall.
No to zoning
By only 30 or so votes, residents voted down a warrant item to bring zoning ordinances into compliance with the Comprehensive Plan. While the 14-item warrant article contained concepts such as cluster housing, land for preservation and affordable housing, the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board opted to present all 14 items as one on the warrant - and that presented a problem for voters who took issue with two of the articles that referred to hotel/motel expansion.
The Planning Board received input from citizens at a forum held on Dec. 11, where voters indicated they would like the portions of the warrant pertaining to hotel/motel expansion to appear on the ballot separately.
Reduce and reuse
Groundbreaking took place on Oct. 3 at the new transfer station on Berwick Road. The project was bonded at $2.4 million is expected to be completed next May.
Transfer Station Manager Graham Simonds said the new facility will be much more sophisticated and allow the separation of recyclable materials such as plastics and metals that re now co-mingled.
"We're happy to get going on this," he said.
The bid was awarded to Sargent Corporation of Stillwater Maine, and Clark said the target date for opening is expected to be met.
"It's going along very well," he said last week. "The weather has been with us and the (crew) is actually ahead of where they expected to be. The weather has allowed them to pour concrete pads later than they expected to."
The year that was 2006
Parking lot revenue is up by $35,000 over last year, according to Clark, despite a rainy spring and a 100-year storm. This year, the combined four lots collected $1,306,000 to put towards reducing property taxes in town.
The town has received $49,000 in reparations from the state and federal government for damage done in the Mother's Day storm and Clark said neither government owes the town any more money. And the town completed its first town-wide revaluation in more than 10 years, bringing its value to current levels and making the town-wide evaluation more than $1 billion.
At the end of the year, the town of Ogunquit can be proud of how much its boards, committees, volunteers, officials and employees have accomplished.
