NEW GLOUCESTER – The Planning Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday on Duane Maschino and Sons’ gravel pit application off the Outlet Road near Sabbathday Lake.

The hearing is at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Lower Gloucester Meeting House.

The board is expected to hear from residents concerned about safety along the section of road posted at 25 miles per hour. Trucks loaded with gravel will enter the Outlet Road from a 30-foot easement granted by the United Society of Shakers and travel toward Route 26 and the Snow Hill Road.

The pit will operate from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. six days a week.

Becky Delaney, owner of the Outlet Beach, said the project is incompatible with her business that serves the community. The road to the gravel pit will be diagonally across from the business.

“I think it would be bad for the business and bad for the community of New Gloucester and area towns,” Delaney said Thursday. “I am disappointed it would be here. Local people appreciate this spot. It’s a gem.”

She took over the business last year and recently negotiated a five-year lease on the land owned by the United Society of Shakers.

Brother Arnold Hadd of the Shaker community said by telephone that a 30-foot wide easement was granted last December to Duane S. Maschino of New Gloucester. The easement area allows building a road for access to Maschino’s land-locked parcel which will use 15 acres for gravel extraction in the next 10 years.

The Shakers’ agreement allows logging, extraction of gravel and one residence.

Brother Arnold said no trees will be cut along the easement.

The area also includes historic gravel pits along the Outlet Road, the adjacent Shaker pit, the Kiley pit and the turnpike.

Lillian Nayder, who lives off the Outlet Road said, “Bringing trucks out by the outlet is a terrible idea. If he could bring it out some other way, there would be no cause for concern.”

Resident Lori Fowler said the health of Sabbathday Lake and the Royal River could be further jeopardized and needs special protection to ward off additional pollutants carried through storm water runoff from the watershed into the lake and river.

Sabbathday Lake is the headwater of the Royal River, which empties into Casco Bay in Yarmouth. In recent years, Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency have funded water protection efforts in the watershed.

This summer, the Royal River Youth Conservation Corps provided numerous storm water runoff projects to landowners and public groups to fix problem areas.