By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO— The locally elected officials gave the Town of Casco the go-ahead to take a landowner to court over a junkyard violation in the Kettle Cove area. 

Before the 5-0 vote, selectmen commented, “It is long overdue” and “It would make some residents happy.”

Also, the Casco Board of Selectmen voted to hold the public hearings on Nov. 15 at the Casco Community Center, to determine if a structure is dangerous, thus starting the legal process for disposing of a building that was burned a decade ago. The address of that structure is 475 Poland Spring Rd. Abutters will be notified. 

In both instances, Casco Code Enforcement Officer John Wiesemann via a letter to the board recommended that legal action be taken. 

Casco Town Manager Tony Ward presented the cases. The first one has a street address of 12 Harmony Rd., which is in the Kettle Cove area. 

“If you’ve gone out there, you’ll know that it is a dead end. If you go out there, it is substantial. It meets the classification of a junk yard,” Ward said. “We have communicated with this owner on numerous occasions for numerous years with no success.”

“John is recommending and I agree that we go to the next aspect and go through the legal process, through the district court to have that determined as a junk yard.” 

Recently, the town prevailed after taking a Quaker Ridge Road residence to court for junkyard violation. In that case, the judge ordered the land-owner to remove the junk by a certain date or the town would contract someone to do it.  

“We just went through that on Quaker Ridge. Before we are willing to move as staff, as the town manager, we want the support from the selectboard,” Ward said. “Last time, it was $15,000 to $18,000 to do it, which ultimately we can get reimbursed on.  After we do this, it might be 3 years, we can get reimbursed through the foreclosure process,” he said.

Ward did not have to persuade the board to move forward. Nor did they have to discuss the matter for long.

“This is long overdue. It has a history,” Select-board member Mary-Vienessa Fernades said. 

“It would make some residents happy. It is well overdue, and being that close to Sebago Lake also is scary,” Chairman Robert MacDonald said.

The second code violation on the agenda was a dangerous building, located 475 Poland Springs Rd., also known as Route 11. 

“I wasn’t here when it burned down. He [CEO Wiesemann] had brought this to the town’s attention. And I hadn’t acted on it as I probably should have,” Ward said

For the sake of public safety and town safety, it should have been done sooner, he said, apologizing    

“This is a burnt out building, approximately 10 years ago. It has been a dangerous building for 10 years. It has sat there,” Ward said. 

The landowner keeps up on the tax bill, he said.

“For people who haven’t been here, we just went through the process at 388 Roosevelt Trail. I’ll tell you it is a long process. It took us a year with the other one,” he said. “There’s nothing quick about this dangerous building process.”

The next step won’t happen for another two months— on Nov. 15 — when a public hearing will be held to determine if the structure does indeed fall into the category of “dangerous building.”