KINGFIELD – Poland Spring representatives will hold an informational meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday as the next step toward opening a bottling plant in town, company representative Tom Brennan said Monday.
As part of the water bottling company’s building permit application to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Brennan said that Poland Spring is required to hold a public meeting in Kingfield to discuss the details of the proposed facility, prior to submitting the application.
But Brennan said Monday that Poland Spring representatives expect to do more Saturday than just discuss the mechanics of the future plant.
“We’ve had so many public meetings. I’m anticipating other questions than what our application” holds, he said. So in addition to Brennan and various other engineers and hydrologists, he said there may be human resources and other representatives at Saturday’s meeting, as well.
Poland Spring hopes to submit the DEP application “sometime mid-month,” Brennan said.
And on Monday, March 13, Poland Spring representatives will take a further step toward opening a plant, when they meet with the Planning Board to “get some direction” on what Poland Spring’s Kingfield building permit application should look like.
Brennan said he was “floored” to hear the proposed ordinance changes to Kingfield’s zoning laws were enacted at last Saturday’s annual town meeting.
“I think the (planning) board should be commended,” he said. “I think the results speak for that.”
Among other things, townspeople voted to add aquifer-dependent industries to the town’s list of approved land uses, allowing the Planning Board to regulate bottling plant operations and water withdrawal without affecting other local businesses that pump large quantities of water, like farms and restaurants. The changes also clarified the town’s permitting process and lengthened it – a step that was aimed to help both the Planning Board and Poland Spring, or other applicants with big projects that require lengthy permitting processes.
The meeting will take place at Webster Hall at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning.
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