FRYEBURG – The Fryeburg Board of Appeals on Wednesday dealt a blow to a proposed Poland Spring water trucking facility when it overturned, by a vote of 4-1, a Planning Board decision to approve a permit for the facility to operate in a rural residential zone.
Poland Spring, a subsidiary of Nestle Waters North American, planned to build the facility on Route 302, where as many as 50 trucks a day would be filled with water from the nearby Denmark aquifer.
Dissenting from the board’s decision was Fryeburg Police Chief Wayne Brooking.
“I hope this is a turning point,” said Ann Gamwell, an adjacent property owner and one of the many residents who packed the Fryeburg Rescue Barn to hear the appeal.
Poland Spring spokesman Tom Brennan said company will not back down, but will consider its options and move forward. The next step in the process is a Superior Court review.
The decision was the first in a multipart-part appeal concerning the facility. The remaining concerns will be addressed at an Appeals Board meeting Jan. 23.
The appeals board had approved the permit on Oct. 18, determining the business was natural-resource based and, accordingly, was permissible under the town’s land use ordinance.
A group of residents, lead by Attorney Philip Merrill of Appleton, appealed the Planning Board’s decision, claiming it (the board) had not followed due process.
He suggested the appeals board should conduct its own investigation into the conduct of the Planning Board regarding the decision, including reviewing all e-mail communications between board members and employees of Nestle.
Brennan defended the Planning Board’s decision-making process as “quite thorough.”
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