State seeks penalty against Oronoka owner

ORONO — One of the attorneys working on the state’s case against the Oronoka Restaurant has asked the judge overseeing the matter to decide the penalty for contempt of court charges.

In a March 16 letter to Superior Court Justice Paul T. Pierson, Assistant Attorney General Margaret B. McCloskey cited the failure of Oronoka owner John Kobritz to comply with the Aug. 1, 1989, deadline for bringing the restaurant’s wastewater-discharge system in line with town and state codes. The Oronoka has been closed since last November because of the charges.

Although Pierson said in the June 13, 1989, decision and opinion that he would assess a monetary penalty for the violations, the letter said, Pierson said he would delay setting the amount of the penalty for six months to determine whether Kobritz had complied with the court order. In October 1989, the court issued a contempt of court order after it was determined that the Oronoka was not in compliance with the June 1989 injunction.

“I just wanted to remind” Pierson of his promise to levy a penalty against the Oronoka, said McCloskey in explaining the purpose of her letter. The attorney said she had no estimates of the amount of such a penalty, and that the issue was the only remaining matter in the case to be dealt with by her office.

Fred Costlow, one of Kobritz’s attorneys, said on Wednesday that he prepared a written response to McCloskey’s letter, and that the request for a penalty “couldn’t come at a worse time.”

“After all these months, it looks like things are finally looking much better on the holding-tank application,” Costlow said of Kobritz’s battle to receive state approval for a tank to hold the wastewater from the restaurant.

Still, Costlow said he expected Pierson’s levy to be an equitable one.