SEARSPORT, Maine — A new bulk storage facility that has operated in Searsport since the summer has raised the ire of neighbors, who say that the business is too loud, too brightly lit, has operated around the clock and has negatively affected their quality of life.
They’ve taken their concerns about Maine Materials Inc. to both town officials and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. In response, the state agency recently wrote a letter to the company to remind the owners that they are allowed only to operate between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. In case the town needs to modify the permit the planning board granted to the company on Jan. 12, the selectmen voted earlier this month to hire an attorney to advise the Searsport code enforcement officer and the planning board about their next steps.
“It’s new territory for us,” Searsport Town Manager James Gillway said on Friday. “We want to do it right. We want to respect the rights of the folks expressing the need, and the business owners, who have rights, too.”
Jay Economy, who owns and manages the nearby Yardarm Motel, wrote the town code enforcement officer a letter on Oct. 20 that details some of his concerns about the new company. He said in the letter that when Maine Materials Inc. received a shipment of salt at about 10 p.m. on July 20, an “unending line” of dump trucks unloaded the salt while two bulldozers pushed it into a huge pile. All the while, the facility was brightly lit up by portable telescoping lights, he wrote.
“The sound was incredibly loud. When each truck unloaded, there was a series of loud tailgate slams that occurred and the bulldozers ran non-stop … creating an unrelenting loud ratcheting noise,” he wrote. “This process continued 24-7 for over three days. After the first night, we received complaints from our motel guests, saying that they were kept awake all night by this noise.”
He wrote that when he learned Maine Materials planned another four or five shipments of salt from August through October, he figured the “non-stop noise and bright lighting throughout the night for three to five days during each shipment would be the death knell of our motel business.”
Efforts to speak with Patrick Thibodeau, who co-owns Maine Materials Inc. with Steve Clisham, have been unsuccessful.
Gillway said that Thibodeau and Clisham were able to construct their business at the Trundy Road location — at an estimated cost of $776,000, according to the land use permit granted in April by the Maine DEP — only because town residents voted at this March’s annual town meeting to expand the Mack Point industrial zone toward U.S. Route 1.
The decision meant that the wooded 6.72-acre parcel on the Trundy Road, previously zoned for commercial use, was suddenly in the industrial use zone. In the permit, the DEP considered the scenic character of the area and found that it wasn’t a consideration.
“The proposed site is located in an industrial area within close proximity to an industrial port,” the permit read. “The nature of the materials stored at this site necessitates a close proximity to the port. The proposed project will be compatible with the existing industrial landscape in the area.”
That, however, is not what some Searsport residents — including Jay Economy and Meredith Ares — think.
“This is really something that’s affecting both the town and the people of the town,” Ares, a selectman, said recently. “It’s only about 100 yards from homes and businesses. I don’t think anybody in Searsport realized what a noisy operation salt storage is.”