WESTBROOK – All eyes will be on Pike Industries in the coming week, as the company is expected to begin work on an access road to its Spring Street quarry, which will likely include blasting.

“We will be the watchdogs. It’s not going to be the city,” said Kathleen Thornton, a Finch Street resident who has been outspoken against Pike’s activities in the past.

On May 5, City Engineer Eric Dudley issued the city’s approval for the work to begin. Jonathan Olson, Pike’s general manager in Westbrook. The approval allows Pike to build an access road needed to resume work on the quarry on the site, according to Dudley and City Administrator Jerre Bryant.

Any blasting, according to the approval letter, must be limited to 10 blasts, and will require permits from the city. Olson said this week that he didn’t know exactly how much blasting would be necessary, but said Pike would remain within the guidelines of the agreement.

City officials confirmed that Pike received a blasting permit late Tuesday afternoon.

Warren Knight, a member of the family that owns Smiling Hill Farm, another critic of the Pike quarry, said there are mechanisms in place to appeal decisions by the city to grant permits, but he wasn’t sure if Smiling Hill was planning to take that step.

“We’re going to keep all options open,” he said.

The quarry has been a bone of contention for many of its neighbors, most notably Idexx Laboratories, Artel Inc., Smiling Hill Farm, and a group of residents in the nearby Birdland neighborhood. At issue is periodic blasting at the quarry, which Pike officials have acknowledged the company will need to do.

When executives at Idexx, the manufacturer of veterinary testing equipment, disclosed they were reconsidering plans to build a $50 million corporate headquarters, which would employ approximately 500 people, because of the Pike quarry, city officials began discussing re-zoning the Five Star Industrial Park, including the quarry, to “light manufacturing,” a move Pike officials said would put the quarry out of business.

Before the dispute landed the city in court, the City Council voted to approve a negotiated agreement with Pike on Sept. 8, 2010. The agreement was later approved by a Cumberland County Superior Court judge. The 25-page agreement among Pike, Idexx, and the city set more than 40 conditions on Pike’s continued operations at the quarry, including that the company meet regularly with local residents to address future concerns.

While the agreement has quieted Idexx’s objections, the other parties continue to voice concerns. Artel, which manufactures sensitive fluid-measuring equipment, has maintained that blasting at the quarry will be disruptive to its business.

The company, together with Smiling Hill Farm, have filed an appeal of the agreement, which is now pending in Maine Supreme Judicial Court, according to Pike’s attorney, Sigmund Schutz, of the firm Preti Flaherty of Portland.

Schutz said the court recently struck down a request from Artel and Smiling Hill to grant an injunction preventing Pike from working on the quarry until the appeal is resolved.

The other suit, according to Schutz, is a similar suit in Cumberland County Superior Court against the city from the Birdland neighborhood. Schutz said the court has ordered that case be put on hold until the Superior Court case is resolved.

This week, Olson said the access road runs parallel to Spring Street before connecting to it. Olson said Pike is building the access road as part of the consent agreement.

“It allows all the truck traffic to avoid the four to five houses along Spring Street,” he said.

According to the agreement, Olson said, Pike must complete the road by June 9. When asked if Pike could meet the deadline, Olson said, “Absolutely.”

Dick Daigle, facilities manager at Idexx, said his company had no problem with Pike going forward with the access road construction, even if it includes blasting.

“We’re going to be monitoring their activities, but we do not anticipate any problems,” he said.

Artel spokesman Jack Wood said he would have preferred Pike hold off on its work until after the legal appeal had been resolved.

“We’re disappointed that the city and Pike have elected to go ahead with acting on this consent agreement, given that the agreement may be overturned in the near future,” he said.

Wood said Artel executives are still concerned about the effects vibrations from Pike’s blasting will have on Artel’s operations.

“Any sort of blasting activity is incredibly disruptive to our business,” he said.

Knight, speaking for Smiling Hill Farm, said he was disappointed to hear that Pike had been granted permission to begin work.

“It’s not a use that’s suitable for that location,” he said.

Thornton, whose street lies in the Birdland neighborhood, said she and other area residents received a registered letter from Pike prior to May 5, which informed her the company would have to use explosives for a future project.

The letter, she said, offered to put Thornton on a list of residents to get phone calls warning of imminent blasting. In addition, the letter also offered to have a technician come to her home to take video of her property prior to any blasting.

Thornton said she took advantage of both offers, but like Wood, she said she is disappointed that Pike is moving forward despite pending litigation. If Pike goes ahead with blasting, she said, then loses to the appeal in court, the company would not be able to undo any damage or disruption the blasting would cause.

“We had hoped that the court would issue a stay, and that no blasting would start until the lawsuits had been resolved,” she said.

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