NEW GLOUCESTER – The Planning Board has unanimously approved Maschino and Sons’ gravel pit application near Sabbathday Lake and the Royal River.

A group protested the location of the access road leading to the project. They charged that environmental, recreational and safety issues were jeopardized by gravel trucks traveling along congested Outlet Road by the popular Outlet Beach and over a narrow bridge where visitors walk, travel by bicycle, and school buses and vehicles park in the summer months.

There are two gravel pits operating nearby but farther from the river and the lake.

Planning Board Chairman Jean Libby said, “This is one business trying to operate with another business. We need to keep business and make sure it’s safe.”

Duayne Maschino was granted a 30-foot wide, 2,000-foot long easement by the United Society of Shakers last December to his land-locked 76 acres. The access road is close to the outlet stream of the Royal River.

The Planning Board learned from Maschino’s agent, Rick Jones, of Jones Associates of Poland Spring, that the access road was measured by Maine Department of Environmental Protection officials at a distance between 40 and 48 feet from the high-water mark of the Royal River.

The town’s road construction ordinance gives the Planning Board authority to reduce the road requirement to no less than 50 feet if proper measures are taken to prevent sedimentation entering the water.

Lillian Nayder of Lakeview Drive, spokeswoman for 69 residents, said after the meeting that she was disappointed by the board’s action to approve the project without Town Planner Amanda Simpson being present.

Simpson was out of town celebrating her recent wedding. Simpson wrote on her memo to the Planning Board, “The easement area plan is not a survey prepared by a licensed surveyor and therefore does not accurately locate the Royal River or the appropriate zoning district boundaries. It is recommended that this area be surveyed so that the impact can be properly reviewed. Without this information it is impossible to tell exactly what regulations apply.”

Abutters and interested parties have said the entrance way is less than 40 feet and might be less than 20 feet from the high-water mark of the Royal River, Simpson wrote.

Nayder said she was “appalled” by the board’s disregard for following the planners’ recommendation.

“It seems as if voodoo measurements were used to measure the distance from the access road to the river,” she said.

Maschino is required to submit a letter from Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection on the river-to-road distance.

And, Maschino is required to close his trucking operation at noon Saturdays during July and August. A business sign will be posted at the road. And no on-site blasting will be permitted. He is required to work with Cumberland County Soil and Water Conservation District for erosion control, reclamation and road safety issues. A bond or surety will be worked out with the town manager for the project to excavate 12 acres designated as the gravel operation.

Noise levels are to be checked on-site. And, no rock material can be brought on for crushing.

Nayder and others told the board earlier this month, the idea of bringing gravel trucks onto Outlet Road at Outlet Beach and the head of the Royal River is a terrible idea.

Maschino agreed to close trucking operations on Saturdays during July and August to accommodate the beach business customers’ safety needs. During those months, trucks will not pass by the beach from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. but instead travel toward Snow Hill Road.

Chairwoman Libby refused to take public comment or clarification questions from roughly 30 people in the audience.

“Concerned citizens are feeling frustrated with the Planning Board’s unwillingness to consider our concerns or those of the town planner,” Nayder said.

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