By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

Tori Hill will be the first to tell you that Bridgton has many talented and hard-working people taking aim to update the Comprehensive Plan.

But, she also recognizes the update will be technical and will require a degree of expertise.

A road map to assist towns in addressing such upgrades is “Comprehensive Planning: A Manual for Maine Communities” written by Evan Richert and Syliva Most.

One piece of advice appears on Page 5 — “If the committee wants to carry out the plan by itself, it should understand the scope of the task and make sure it has committee members with the skills, time and commitment to execute it. Leadership and coordination will be especially important; it must be provided by municipal officers or town staff and a highly committed chairperson or steering committee. A warning is in order: Many towns start out trying to do the work themselves, but then flounder and later backtrack to hire a consultant. If you plan to do the work yourselves, make sure that you’re being realistic.”

Tori Hill is a realist. While the town has until 2026 to present the state’s Planning Office with an updated Comp Plan, Hill feels hiring a consultant to actually write the new plan is the way to go. These professionals know what the plan will require gain state acceptance.

A Task Force and the Community Development Office will be the “boots on the ground” in terms of public engagement, research and determining how residents want to see Bridgton develop.

A recent survey regarding open space resulted in 620 responses, which came as a total shocker, Hill said.

Hill proposed to the Select Board Tuesday night to carry forward $83,000 and reallocate the funds to hire a consultant.

Peabody, who noted that he has taken part in three Comp Plan updates during his managerial career, supports hiring a consultant due to their expertise in technical writing.

“It is always disheartening when they (the state) bounce it back, and you tweak here and there. The beauty of consultant is the technical writing expertise,” Peabody said.

Selectman Paul Tworog suggested that the town has in-house expertise to tackle the Comp Plan upgrade, and ultimately would save taxpayers significant money.

“I have confidence in our staff. When you hire specialized consultants, you’re guaranteed to get a longer document than what we would have otherwise, containing jargon and buzz words, which we may not need,” Tworog said.

He worries that a consultant  may emphasize some of state government’s goals over the Bridgton’s goals.

“I am not convinced we’re going to spend this money and end up with a product just not as usable or user friendly. I don’t have any doubts about the staff we have here. I am more convinced than ever they can do it,” he added. “I am reluctant to spend $83,000 on a less than usable document.”

Hill’s perspective was quite the opposite.

“If we bring in professional services we actually make it a more usable document. People don’t want this to sit on a shelf... what I want is for it to be more usable, referred to it more often,” she said. “It would take a long time for our office to produce.”

Selectman Bob McHatton said consultants used to doing upgrades and know what roads to go down to put a plan together.

“The plan has to be in line with state laws and consultants would be up to date with that,” he said.

McHatton asked Hills to explain why $83,000 was left over.

Hill pointed out that a change in staff resulted in a salary difference, and there were funds from the CDBG grant.

Peabody noted that the Select Board had already voted to carry forward $38,000 for the Comp Plan.

“The board decided it was the highest and best use,” he said.

“I don’t mind consultants, good thing periodically, but I don’t want to lose community participation and local knowledge in writing of this Comp Plan,” Chair Carmen Lone said.

Casco has $70,000 earmarked to pay consultant GPCOG for its Comp Plan update.

“What I hear, we have great faith in our head chef and our head chef is telling we can’t do it,  and should defer to the experts. Trust in our chef,” Peabody said. “You get to review the report and decide whether to send to the voters or not, you have the final say. Tori is standing in front of you asking to bring in a consultant based on what her office is up against. I’ve been through three of these, we hired these people and we should listen to her (Tori).”

“The more people on the committee, the more direction they need,” McHatton said. “A consultant make sure they are going down the right street and not waste time going down the wrong street. I’ve been through several of these; lots of meetings led people to drop out. It’s (hiring a consultant) the smart thing to do.”

McHatton suggested hiring a consultant at a cost not to exceed $80,000.

The board voted 4-1 to hire (Tworog against).

Hill noted that the original goal of having an updated document ready by November 2024 might be a “tad optimistic,” and a more realistic time frame might be June 2025.

“It’s not something I want to rush,” Hill said.