The Gray Town Council met on Tuesday
with five presentations and no action items on its agenda. First up was MSAD 15
Superintendent Bruce Beasley to
share information about the two November referendum questions that The Eagle has previously reported on.
One new piece of information that came to
light that may help explain the perceived disparity in the proportion of
academic and athletic proposed expenditures, was prompted by a question from
council chair Matthew Sturgis regarding previous district capital projects.
Beasley reported that for the past 20 years at least, there have been virtually
no taxpayer funds spent to upgrade
outdoor athletic facilities. Two more informational public forums are scheduled
and all the information is available on the MSAD 15 website.
Anne Gass and Rick Licht of the
Community Economic Development Committee (CEDC) asked the council for some
direction of the committee’s desire to
explore village traffic and pedestrian improvements at the Brown Street and
Yarmouth Road intersection and at Durgin Corner, noting that there may be
Community Development Block Grant opportunities available for certain
improvements. The Council agreed that the CEDC should continue with the
initiative and report back.
Anne Gass also represented the Bike-Ped
committee to request permission to seek grant funding of $35,000 from the Regional
Trails Program (RTP). The Bike-Ped committee is a subcommittee of the Gray
Recreation and Conservation Committee and has worked to
propose a pedestrian path that navigates Gray Village connecting all of the
area assets. Gass explained that the grant would require a 20 percent match
($8,700) which could be either in cash or in-kind services. She also reported
that the committee has been in discussion with any private property owners who
might consider providing easements that would enhance the proposed trail which
has been dubbed “the Village Area Loop Trail” (VALT). The Council agreed that
the committee should pursue the grant.
The Council heard from several residents
of Gore Road near Little Sebago. Gore begins in Gray as a public road then for
.116 miles at the Raymond border it becomes private. In Raymond the situation
is similar with a private portion at the Gray border. The private portion in
Gray has six residences on it and is in very poor repair making it difficult
for travel and particularly emergency and school vehicles.
According to Town Attorney
Bill Dale, by law, because it’s private, the town
cannot expend public money for improvements or upgrades, except to provide winter plowing in the interest of public
safety to maintain emergency access.
In order for the town to be able to
have legal right to further maintain
the road, public easements must be agreed to
by the property owners along the stretch of road. A lengthy discussion took place with many area residents offering
opinions about what the town should
be doing. According to Sturgis, “The bottom
line is to procure the public
easements from the residents in order for the town to
have the right to do anything more
than plowing.” At the meeting, Town Manager Deborah
Cabana reported that all six homeowners had been contacted,
four have either signed or agreed to
the easement, and two have yet to do
so.
Finally a proposal by TZ Properties, LLC
of Falmouth for a contract zone to
allow 12 condominiums, one a 13-acre parcel off Whitney Road was not well
received. The proposed site is in the Rural Residential and Agricultural Zone
(RRA) and requires a minimum of two acres per dwelling. In a conversation after
the meeting, Sturgis explained that the two previous contract zone requests,
one for Advance Realty in Gray Center and one pending to
Britton Lumber would ultimately
increase economic development, where the proposal brought forth at the meeting
did not demonstrate any benefit to
the town. The Council meets next on
October 21.
Photo
Caption: Courtesy of Bike-Ped Committee “Proposed Gray Village Area Loop Trail
(VALT)”
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