KINGFIELD – Selectmen were surprised Monday night when residents who have been collecting signatures for a moratorium on reviewing industrial permit applications did not show up to submit the signatures as expected.
Members of Citizens for Our Right to Vote started collecting signatures last week, days after Poland Spring Water Co. met with the Planning Board to discuss details of the company’s forthcoming application to build a bottling company in Kingfield.
Petition organizer Susan Mason said last week the group hopes folks in Kingfield will vote to put a moratorium in place to give Kingfield enough time to zone some town land as “industrial” – a measure the town’s Comprehensive Plan calls for but that hasn’t been implemented.
Mason and the others organizing the petition did not officially announce they would attend Monday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting, and were not on the agenda, but there was enough speculation a member of the group would show up that the Planning Board called a special meeting for Tuesday night to discuss ramifications of a moratorium.
Planning Board Chairman David Guernsey canceled the proposed special meeting Monday night and said the next scheduled meeting, during which the group plans to discuss the impending application and possible moratorium, will be on April 3.
At Guernsey’s request, selectmen unanimously authorized the Planning Board to ask lawyers from firm Eaton & Peabody to “answer any questions the board might have” with regard to the moratorium.
“I think our original authorization was to hire them for legal work pertaining to the application – I think this goes a little beyond that,” Guernsey explained.
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