CHESTERVILLE – Selectmen will hold a public hearing Thursday on a proposed automobile recycling center at 79 Zions Hill Road.
Chesterville Code Enforcement Officer Brenda Medcoff said the proposal calls for recycling to be done inside an old chicken barn. All fluids would be removed from the vehicles in the building, which has a cement floor.
After all the salvageable parts are removed, the junk vehicles would be taken to Oakland or another place in what the applicant, William Fahey of Kennebunk, is expecting would be a quick turnover for the most part, she said.
Medcoff said she has notified all abutters of the property about the hearing, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, at the Chesterville Town Office.
Several abutters have come in to ask questions on the proposed application, she said.
Fran Fuller of the Dutch Gap Road said some of his concerns include noise, environment, fluids, accumulation of vehicles waiting to be recycled, and visual pollution.
Fahey, a veteran criminal lawyer in Massachusetts, said Tuesday he plans to set up an indoor auto recycling center, the only one in Maine, in a former chicken barn that he bought from former owner John Gee.
He owns two separate pieces of property, one behind the other, he said. One parcel is 18 acres.
“I’m going to run a clean operation,” Fahey said. “I’m doing it the right way.”
He plans to stay at a cottage on his property on weekends and other times to oversee the business, he said.
He said he plans to do what’s right for neighbors, himself and the environment.
No vehicles will be seen from the road, he said. If a few vehicles cannot be picked up right away, he said, they would be stored out of sight behind his barn.
All the fluids will be burned in an appropriate burner, he said. A portable crusher will come in, he said, to flatten the vehicles. There will be no noise to disturb the neighbors, he said.
The carcasses of the vehicles will be taken away to a recycling facility in Oakland, he added.
All companies that deal in recycled automobile parts need the core parts, such as alternators and catalytic converters of the vehicle, to rebuild the parts, Fahey said.
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