By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

FRYEBURG – After Planning Board Chairman Ted Raymond took more than two hours to read aloud a 16-page document explaining the reasons behind accepting Poland Spring’s proposed truck loading facility, four of Fryeburg’s five Planning Board members voted to approve it.

“No one is happy making this decision,” Raymond said Wednesday night. “It is just something we have to do based on the ordinance.”

Poland Spring, owned by Nestle Waters North America Inc., wants to build a loading facility on Route 302 where trucks can fill up with water pumped from wells in Denmark. The tanker trucks would transport the water to bottling facilities.

Townspeople opposed to the plan have argued that the facility was not allowed in a rural residential zone because it was a commercial, industrial business. But the Planning Board found that it was allowable in the zone largely because the company is natural-resource based – it sells water – which is a legal use there.

Hannah Warren, a Planning Board alternate who objected to many parts of the document as it was read Wednesday, maintained that the facility was a commercial use. She argued that the operation would interfere with neighbors’ enjoyment of their properties and increase traffic hazards on Route 302.

After the meeting, she said, “I have a strong moral compass,” explaining her vehement objection to the Planning Board’s decision.

Objectors in Fryeburg have wondered whether a large corporation might be too powerful for a small town to fight.

Warren did not vote because she is an alternate member of the board. Only Planning Board member Carol Gregory voted against the permit.

Tom Brennan, a natural resource manager at Poland Spring, said that he struggles with being seen as the bad corporate character.

He said Wednesday, “I’m pleased we got this approval, but sensitive to the concerns of Fryeburg.”

He added that the company would heed the conditions of the permit, which include limiting trucks to 50 a day, erecting noise buffers, and curtailing truck traffic during commuting hours, among others.

The facility, connected by a three-mile pipe to a Denmark aquifer, will bring the company 105 million gallons of water a year. Brennan said in a previous interview that expanding Poland Spring will help the company stay competitive in a tight market.

Philip Merrill, an attorney who represents a large group of resident objectors, said on Thursday that he spoke with his clients, and they want to appeal the decision before the Board of Appeals.

He said he has never been to a Planning Board meeting like the one Wednesday night, where the chairman read the document aloud and it was approved by the board section by section. “They came with a prepared script, and they sat there like a bunch of sheep, voting over and over the same thing,” he said.

Planning Board member Gene Bergoffen said Thursday that he wrote the draft, which he said was unread by board members until the meeting. “I felt it was useful to me to organize my own thinking and test my thinking about what we had heard. It was a good way to share with others,” he said.

Raymond said Thursday that despite voting for the facility, he supports redrafting the land-use law. “I think the ordinance should be changed,” he said. “Exactly what the language should be I am not sure. I look forward to public debate about that.”

Merrill said his clients are circulating a petition to have an elected Planning Board in Fryeburg rather than an appointed one, and they would like to see townspeople vote on ambiguous land-use questions similar to this one.

Mark Hensler, who lives on Hemlock Bridge Road, close to the site, muttered, “It’s incredible,” after the decision came down. He said he and his wife, who have been in Fryeburg for six years, have already talked about moving out of the town. “We’re out of here. We’re pulling up stakes,” he said.