WILTON — The sale of a Main Street property to Central Maine Power has neighbors concerned as rumors about construction of a proposed substation circulate.

Phil and Kim Hilton confirmed that their property at 1228 Main St. has been sold to Central Maine Power.

The town has not received an application from CMP for new construction at the property, Code Enforcement Officer Roger Williams said Thursday.  

Williams said he called CMP to see what was going on so he could respond to calls from property owners in the East Wilton neighborhood. As of late Thursday afternoon, Williams had not received a response from CMP.

The Hiltons indicated they didn’t know the details of CMP’s plans for the property in response to a Facebook posting that said the house was to be torn down for construction of a substation.

They doubted the need to tear down the building for space because it sits on more than 5 acres.  

“As part of our agreement to sell, we required that if they develop it as a substation, then it needs to be as far from the road as possible and surrounded by trees,” Phil Hilton said in a post on Facebook. “We required this to protect our neighbors’ property values.”  

Property valuation concerns next-door neighbor India Adams, but so do health issues posed by the possibility of living next to an electrical substation, she said.

The Adamses learned of the property sale when they saw the Hiltons moving and her husband went over to ask about it, she said.

No nearby property owners have been notified that CMP is considering building a substation right next door, India Adams said. “People are very upset.”

Adams said she learned that CMP has been working on this for 18 months and had considered buying the Backus garage property.

A call to a CMP project manager provided little information Thursday, she said. The project manager wanted to know how much Adams knew and what her issues were so he could convey them to management, she said.

“Regardless of whether it is a large or small substation, they all create an electromagnetic field,” Adams said as she voiced concerns from research on health effects, including cancer, tumors and childhood leukemia. 

“Until an application is received by the town, it is just rumor,” Williams said of the process of licensing with the town’s Planning Board. 

No one was available from CMP to respond to calls made late Thursday afternoon.

abryant@sunmediagroup.net

The address was changed to 1228 Main Street.