NEW GLOUCESTER – A dozen angry residents this week protested a recent logging operation that cut a 60-foot swath through the Tobey and Swamp roads.
Tobey Road resident Debbie May questioned the cutting that’s been done along roughly three-quarters of a mile of the closed portion of the road west of the Maine Turnpike.
“I’ve lived on the Tobey Road for 20 years. I don’t think the residents feel we should put the Maine Turnpike on the Tobey Road, a one-way road. I feel it’s not a road improvement, not maintenance but road devastation. This is a peaceful quiet one-lane road,” she said.
The two roads in the western part of the town lie along land owned by Chandler Brothers, a family-owned tree management company. Portions of both roads have no residents and therefore are not maintained in winter. It is those sections that have been cleared.
Chandler Brothers spokesman Steve Chandler of New Gloucester has asked selectmen in the past to close Swamp Road permanently, but was unsuccessful.
The roads have been the sites of illegal dumping and have had little town maintenance except periodic grading, town officials said.
Highway Department Director Kevin Doyle didn’t tell selectmen he hired local men to cut the down the swath of trees, Chairman Steve Libby said. Light trimming and cutting was all that had been planned for the area, he said.
“I got a lot of calls. I was embarrassed I didn’t know about it. This clear cut is reconstruction, not maintenance,” he said.
Doyle said he considers the work maintenance to prepare for future reconstruction of roads to town standards.
He said he opted to contract the work instead of using the town crew for a four-week project that would cost roughly $20,000. Instead, he found local men with references to do the work for $1,000 and the wood. Some local residents were offered wood along the right of way, also.
“As a road person I’m obligated to make the roads safe and passable. I didn’t do this to aggravate people,” Doyle said.
No money is earmarked for future improvements on the roads including stump removal, constructing 4-foot shoulders and turnouts and installing culverts.
“I have a hard time with town employees entering a contract without selectmen approval,” May said. “The town gave up $12,000 of assets to have the road cleared. That kind of action scares me. Someone authorized the sale of the town property without selectmen knowing about it,” she said.
Town Manager Rosemary Kulow said Tuesday that the cutting was done between March 6 and 20 by logger Ron Kimball of Poland and hauled by Roger Lund of New Gloucester. She said there was no accounting by the town of the amount of wood, its value or who it was given to.
Tobey Road resident Patrick Plourde said, “I understand we need progress. If I could have the Old Tobey Road back, that’s a beautiful place but now it’s an airfield.”
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