PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will decide if a Stockton Springs woman’s home is a dangerous structure, as a lower court found, and, as a result should be destroyed or if she will be able to live there.
Hollie A. Beal appealed the decision issued in March by a Superior Court judge, arguing that:
— The Board of Selectmen did not comply with due process requirements in its hearing on the matter.
— There was insufficient evidence to support the board’s findings.
— The board’s subsequent hearings, held after its initial determination that the building was dangerous, failed to remedy the deficiencies in the initial hearing and decision.
Justices heard oral arguments in the appeal Thursday at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland.
Beal has been embroiled for more than two years in a battle with the town of Stockton Springs over the fate of the Sandy Point structure, which originally was built in the late 19th century as a grain storage shed for the old Littlefield Store. Beal, a Bar Harbor bartender and a flea market vendor, maintains she is trying to renovate the 675-square-foot building into a simple, comfortable space.
The Stockton Springs Board of Selectmen voted in 2014 to condemn the building after holding several hearings and declaring it a dangerous property. The board did not order the destruction of the structure. Beal appealed that decision in Waldo County Superior Court, but in March 2016, Justice Robert Murray sided with the town.
According to the state of Maine’s dangerous building ordinance, when municipal officers find that a building or structure is structurally unsafe, unstable, unsanitary, constitutes a fire hazard, is hazardous to health or safety because of inadequate maintenance, is unsuitable for the use to which it is put or is otherwise dangerous to life or property, they may, after “notice and hearing,” decide what to do with the building or structure in question.
Beal’s attorney, Aaron Fethke of Searsport, argued Thursday that he was not allowed to cross-examine witnesses at the initial hearing, which violated his client’s due process rights. Fethke also said that although the board held subsequent hearings, selectmen already had made up their minds about the structure and weren’t open to reconsidering the decision.
The town’s attorney, Erik Stumpfel of Bangor, said Thursday that the town did not seek his input until after it had held the first hearing. He said the subsequent hearings assured Beal of her right to due process.
Beal maintains she has tried to work with the town to make the required improvements to her house, which she purchased 10 years ago for $13,500. She used to live in it until 2014, when the dispute with the town began. That year, she hired a contractor to jack up the house and make it level and add a new metal roof. The contractor testified at the initial hearing that the building was structurally sound.
So far the renovations have cost about $20,000, and Beal estimated in February that it will take another $15,000 to complete. For the moment, Beal is living in a house her father owns in Lamoine and has continued to work on the house, despite it being in legal limbo.
There is no timetable under which the court must issue a decision.
BDN writer Abigail Curtis contributed to this report.