Buxton selectmen are locked in what one called a “power struggle” with Buxton Planning Board members over the a new public works garage for the town.
“I think it’s a power struggle (over) which way it should go. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” said Selectman Robert Libby.
The members of each board have been arguing over the location of a driveway that will lead to the new garage. Selectmen want the garage to have a driveway separate from Town Hall, but Planning Board members believe the new garage should share a driveway with Town Hall. The Planning Board will meet with selectmen to discuss the project in a workshop at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, in Town Hall.
The dispute has led the Planning Board to consider hiring an attorney of its own, rather than consult with the town attorney. One selectman this week questioned whether Planning Board Chairman Keith Emery should step down from his post when the board votes on the project because he works for the town’s public works department.
About the only thing members of the two boards agree upon is that the town needs a new garage. Built in the 1950s, the town’s present garage is too small and inefficient, with the furnace running steadily from November through March. The town has nine trucks but only four bays.
Selectmen are proposing a new garage that would be built next to the Town Hall on Portland Road. The garage would replace the present one on Haines Meadow Road in Buxton Center. But Planning Board members have objections to the selectmen’s plans.
A project building committee, chaired by Selectman Dan Collomy, wants a separate driveway for the garage, while Planning Board members have disagreed. They prefer that a garage would share the existing entrance that serves the town hall, police department, transfer station and salt shed.
Collomy expects the Planning Board will ask selectmen several questions about the project, but he said the driveway seems to be the biggest concern. “It’s the entrance they seem to have a problem with,” Collomy said.
Disagreements over the entrance
Some selectmen don’t feel that the Planning Board should tell them to relocate the driveway for the project. They feel the Planning Board should approve or reject the entire project.
“Tell us yes or no,” Collomy said.
Libby agreed. “Either approve or deny it,” he said.
He also said the present entrance into Town Hall is the only one for the police department. Libby said Police Chief Jody Thomas has written the Planning Board a letter supporting a separate entrance for a new garage.
Libby objects to public works trucks using the same entrance as the other town departments. He said the road wasn’t designed to handle heavy equipment.
“The state gave us a curb cut permit” for a separate driveway to the garage, Libby said.
Planning Board Chairman Keith Emery disagrees that the proposed garage needs a separate driveway. Emery said the state is telling the Planning Board to limit the number of driveways entering busy highways like the Portland Road. He believes the town should set an example for the taxpayers and for developers.
“Approval is through the Planning Board,” Emery said.
He also doesn’t agree with the location selectmen are proposing for the garage. “The way we see it,” he said, bulk fuel can’t be stored at the site. “I think (the garage) should be located near the salt shed,” he said.
Collomy expects to hear environmental concerns at the meeting. He said it would be nice to have fuel tanks at the site they’re proposing, but he believes the tanks could be located somewhere else.
More misunderstandings
Emery said there’s still “quite a bit” of paperwork to be done on the selectmen’s application, and he said there are legal questions about the proposal. At a Planning Board meeting in August, Emery said the board might have to hire its own lawyer because the town lawyer had been talking with the selectmen about the garage proposal. Emery said this week that hiring a lawyer for the Planning Board remained a possibility.
Chairman of the Board of Selectmen Cliff Emery, who is a cousin to Keith Emery, said he doesn’t know why Planning Board members are “so against” their proposal. Cliff Emery said the selectmen’s proposal is a special exemption in that zone. The town’s ordinance tells selectmen what they can do, he said.
If the Planning Board denies the proposal as presented with valid reasons, Cliff Emery is unsure what recourse selectmen would have. “I don’t know what we could fall back on,” Cliff Emery said.
A citizen member of the committee recommending the garage proposal, Dennis Sweatt, said a Planning Board denial would force them to develop another plan. “If they turn us down, we’ll go back to the drawing board,” he said.
Potential conflict
Because Keith Emery works for Buxton’s Public Works Department, Collomy believes Emery could be involved in the discussions but should abstain from voting on the project. “You would think, with professional ethics, he would step down,” Collomy said.
But Keith Emery doesn’t see his position as being a conflict with his duties on the Planning Board. “No,” he said about seeing any problem with it.
“If they think that way, we have a new board member that could be a conflict,” he said, referring to Barbara Elwell.
The selectmen recently appointed Elwell to the Planning Board, filling a vacant seat. She’s the wife of Sharon Elwell, who is a member of the town’s committee that is presenting the proposal to the Planning Board. But Sharon Elwell, the former Buxton road commissioner, retired last year.
Cliff Emery doesn’t have a concern about any conflict between Keith Emery’s job and his role on the Planning Board. “It doesn’t make any difference to me. It doesn’t bother me any,” Cliff Emery said.
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