POLAND — Town officials are blaming themselves for a series of mistakes that have forced a pair of local business owners — Cyndi Robbins and Peter Bolduc — to close a gravel pit that’s been operating since the 1950s. The culprit was a forgotten and misfiled piece of paper.

“It was human error,” Town Manager Dana Lee said. “We should have known. They should have known.”

The paper was a letter from the town dated July 13. It followed the purchase by Robbins and Bolduc of the Whalesback Drive pit. It told them they had to file a site review plan and appear before the Planning Board before they could begin operating the pit.

The parties forgot about the note until Michelle Arsenault, who lives near the pit on Phillips Way, began complaining about the noise and researching the town’s papers and rules.

She discovered that the new pit owners never appeared before the Planning Board, and she complained.

“What’s right is right,” Arsenault said. She worried that Bolduc, a selectman, knew he was violating town rules. 

On Wednesday, Bolduc said he hadn’t known. He thought he and Robbins were fine; the pit has been in continuous use for decades and its material was being used on their private projects. Robbins owns the Poland Spring Inn. Bolduc owns Harvest Hill Farm.

On Dec. 16, Bolduc and Planning Board Chairman Charles Finger found copies of the July letter.

“We voluntary shut our operation down at the pit,” Bolduc said. He and Robbins have hired a consultant to do their site work before appearing before the Planning Board in January.

The changes should have been made sooner, Lee said.

“We apologize for the slowness of our response,” he said.

Wendy Sanborn, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, said Wednesday that she hoped the reputation of the town leadership is secure. She vowed to restore Arsenault’s faith.

“We are working so hard to make it right,” Sanborn said.

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