PARIS – Troy Ripley and his attorney, Dana Hanley, attended the Paris selectmen’s meeting Monday hoping to hear the status of Ken’s Lane, off Mountain View Drive. Ripley, the potential developer of land at the end of Ken’s Lane, is unable to access the land because a garage completely blocks the road.
At their last meeting, selectmen questioned whether Ken’s Lane was still a town road, or if it had been abandoned by the town. They asked town attorney Alan Perry to attend Monday’s meeting to advise them on the matter.
After an hour of executive session, though, selectmen voted to announce the status of Ken’s Lane at a special selectmen’s meeting this Thursday. Ripley, visibly upset, told Town Manager Sharon Jackson that she’d told him action would be taken at Monday’s meeting. He said that the town was “not extending any courtesy” to him in its handling of the matter.
Hanley agreed with Ripley, saying that he and Ripley should have been told by selectmen that no decision would be made before the executive session, especially given that the owner of the garage and his attorney were not present. “I don’t think this was the best way to handle this,” he said.
“We didn’t say that there was going to be any decision made,” Jackson answered. She said that selectmen planned to take action Thursday on the advice they received from Perry at Monday’s meeting.
Hanley asked whether a decision had already been made or if he and other parties involved would be allowed to speak at Thursday’s meeting.
“I certainly wouldn’t want the town to invite a lawsuit upon itself,” he said. “Hopefully, the town will take the time to hear all the history and all of the ramifications.”
Hanley was assured by Selectman Gerald Kilgore that “we want to hear all sides involved.”
The special selectmen’s meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday will also address an emergency moratorium on methadone clinics in the town.
Following neighboring towns Norway and Oxford, the town hopes to pass an ordinance at a special town meeting to temporarily ban methadone clinics. Jackson will present a proposed ordinance to selectmen Thursday and ask them to set a date for a special town meeting, tentatively for July 25.
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